United States
November 24, 2011

Source: Plant Breeding News
Sponsored by GIPB, FAO/AGP and Cornell University’s Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics

A group of plant breeders in the U.S. is starting the process of adding a distance education program for plant breeding to be shared by multiple universities. Faculty at various universities are already teaching plant breeding courses on-line, and there is a method for sharing courses among universities using the Ag*Idea program. Ag*Idea is building a university without walls to expand courses and students beyond local limits. Faculty who offer courses through Ag*Idea would make them more broadly available, and permit students to receive credit from their home institution. It would also promote those courses more broadly, providing one-stop shopping for plant breeding students and increasing demand for the courses.

Some advantages of the Ag*Idea concept are:

- Students can take courses otherwise unavailable in their area
- Universities can offer courses taught by faculty with new areas of expertise
- Faculty already teaching courses on-line can add students from Ag*Idea
- Faculty get credit for teaching courses at their university
- Students get credit for taking courses at their university
- Money generated by the Ag*Idea courses is shared among participants

Interested faculty should contact one of the steering committee members:

- Steve Baenziger (pstephen.baenziger@gmail.com)
- Tom Hoegemeyer (thoegemeyer2@unl.edu)
- Deana Namuth-Covert (dcovert2@unl.edu)
- Jamie Sherman (jsherman@montana.edu)
- Todd Wehner, chair (tcwehner@ncsu.edu)

Contributed by Todd C. Wehner
Department of Horticultural Science
North Carolina State University

Website: http://www.agidea.org/

Published: November 25, 2011