Utbildning i djurvälfärd i samband med slakt och annan avlivning

The EU council regulation 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing states that, with some exceptions, anyone who is involved in the killing of animals for the production of food, wool, skin, fur or other products must have a certificate of competence from January 1, 2013. A pilot study has been conducted as part of efforts to develop a training concept of animal welfare that meets the requirements of the EU Regulation. The pilot study includes a global analysis (UK, Spain, Chile, Brazil and Denmark), in which it was found that there are major differences between the level of education between the different countries and the educational concepts are different. Countries were similar in that they emphasized the relationship between animal handling, animal welfare and meat quality, and all the countries are planning to adapt the competence level to the EU regulation. An analysis of current Swedish educational conditions shows that the education varies widely between and within different sectors and that none of the sectors seem to meet the competence levels of the EU Regulation. In the preliminary study we identified several target groups for whom the certificate of competence is not mandatory, but who require training in animal welfare at the time of killing. These groups should be included in the education concept at an early stage. A broad approach to the education concept may result in a general improvement of animal welfare. An overview of the proposed e‐based training modules is presented. The modules should be supplemented by physical meetings, practical sessions and a risk assessment analysis based on animal welfare indicators. The differences in education between slaughter staff and animal welfare officers are defined, where the latter is given a more detailed and extensive training to ensure that the provisions of the EU Regulation are followed

The amount of straw for growing-finishing pigs considering the reduction of time spent in manipulative behavior

The behavior of rooting and digging is highly motivated in the pig. The motivation to perform this exploratory behavior is not reduced even after the dietary requirement has been fulfilled through feeding. The aim of this study was to identify the minimal amounts of straw needed to satisfy pig motivation for manipulation and reduce to a minimum the manipulating behavior of pigs directed toward pen mates. To determine the minimal amount of straw needed for conventional growing-finishing pigs, a study using 168 pigs provided with 7 different amounts of straw (20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 200 or 300 grams/ pig/ day) was performed. The straw was provided either once or four times per day. Behavior observations were made using focal animal sampling and continuous recording for one hour between 9 and 10 am and between 3 and 4 pm. The time spent by the pigs manipulating straw increased over 10% ranging up to 27% in all the pens receiving over 200g of straw per day compared to the range from 4-22% in pens receiving 20-100g of straw. Meanwhile, the time spent in redirected behavior decreased below 5% in all the pens receiving over 200g of straw per day. No significant differences were found when comparing pens provided with straw once or four times per day

Designing mobile language learning with Arabic speaking migrants

Learning the language is crucial to be included in a new society. For migrants, the smartphone is a commonly used device for staying connected, which could also be used for language learning purposes. This research concerns mobile literacy with newly arrived Arabic speaking migrants to Sweden and the use of mobile learning as a means for integration. The purpose is to investigate how mobile technology can be designed to support migrants\u27 language learning process. The research concerns technology development where versions of a mobile application (app) are explored from a bottom-up perspective with Arabic speaking migrants. A qualitative method approach is applied, built on design principles focusing on the construction of situated artefacts and evaluation of performance. The results show that intuitive design and engaging content with connections to everyday social situations play important parts in sustaining motivation to engage with an app

Report on 2nd GO-GN Seminar

This document reports the status of the research for the GO-GN members attending to the second seminar. This seminar took place in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in conjunction with the OCWC Global ConferenceGlobal Open Educational Resources Graduate Networ

The Go-GN Open Research Handbook

This Handbook draws together work done between 2020 and 2023 by members of the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN). GO-GN is a network of PhD candidates around the world whose research projects include a focus on open education. GO-GN is currently funded through the OER programme of The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and administered by the Open Education Research Hub from the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, UK. In our current phase of activity, we began these collaborative writing efforts with a Research Methods Handbook which was created during the depths of the Covid-19 pandemic. Working together at distance provided an important way to strengthen community links when meeting in person was not possible. The Research Methods Handbook was well received by a much larger audience than we anticipated, and went on to win an Open Research Award. We followed this up with a sister publication, our Conceptual Frameworks Guide. This explores a less well traversed (but nonetheless important) area of scholarly focus. Together, these two explore open approaches to the theory and practice of research in open education. One distinctive feature of our presentation is to foreground the authentic experiences of doctoral researchers who have used specific approaches in researching open education. While it is not possible to cover all approaches in this detail, we hope that important insights are presented in this form of open practice. Throughout 2020-2022 we also regularly engaged our membership through collective reviews of recently published papers and articles. The Research Reviews serve as an overview of recent research but also as a snapshot of the critical responses recorded by doctoral and post-doctoral researchers working in relevant areas. No one volume can claim to comprehensively contain the diversity and variety of open approaches, and this is no exception. But one virtue of openness is that we can draw on the openly licensed works of others to increase our coverage of relevant areas. The Additional Resources at the end of this volume bring together a range of openly licensed texts on open education research and suggests places for further reading and research. Consequently, the information contained here represents a wide range of contributors and collaborators. The original and intended audience for this volume is the doctoral student working on an open education research project - in short, the typical student member of GO-GN and the profile the network exists to support. However, we’ve learned through feedback and analytics that the potential audience for works like this is much larger. Many people who wouldn’t describe themselves as researchers still do research and evaluation. Presenting accessible insights into research foundations and practices helps with this and can be understood as a form of open practice

OPEN LEARNING IN LIFE SCIENCES – Studies of open educational resources in animal welfare and work-based learning in food science.

The aim of this thesis is to explore ways of organising and supporting open learning in food science, food quality and animal welfare at the boundary between society, the university and other academic institutions. Two specific practices are explored, work-based learning (WBL) and the use of open educational resources (OER). The aim is both analytical - to understand boundary activities in these domains - and design oriented - to develop models and methods for working with and enhancing open learning practices. The thesis also attempts to make a contribution to sustainable development and a system of food production that is in compliance with the views of society. The theoretical approach is cultural historical activity theory, and more specifically theories on boundary crossing and learning at the boundary between activity systems. The empirical research the thesis build on is presented in five articles focusing on questions about boundary activities of students, teachers and actors in industry, concerned with a local WBL practice, a global community using OER and quality assessment of OER. The empirical material was collected through surveys, video recordings and interviews, and analysed with qualitative as well as statistical methods. A main contribution of this thesis is that it demonstrates how WBL can support boundary crossing activities between academia and industry and carry a potential for learning at the boundary. Furthermore, the use of OER supports boundary activities between academic institutions. Both these practices challenge established structures and involve tensions that are subject of negotiations. In WBL student projects as boundary crossing activities must fulfill demands from both higher education and industry, where students have a mediating function and individual student agency becomes important. In working with OER there is a tension between institutional quality concerns on one hand and participatory approaches and a sharing culture on the other. Furthermore, the study indicates that open learning approaches are most vigorous when situated in content-driven, subject specific and rather small and open communities. A local community of higher education teachers in food science is one example and the global community of animal welfare teachers another. This thesis does not aim at generalising to higher education in other scientific fields than food science, food quality and animal welfare. However, some of the results could be generally applicable to learning at the boundary such as WBL carrying a learning potential and OER carrying a potential for a sharing culture. WBL and OER as approaches to open learning can be instruments for higher education to be in dialogue with society. Finally, the thesis points at the complexity of our relationship to food and suggests that more inclusive learning approaches could contribute to sustainable development and more democratic food systems

A New Format for Learning about Farm Animal Welfare

Farm animal welfare is a knowledge domain that can be regarded as a model for new ways of organizing learning and making higher education more responsive to the needs of society. Global concern for animal welfare has resulted in a great demand for knowledge. As a complement to traditional education in farm animal welfare, higher education can be more demand driven and look at a broad range of methods to make knowledge available. The result of an inventory on “farm animal welfare,” “e-learning,” “learning resources,” and “open educational resources” in three different search engines is presented. A huge amount of information on animal welfare is available on the Internet but many of the providers lock in the knowledge in a traditional course context. Only a few universities develop and disseminate open learning resources within the subject. Higher education institutions are encouraged to develop open educational resources in animal welfare for the benefit of teachers, students, society, and, indirectly, animal welfar