IMPLEMENTING CO-CREATION IN DEVELOPING A MOBILE APP FOR COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS: PROTOTYPE DEVELOPMENT

Approaches such as co-creation and using mobile apps in community engagement interventions have shown exciting opportunities for higher education institutions to easily share knowledge and information between institutions or organizations and their stakeholders. Many applications are currently available for different purposes and targeting diverse populations. However, limited mobile apps target enhancing dairy record-keeping and are used as engagement platforms between the higher education institutions and their stakeholders. This study aimed at developing a mobile app prototype for the university to engage with dairy farmers. We thus conducted multiphase participatory activities. First, an inventory of university stakeholders' needs was obtained through surveys that targeted dairy farmers in the Rwenzori region, academic staff, and students of the Mountains of the moon university in Uganda. Secondly, we conducted two workshops and translated users' needs into contents and parameters to be measured in the application. A prototype mobile app was developed by the technical team. The functionality and content of the developed prototype app were assessed via preliminary testing and demonstration workshops with a group of 48 dairy farmers. A survey was additionally used to shed light on the technicalities of the devices used by dairy farmers to test the prototype app. The results from the co-creation workshops show four key variables, including milk production, breeding, feeding, and health preferred by the target users to be incorporated in the final app. Participants also suggested that the app include a messaging feature focusing on reminders about, Vaccinating animals, deworming, spraying, and the expected date of delivery of the dairy animals. Results from the survey showed that the majority of participants owned smartphones, use SMS, WhatsApp and can afford to buy mobile data. The co-creation process discussed in this study provides an initial point for increasing community engagement in higher education institutions. Thus, further research is crucial to assess the target users' readiness to engage with the co-created app

ISBN:978-84-09-31267-2

Jaar van publicatie:2021

Trefwoorden:Higher Education Institutions, Co. Creation, community stakeholders, prototype mobile application.

Toegankelijkheid:Open