Project Demeter Fellow: Andrew “Drew” Carson, University of the District of Columbia Roadmap Demeter
Fellow Report: The purpose of this project is to: Develop an online certification program to train urban farmers, then help them to establish urban mini-farms following the project year, then help them sell their produce through an app. Key deliverables: ● Urban farming market research interview: Draft completed. ● Food app market research interview: Draft started but not completed. ● Course 1 Soil-Based Systems: Instructor assigned, Draft started, in progress. ● Course 2 Soilless Systems: Instructor assigned but course not started. ● Course 3 Food Safety: Instructor not yet assigned.
● Course 4 Waste Management and Composting: Instructor assigned but not yet started. Course 5 Agribusiness and Marketing: Instructor not yet assigned. Accomplishments to date:
● The Soil-based course is nearing completion, with the first of 8 sessions reviewed and uploaded to the Campus site. The initial course will be synchronous and should launch in early March. The asynchronous version of this course will follow in the summer. ● The Soilless course is in early development, essentially at the gathering materials stage. Although in theory, we should benefit from existing materials previously developed, these materials appear to be insufficient in current form to create a complete course from. We nevertheless hope to launch this course in early March and then keep up with development across its 8 sessions. The asynchronous version of this course will follow in the summer. ● We have obtained internal funding sufficient to pay for the development of the remaining 3 courses. We are pursuing 2 main options for hiring developers/instructors: 1) discussion with staff from Virginia State University; 2) if possible, hiring former staff from CAUSES now working in the local area (having to check with UDC HR and Legal about this). We would seek to launch the courses on a rolling development basis as with the other two courses (essentially pilot programs), with asynchronous versions of the courses to be completed in the summer. ● Introduction to Urban Farming, a one-session course that introduces students to the urban farmer certification program. Design phase completed. Expected to launch in
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