Impact of MOOC on Agricultural Professionals in India - A Case Study

Abstract

The past few years have witnessed a rapid surge in the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The ICT and associated technologies have necessitated that academic and research community shift to online mode of education. At the same time we have witnessed parallel rise in number of MOOC platforms across the globe. As MOOCs grow in popularity, academic institutes in the world have shifted their mode of imparting knowledge from mere class room to blended mode. The online courses are attracting the learners with their content and user-friendly platform. This paper presents a case study of MOOC on Information Handling Skills for Teaching Learning and Research which was organized for Agricultural Stakeholders of NARS as part of ICAR - NAHEP (IG) Sub Project on National Knowledge Management Centre for Agricultural Education Research (NKMC4AER). A total of 1118 participants were registered for the MOOC comprising of video lectures, live interactive lectures, online quizzes, and discussion forum. In this paper an attempt has been made to study the participants use of course lecture videos, time spent, an in-depth picture of participants, how their own background and capabilities related to their achievement and persistence, and how their interactions with curricular and pedagogical aspects. It also focused on completion rates and assessments.