Abstract
The study envisaged to evaluate the attitude of agricultural graduates towards Videoconferencing (VC) technology. Study focused at persuasion stage of adoption process of innovations. A Likert-type-scale was developed, which consisted of 23-items. The scale instrument had four sections, viz., training, distance learning, agricultural communication and extension management. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient (?=0.85) of reliability test was measured. Instrument was administered to randomly selected, seventy agricultural graduates of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, India during 2006-07 academic years. Attitude survey proved insightful with agricultural students. They had positive attitude in applied areas of VC technology, viz. training, distance learning, agricultural communication and extension management. Significant difference between users and non-users of VC technology was observed. Users had significant positive attitude towards VC technology. An enhanced understanding of attitudes is imperative before effective intervention strategies to moderate attitudes for enhancing acceptance and implementation of VC technology. Including transfer of agricultural innovations, VC can be encouraged in services like training, distance education, extension management, communication, administration, health, education and knowledge sharing. For these, infrastructure available within National Agricultural Research System (NARS), India can be effectively utilized for learning and technical counseling. This study adds value to the body of knowledge in evaluation and theory building from attitude perspective. As standard methodology is lacking to comprehend mindset of agricultural students, it will serve foundation for other future investigations.
Highlights
About 11900 agricultural graduates pass out every year in India, of which, hardly 2000 get employed in public and private sectors (Meena and Jain, 2003)
Attitude scale was further categorized according to applied areas of VC technology namely; training (α=0.95), distance learning (α=0.90), agricultural communication (α=0.92) and extension management (α=0.89) aspects
Data were solicited on variables such as age (AGE), education (EDU), marital status (MSATUS), gender (GEN), land holding (LHOLDING), and training (TRG), information source utilization (ISU) and attitude (ATTITUDE)
Summary
About 11900 agricultural graduates pass out every year in India, of which, hardly 2000 get employed in public and private sectors (Meena and Jain, 2003). Need based information with regard to improved agricultural practices, better employment opportunities etc., can only be made accessible through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Benefits in utilization of ICTs for agricultural extension and training purposes are well documented (Hafkin and Odame, 2002; Richardson, 2005). Student satisfaction with VC and web based learning can be expected to be high (Valents et al, 2001). Future of this technology, in rural professional education is prominent (Du and Simpson, 2002; Lant, 2002; MacIntosh, 2002), it is still out of reach in many developing countries where it is most needed (Ekblad, 2004). VC is an enormously useful adjunct to traditional educational delivery modes, and can enable quality education opportunities that would otherwise be prohibitive due to time, travel, and cost constraints (Birden and Page, 2005)
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