UNO-AUAF Partnership Project

About the Project

The Center for Afghanistan Studies (CAS) at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) has received federal funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) through US State Department to launch the UNO-American University of Afghanistan Partnership project.

The project is a two-year project with a budget of $910,307. The project commenced in October 2017 and closes in October 2019.

The goal of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) – American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) Partnership Project is to improve and build capacity in the Business Department of AUAF, which supports the training and education of business and government leaders who will advance the Afghan economy.

UNO will support AUAF faculty’s professional development through mentoring, collaborative research, establishing agribusiness development, as well as online and in-country meetings and workshops.

The AUAF Team visiting the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Needs Assessment and Plan

The specific needs of the project UNO-AUAF project are to help build the capacity of AUAF faculty and scale up the standard of the AUAF to the extent that it can compete with regional universities.

Based on the needs assessment/work plan, UNO assisted AUAF Business faculty in developing an individual and institutional research agenda and help revise the current and create a new curriculum.

UNO and AUAF together will accomplish this work, in part, at two different week-long seminars in Delhi and/or Dubai, where AUAF business faculty and UNO faculty, staff, and consultants will convene. AUAF Business faculty visit the UNO campus for three weeks to review CBA’s curriculum, customize it for their own purposes, and integrate it into their own teaching and learning materials.

UNO will continue this work through regularly scheduled dialogues and research symposia via online platforms.

Some of the needs recognized during the first needs assessment trip to both universities were:

• Improvement of technology and teaching materials
• Improve pedagogical methods
• Interactive teaching approaching
• Refine curricula
• Executive-in-Residence Program to help establish the Agribusiness Center
• Program accreditation
• Pedagogical curriculum and accreditation workshop
• Professional development

Goal

The goal of the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) – American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) Partnership Project is to improve and build capacity in the Business Department of AUAF. The Project aims to support the training and education of business and government leaders who will advance the Afghan economy.

Specific objectives of the project are to:

1. Build capacity of the AUAF Business School through faculty research, curriculum design, and mentoring, which will result in a more internationally competitive program
2. Assist AUAF to develop strategic plans for improving academic quality

Future Work and Development

Future activities developed for continued partnership with the American University of Afghanistan is comprise of:

• UNO’s assistance in helping launch Canvas as AUAF’s learning management system, as well as identifying and launching other technology tools that are important for the curriculum;
• Assisting four faculty migrate four selected courses to Canvas;
• The delivery by UNO of four asynchronous distance courses to AUAF student
• The convening of two 4-5 day face-to-face workshops in Dubai or Delhi
• The revamping of AUAF Business Innovation Hub (BIG) and transforming it into an Agribusiness Development Center with the assistance of the executive in residence and knowledge transfer from UNO’s incubation/entrepreneurship center;
• Assistance in the design of curriculum, the development of external programming, accreditation, shared research activities, etc

UNO will coach faculty in setting up four courses in Canvas and building these courses so that they take full advantage of the tool’s potential.

For the fall 2018 semester, UNO has assisted AUAF in the MGT 300 (Human Resources Management) class.

Co-Teaching

Responsibilities of UNO Professors:

⦁ Full canvas course development
⦁ Teach with audio PowerPoints
⦁ At least 2 synchronous sessions
⦁ AUAF faculty member will hold weekly in-house sessions with AUAF students

Three courses in spring 2019

⦁ Operations Management: Dr. Ziaul Huq (UNO) and TBD (AUAF)
⦁ MIS: Prof. Sudhir Gajre (UNO) and TBD (AUAF)
⦁ Project Management: Prof. Huston Pullen (UNO) and TBD (AUAF

Project Impact

With the successful implementation of UNO-AUAF Partnership, it is anticipated that AUAF will have an improved method of teaching powered with Canvas that will provide instructors with the ability to distribute course materials and much more to their students.

In addition, AUAF will get assistance in the design of the curriculum, the development of external programming, accreditation, shared research activities, and concept notes for establishing an agribusiness development center at AUAF.