The development of agricultural mechanization cannot be separated from the construction of high-level talents, and the master of agricultural extension mainly cultivates high-level composite talents in the promotion and application of agricultural technology. Chinese universities are still at the exploration stage in the cultivation of master’s degree in agricultural extension, and need to be constantly improved and perfected to make it more standardized, systematic and scientific [1]. In recent years, master’s degree education in agricultural mechanization and agricultural extension has been developed relatively quickly, but some problems have emerged in the process of daily teaching and management.
(1) The source of graduate students in this field is diverse, with large differences in age and knowledge structure.
(2) The teaching method of combining theory and practice in the curriculum is less applied and cannot effectively transform scientific and technological knowledge into productivity.
(3) The construction of “dual tutor” team in universities is generally imperfect, and it cannot establish the teaching methods and approaches that can be adapted.
(4) The dissertation topics and contents are generally disconnected from agricultural production practice and not innovative enough, and there is no effective guarantee system for the evaluation and quality assessment of the dissertation.
Due to the short time of agricultural mechanization master’s education, the quality assurance system of postgraduate education is not perfect, and the relevant policies and measures are not well adapted to the development needs. Therefore, it is especially important to build a perfect teaching quality assurance system for agricultural mechanization master’s degree in agricultural extension.
1 Agricultural mechanization agricultural extension master training and management system construction
The diversity of the student source structure of agricultural mechanized agricultural extension master’s degree determines that in the specific cultivation process, it is necessary to categorize students with different comprehensive quality, business background and social practice, and to formulate the rules and regulations of enrollment, cultivation, management to degree conferral of agricultural mechanized agricultural extension master’s degree in accordance with the requirements of the National Agricultural Extension Master’s Degree Education Steering Committee.
The teaching of master’s degree in agricultural extension has certain difficulties and relatively high requirements for instructors. Most of the university teachers have rich teaching experience and scientific research ability, but the production practice ability is relatively weak. Therefore, it is especially important to build a diversified mode of mentor training and management. On the one hand, it is necessary to improve the knowledge structure of teachers, improve their teaching level and ensure the teaching quality of agricultural extension master students.
On the other hand, we can adopt the mode of joint cultivation of on-campus and off-campus supervisors, i.e. a graduate student is jointly responsible for by university supervisors and off-campus researchers, among which off-campus supervisors are mainly auxiliary and can provide sufficient conditions for production practice in the teaching process as well as the topic selection and guidance of the dissertation can be relevant to the real production problems, so as to make up for the shortage of practical experience of on-campus supervisors.
2 Cultivation program and curriculum construction
Since there are great differences in the working experience, knowledge structure and professional foundation of agricultural extension master students, the cultivation program should focus on broadening the foundation and highlighting the application, and at the same time, multiple elective courses can be offered for students to take according to their own situation, so as to play the role of credit system.
In addition, the training program should be revised with the regional characteristics of the school and the characteristics of the school, focusing on innovation; at the same time, practical teaching should be strengthened to be able to apply the scientific research results to the actual production and develop agricultural mechanization according to local conditions.
The construction of agricultural extension master curriculum system should be in line with the characteristics of agricultural construction in universities and regional economic development, and on the basis of extensive market research, listen to the opinions and suggestions of agricultural extension committees and educational institutions, employers, training units, graduated graduate students and graduate students, etc., and combine with the school’s schooling characteristics to develop a suitable training program.
For example, the construction of public courses focuses on the intersectionality of disciplinary knowledge and on the construction of special professional courses. Public elective courses can be taught with typical cases and focus on the cultivation of practical ability. For example, courses on classic cases of agricultural technology extension, evaluation of agricultural extension projects and scientific and technical paper writing, extension elocution and psychology, etc. are offered. In addition, in the actual teaching process, the course structure should be adjusted according to students’ feedback in time to build a flexible course system.
3 Teaching Content and Teaching Method Construction
The purpose of agricultural extension master training is to enable students to acquire theories and methods to solve practical problems. In terms of teaching content, teachers are required to focus not only on basic theoretical knowledge and the teaching of disciplinary frontier and cross-cutting knowledge, but also to combine the current problems faced by the development of agricultural mechanization in a timely manner. Therefore, in terms of teaching methods, teachers can organize teaching through diverse forms such as typical case analysis, academic seminars in professional fields and lectures on the frontiers of science and technology to effectively improve teaching quality [4].
Teachers should form the teaching concept of giving equal importance to theoretical and practical teaching in the course of teaching, and can strengthen cooperation with off-campus enterprises and research units to build corresponding practice bases to provide postgraduates with good practice and innovation platforms and internship positions. At the same time, teachers and students are encouraged to actively participate in enterprise research projects and product development. In addition, creating a good academic atmosphere and strengthening academic exchanges between graduate students and their counterparts at home and abroad are also effective ways to ensure and improve the quality of graduate training.
4 Construction of quality assurance system for master’s thesis
The quality assurance system of master’s thesis in agricultural extension as shown in Figure 1 requires the cooperation of graduate students, supervisors and experts in place to ensure the quality of the dissertation [4]. The topic of the dissertation needs to be fully researched and demonstrated by the graduate students, who can choose the topic from the scientific research projects of their supervisors on campus, or from the production practice of their supervisors outside the university, and can also choose the topic by themselves. It is advocated that the selected topic is combined with the scientific research project of the supervisor, and the graduate students are encouraged to choose their own topics.
After determining the topic, the graduate students should comprehensively consult the research results in related fields, determine the implementation plan and conduct pre-research to explore the feasibility of the topic. Then write the opening report on the basis of certain pre-research results, and complete the opening session under the guidance of the supervisor and the opening defense expert team. After the opening of the topic and entering the formal research stage, you should make a comprehensive and in-depth detailed implementation plan and conduct a lot of research, write a mid-term inspection report, and complete the mid-term assessment session under the guidance of your supervisor and the mid-term assessment expert panel. The expert team should strictly check the opening report and the mid-term examination process, fully justify and propose modifications or supplementary opinions.
The graduate students shall conduct follow-up research and perfection after the mid-term examination and write the dissertation. The dissertation should strictly comply with the writing format, and its form can be new materials, new technologies, new processes and the development and exploitation of new varieties, etc. Before the defense, two experts in the same field should be sent anonymously for review, and the graduate student can defend the dissertation only after improving and modifying the dissertation according to the expert’s review, and if the review is very poor, the graduation will be postponed. The dissertation defense should strictly conform to the relevant process to ensure its professionalism and seriousness. The expert members shall strictly examine the quality of the dissertation and evaluate the dissertation and evaluate its merit. After the defense, the graduate students shall further revise and improve the dissertation according to the experts’ opinions before submitting it to the degree committee, and finally the professional degree committee shall complete the final evaluation and merit assessment of the dissertation.
Agricultural extension technology has an important position in rural development. The full realization of agricultural mechanization and the introduction of advanced technology into the field of agricultural production are necessary conditions for the realization of a large socialist modern agricultural country. According to the actual situation, each university should actively explore the establishment of a postgraduate teaching quality assurance system suitable for itself and carry out effective implementation, so as to vigorously promote the comprehensive development of agricultural extension master education.