Nebraska Precision Agriculture Center of Excellence (N-PACE)

N-PACE will design a blended delivery Precision Agriculture Technician degree program of stacked and latticed credentials, mapped to industry skills certifications to better align with industry needs and ensure students will earn portable credentials. N-PACE will provide valuable skills training in high-demand high-wage emerging occupations. The blended delivery approach will allow the curriculum to be delivered both real-time and asynchronously. N-PACE will also develop and deliver short-term customized training to meet the needs of employers and agriculture producers to upgrade their skills and knowledge of precision agriculture and stay abreast of the quickly changing technology. The curriculum will be adapted from existing open educational resources to the greatest extent possible, primarily from previously funded TAACCCT grant projects, and required academic and general education courses will be contextualized with examples and learning objects from agriculture. Career focused curriculum will be enhanced with technology-enabled learning, such as 3D/4D simulations and game design. Simulations will be used extensively throughout the curriculum as learning tools and for simulation-based performance testing.