Last week, Amy Quandt (LandPKS Global Coordinator) and Michaela Buenemann (Associate Professor of Geography, New Mexico State University) traveled to Nairobi, Kenya to help develop a comprehensive one-day LandPKS training.  Amy and Michaela worked in partnership with the Regional Centre for Mapping of Resources for Development (RCMRD), a LandPKS collaborator.  RCMRD is located in Nairobi, Kenya, and works as a leading regional center for GIS and remote sensing technologies and training.  Lillian Ndungu at RCMRD has been a part of the LandPKS team and a major proponent of LandPKS in Kenya.  Antony Ndubi from RCMRD also joined the training development team.

Core Development Team – Amy (LandPKS Global Coordinator), Antony (RCMRD), Michaela (New Mexico State University), and Lillian (RCMRD) work on developing materials for a 1-day LandPKS training.

The training development team spent Monday through Wednesday (September 4^th-6^th) developing a comprehensive one-day LandPKS training. The training is meant to be a general overview of LandPKS, explain how to use the apps, and help users understand how to analyze and interpret the information that they receive from LandPKS. Importantly, the training also focuses on the potential uses and applications of LandPKS for rangelands, agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. The training materials include a step-by-step outline of the course for the instructor, presentations, hand-outs, activities, worksheets, and assessments. Anyone can pick up the training materials and teach this one-day training. In order to test out the training materials, on Thursday (Sept 7^th) the training development team conducted a training of the trainers or ToT. For the ToT, the training development team worked with instructors at RCMRD’s training college and did a ‘dry run’ of the one-day training (see photos). The instructors enjoyed learning about the LandPKS tools and also provided feedback on the training materials.

Conducting LandInfo training with Trainers from RCMRD’s training college

RCMRD plans to integrate this training into their own curriculum and courses, while the LandPKS team will also utilize these training materials to conduct training with various partners and LandPKS users in the future.

Lillian conducting the LandCover training with Trainers from RCMRD’s training college.