Impact of information and communication technologies (icts) on education among students of state Agricultural Universities (SAUS) in Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been hailed as potentially valuable tools for educational change and reform. When properly used, various ICTs are said to help increase access to education, boost the relevance of education to the increasingly digital workplace, improve the quality of education and raise educational standards. The present study was conducted to find out the impact of ICT on the agricultural education of University students. Two hundred thirty-five students were selected based on the proportion to the size of the population from four SAUs. The impact of ICTs on the students was measured based on the major purpose served by ICT enabled instructional process i.e., its impact on Research (Thesis/Dissertation/Article), Preparing and keeping up-to-date subject information, or Seminar/Workshop/Conference, Assignment and Project, Data Analysis, and Concept understanding.Each purpose was further analyzed based on three quality/attributes of ICTs in the educational process i.e., Time-saving, Accuracy, and Ease. Each of these attributes was measured in a five-point continuum of agreement-disagreement. Close to half (49.4%) of the students strongly agreed, with the impact of ICTs on the time-saving aspect for research (Thesis/Dissertation/Article) purpose, 41.27 per cent of the students agreed, with the impact of ICTs on time-saving for Preparing and keeping up-to-date subject information,34.9 per cent of the students strongly agreed, with the impact of ICTs on time-saving for the Seminar/Workshop/Conference purpose, 39.6 per cent of the students strongly agreed with the impact of ICTs on time-saving for Assignment and Project purpose, 51.10 per cent of the students strongly agreed, with the impact of ICTs on time-saving for Data Analysis, On time-saving for Concept understanding it is seen that the majority (30.60%) of the students agreed, with the impact of ICTs.