Promoting knowledge: higher education and rural Ethiopia through a podcast journey

Abstract

This study has two goals. The first is to raise higher education students’ awareness of accounting financial practices aligned with Sustainable Development Goals. The second is to promote economic growth by training farmers in emerging countries—in this case in rural Ethiopia. The study focuses on the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), specifically to record several podcasts on optimal agricultural practices, budgeting, sales strategies, and nutrition. Simultaneously, professors developed a case study on a project finance for an NGO working in rural Ethiopia. Subsequently, through seminars, students in four Spanish universities worked on solving this case after reading relevant research articles and listening to the podcasts. The research also involved a survey to measure students' commitment to economic development as well as critical reflection and improvement of systemic learning competences. In a second phase of the project, conducted in rural Ethiopia, farmers listened to the podcasts. This phase aimed to assess the effectiveness of podcasts in transmitting information in rural areas. Such effectiveness is crucial to the project's sustainability, as it reduces the need for external trips in potential crisis situations