SMARTFARM learning hub: Next generation precision agriculture technologies for agricultural education

Background

The industry demands on higher education of agricultural students are rapidly changing. New precision agriculture technologies are revolutionizing the farming industry but the education sector is failing to keep pace. We report on the development of the SMARTfarm Learning Hub that will increase the skill base of students using a range of new agricultural technologies and innovations. The Hub is a world first; it links real industry technologies with educator resources and student learning packages. This gives higher education providers and their student’s online access to data and systems from commercial scale smart-farms across Australia and the world.

Aims

The SMARTfarm Learning Hub project will integrate infrastructure (web site and industry tools) with the development of case study learning modules, methodologies and templates to enable project communication. This will be undertaken in an action research context providing both research outcomes and critical feedback to improve the learning modules, educator and student experience.