The Department of Environmental Management at the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Makerere University is introducing the use Case studies as a teaching methodology in order to produce better skilled students.  Case based learning which has gained popularity overtime enables students learn from real life scenarios since it helps development of analytical thinking and identification of solutions to problems.

A stakeholder engagement was convened at Esella Hotel, Thursday 22^nd August 2024, with the objective of defining and explaining the purpose of case studies.  The meeting that brought together selected stakeholders was aimed at enlisting their involvement in case study development and to discuss how effective case studies can benefit all the stakeholders involved. 

Prof. John Tabuti, the Principal Investigator said the project, “Strengthening education and research capacity for enhancing biodiversity conservation and sustainable natural resources use (SDG-Partnership) is aimed at creating best practices for university teachers for purposes of teaching conservation sciences. ‘We are looking at improving how teachers deliver the material, creating better capacities among teachers on how to deliver material’, he said while explaining the project background to the participants. He said the meeting was convened to facilitate the process of developing content for teachers but also to enable the teachers to learn how to develop content for the case studies under package one of the ten work packages in the project gaining from the experiences of the participants.

Further, the PI revealed that three staff of Makerere University staff namely Prof. Vincent Muwanika, and Dr. Kenneth Balikowa from the Department of Environmental Management College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, together with Dr. Josephine Esaete from the College of Education and External Studies were undergoing training in case study development and were involved in developing materials. With support from DAAD the staff trained will cascade the skills acquired to other university staff who may want to utilize the case methodology in their teaching.  The project is jointly implemented by Makerere University’s Department of Environmental Management, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Germany, and Central University of Technology, South Africa. It supports staff capacity building in writing and teaching using case study methodology, as well as other work packages in statistical analysis, and geographical information system management.

The meeting which was an interface between the staff getting trained in Case Study materials development and the stakeholders who are the sources of actual cases was attended by representatives from the National Environment Management Authority (NEMA), Uganda Wild Life Authority, specifically Mt. Elgon conservation area, Pallisa District Local Government among others.  The meeting gained consensus on the proposed cases to be developed from the experiences around the Kiteezi events of 10^th August, 2024 in the area of governance, and environmental planning, the Lubigi wetland restoration efforts and the Mt. Elgon conservation area focusing on the conflict with the Benet communities.

Dr. Kenneth Balikowa one of the staff undergoing the training observed that Makerere University policy on teaching and learning allows a lot of flexibility and the policy direction was that staff and units find ways of operationizing the policy.  ‘Such projects are helping us. Once trained, we shall be able to translate this knowledge to other staff from different colleges who may utilize the case methodology in delivering parts of the course’, he observed.