Loes Witteveen

Visual informed consent: informed consent without forms

Abstract The notion of visual informed consent (VIC) is developed in the context of capturing on film the clarification of the purpose of data collection, the use of information obtained, and the rights, risks and benefits of participation on the one hand, and the registration of the participant’s understanding of this and of given consent on the other. VIC seeks to replace the paper-based informed consent procedure in situations where data are collected and used visually. Filming informed consent offers several benefits as compared to working with written forms, whereby the bureaucratic concerns for documented and ‘signed’ informed consent are given priority over the right to be informed. Based on empirical research in a context of film productions in the global South, this article documents the exploration of VIC’s potential and illustrates its procedure and relevance. Our ambition is to elucidate the VIC concept because of the increasing use of visual data in social science research.

Learning about Complex Multi-Stakeholder Issues: Assessing the Visual Problem Appraisal

Abstract This paper presents an evaluation of the visual problem appraisal (VPA) learning environment in higher education. The VPA has been designed for the training of competences that are required in complex stakeholder settings in relation to sustainability issues. The design of VPA incorporates a diversity of instruction strategies to accommodate the heterogeneous learning styles of students in the international and inter-cultural classroom. The focus is on visual learning. The core of the VPA comprises documentaries and filmed interviews that together simulate a consultancy assignment. Students are immersed in the reality of ‘wicked problems’ and complex multi-stakeholder settings. The VPA also provides feedback loops that pull students out of their comfort zones and makes them reflect on what they learn, how they learn and how they perform in a team. The study is based on experiences with the VPA ‘Keralas Coast’. The evaluation indicates that the VPA strategy creates a challenging though safe space that provides students with the opportunity to learn outside their comfort zones. They learn from their interaction with unfamiliar stakeholders and by dealing with wicked problems, whilst enhancing their critical reflection on learning and change routines. Students seem to acquire complex competences, such as the competence to reduce their self-referentiality. The study highlighted the need to reconsider lecturing and facilitation in new learning strategies such as VPA.

Design and development of a digital farmer field school. Experiences with a digital learning environment for cocoa production and certification in Sierra Leone

Abstract This article reports on the design and development of the Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS). The DFFS offers a tablet-based digital learning environment for farmers and extension agents for knowledge sharing and knowledge co-creation. It provides an alternative to conventional agricultural extension training and monitoring. The prototype DFFS applies Farmer Field School (FFS) learning principles and is designed and developed following user experience (UX) design principles and user interface (UI) design principles from a responsible innovation perspective, using existing FFS material and tailored films which support and enrich the content. The prototype DFFS has been tested in Sierra Leone to assess its success in providing a substitute for face-to-face voluntary sustainability standard certification training for cocoa farmers. Results show that the DFFS as an off-line, telephonically connected and regular on-line updated learning platform offers an appropriate environment in which collective and individual learning is stimulated and facilitated. The DFFS prototype was socio-culturally and technologically appropriate and fitted the operational and strategic communication skills of cocoa farmers and other value chain stakeholders. Films capturing the testing are available as additional learning media.

Preparing a new generation of wilderness entrepreneurs

This chapter discusses the role of education in the preparation of the next generation of entrepreneurs in nature conservation. Departing from the traditional conservation education, which emphasizes ecological management, the chapter is a plea for incorporating entrepreneurship in the curricula of educational programmes on rewilding ecosystems. An Erasmus Intensive Programme on European Wilderness Entrepreneurship is presented as a case study. A set of competences is defined and operationalized based on the evaluation of the first edition of the programme undertaken in Rewilding Europe’s pilot area in Western Iberia. Aspects of the learning strategies and learning environment are presented and reviewed. The conclusion of this chapter is that to learn wilderness entrepreneurship competences, an environment should be created in which students, teachers and stakeholder co-learn at the boundaries of their comfort zones.