Strengthening Dairy Education through eLearning

1. Introduction

The dairy sector has grown many folds during the last few decades, the change being

particularly perceivable after the liberalization of Indian economy which has opened new

opportunities in this area. Multi-national companies are coming forward for setting up of

large dairy farms and milk processing plants with huge investments. This has created good

job opportunities in the dairy sector. The demand for milk and milk products is increasing

day by day. With the rise in economic status, the consumer is more conscious about

quality of milk products. Though India is the number one milk producing country in the

world, most of the milk is consumed in raw form rather than milk products partly due to

lack of adequate milk processing facilities and trained manpower. This has increased the

pressure on educational institutes to produce more trained manpower in dairying who are

competent to satisfy the demand of consumers and the dairy industry. At present there are

about 14 ICAR recognized institutions / universities offering dairy education programs

such as B.Tech (Dairy Technology), IDD (Dairy Technology) etc. These institutions are

not able to meet the demand for trained manpower required by the industry. Also not all

these institutions are able to impart quality dairy education.

The limitation of formal education is that access to learning is restricted to only the

enrolled students of the institution. All aspirants wanting to pursue their career in dairy

education are not lucky enough to get admission to regular study programs due to limited

seats in premier institutions. Similarly, the plant workers desirous to improve their skills

and knowledge cannot afford to go for regular degree or diploma programs due to family

constraints, busy schedule, restricted office timings etc. Recently, IGNOU has started a

diploma program in Dairy Technology through distance learning mode for such aspirants.

Another problem not only with dairy education but with the entire education system is that

the quality of learning material and its delivery is not same in every institution which

places certain students at a disadvantage as compared to certain other students. This

primarily happens due to inadequate teaching faculty available at most institutions. For

example, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal is a premier research institute

in the area of Dairying in India having excellent infrastructure facilities and faculty of

international repute. NDRI is offering B.Tech. (DT) and PG programs in various

disciplines of Dairying since last fifty years. Most of the faculty at NDRI has international

teaching and/or research experience. Therefore, the students passing out from NDRI have

an advantage over their counterparts passing from most other dairy institutions where

similar faculty capabilities are not available. Such disparities and inequalities among the

knowledge seekers can be bridged to some extent through e-learning. E-learning has the

potential to play an important role in providing quality education material to all students

across the different institutions and time barriers.

2. e-Learning

E-learning (Electronic Learning or e-Learning or eLearning) is basically an Information

Technology (IT) enabled transfer of skills and knowledge in an environment with high

degree of freedom. It delivers the learning contents via electronic media to the learner. It is

a new methodology in the field of education (as a part of the wider domain of Virtual

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Education) and has gained popularity since the widespread use of the personal computer

and worldwide web. E-learning applications and processes can be based on CD-ROM,

Audio or Video Tape, Satellite TV, animation, simulation, Intranet or Internet. E-learning

is also known as "Internet-Based learning" or "Web-Based learning" or “On-line learning”

or “Multimedia Based learning” or “Virtual learning”.

The innovations in Information Communication Technology (ICT) have brought the new

concept of “virtual class rooms” where students sitting at far off places can avail the

benefits of quality education being provided in premier institutions like IITs, IIMs NDRI,

etc. The application of electronic communication, information and imaging technologies

offers new and effective methods of delivery of instructions, training and learning over the

traditional methods. E-learning has become an integral part of new educational programs.

E-Learning is the current trend in synchronous classrooms education as well as

asynchronous distance education. The distance learning involves the instructor and

students separated by time and location, and training courses are delivered to remote

locations via synchronous or asynchronous means of instruction, including written

correspondence, text, graphics, audio and videotape, CD-ROM, online learning, audio and

video conferencing, interactive TV, and FAX, etc. E-Learning comprises of online and

offline learning using computer technology.

E-learning is naturally suited to distance learning and flexible learning, but can also be

used in conjunction with face-to-face teaching, in which case the term “Blended learning”

is commonly used. The e-Learning pioneer Bernard Luskin argues that the "E" must be

understood to have broad meaning if e-Learning is to be effective. Luskin says that the "e"

should be interpreted to mean exciting, energetic, enthusiastic, emotional, extended,

excellent, and educational in addition to "electronic" as the traditional interpretation of the

letter.

The communication technologies used in e-learning can be categorized as asynchronous or

synchronous. In the asynchronous mode, the participants may engage in exchange of ideas

or information without the dependency on other participants’ involvement at the same

time. It uses Email, blogs, wikis, discussion boards, etc. In the synchronous mode, the

participants may engage in exchange of ideas or information with one or more participants

during the same period of time such as face-to-face discussion, virtual class rooms, chat

session, etc.

E-Learning has many benefits over traditional classroom training as mentioned below:

Knowledge on demand

Mastery based learning rather than time based

Continuous Learning and monitoring

Power of learning is in the hands of learner

Self paced, convenient and flexible to learn

Fast Learning – learner can skip already known material

Provides quality education and deliver consistent message

Ubiquitous: Anytime (24x7x365) and Anywhere

Boosts the performance and productivity

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Leads to increased retention and stronger grasp on the subject

Learner can study until he learn it, rather than until the class ends

Easy to manage for large groups of students

Quick and easy update of contents

Multiple use of developed material

Cost effective (by avoiding travel)

Actually learning is a personal act that is facilitated when learning experiences are

relevant, reliable, and engaging. New technologies have the potential to engage the learner

but cannot guarantee better learning by itself. For a well designed and developed e-

material, technology can help focus attention while attracting and maintaining a learner’s

interest. Technology engages learners by structuring and organizing information, by

displaying and demonstrating procedures and operations. It can help make a learning

experience more memorable and can help relate new information to that which already

exists.

3. Components of E-Learning System

An e-learning system has the following major components as diagrammatically shown in

Fig.1:

1. IT infrastructure: Computers, multimedia based technologies, suitable and effective

connectivity (wired and wireless) for delivery of e-learning contents.

2. e-Learning Contents (Learning Object): e-Learning contents of courses and

training programs developed using Content Development Systems (CDS) based on

learning theories for self learning environment.

3. e-Learning Management System (LMS): A platform to deliver, track and manage

the educational courses and training programs.

4. Users: Teachers, learners and educational administrators

Fig.1: Components of an e-learning system

4. e-Learning Content (Learning Object)

The Learning Object is the primary building block of a learning system. It could be used

alone or collectively with other objects that have an educational value. It is a digital

e-Learning

Management System

e-Leaning Contents

for Self Learning

IT Infrastructure

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resource that needs requirements and has a structure. A learning object is a self-standing,

discrete piece of instructional material that meets a learning objective. Learning objects

contain all elements required for learning i.e. the objective, an introduction, the content, a

summary, and an assessment. The efficiency of e-learning lies in its contents (learning

objects) developed on the basis of learning theories. Learning theories can be related to

following three models:

Behaviorist Learning: This theory assumes that the goal of learning is to

efficiently transmit knowledge from instructor to the learner

Constructive Learning: This theory views knowledge as a constructed entity made

by each and every learner through a passive learning process (e.g. practical, books,

observations etc.).

Collaborative Learning: This theory views that knowledge is gained through

interaction of learners with other people e.g. instructors and fellow learners, while

in constructive paradigm learning is assumed to occur as a learner interacts with

study material

e-Learning content development is organized around the modeling of learning cycle and

associated learning theories. Accordingly the development process includes the definition

and specification of following data models:

A behavioral data model for conceptualization phase (interaction between the

learners’ pre-existing framework and new knowledge) of the learning cycle.

A constructive data model for the construction phase (building and combining

concepts through their use in the performance of meaningful tasks) of the learning

cycle.

A collaborative data model for the dialogue phase (testing of conceptualizations

and the creation of new concepts during conversation with fellow learners and

instructors) of learning cycle.

In order to build an efficient e-learning system, the learning objects associated with data

models are developed in the form of texts, graphics, animations, audio, video, simulation,

forms, images, web sites, etc. using programming languages such as Java, VB.net, C# etc.;

tools such as FrontPage, Macromedia, Dream-weaver, Flash etc; specialized authoring

software e.g. ATutor, eCollege, Blackboard, Joomla etc. The learning objects should

adhere to international standards such as AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee), IMS

(Instructional Management System), SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference

Model), etc. for its reusability, interoperability, portability, storage, indexing, assembly,

and to reduce the development cost of e-learning system.

5. e-Learning Management System (e-LMS)

E-learning Management System (e-LMS) is web based software that automates and

manages the administration of teaching and training programs. It facilitates and provides a

complete e-learning infrastructure for publishing, storage and maintaining learning objects

of online courses as well as management of students and trainees registration, assessment,

online discussion forum, chats, blogs, etc. It tries to bring the classroom atmosphere in

computer based learning environment where students can find courses, tests, instructions,

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interactions, etc. and teachers can publish their e-learning contents of a course, make

announcements and so. e-LMS not only delivers the courses but also tracks the students

learning pattern and in turn enriches the experience of students, teachers, and

administrators. Some of the special features of an e-LMS are as given below:

It works in collaborative mode

Facilitates interoperability and reusability of contents

Announcements

Online submission of assignments

Online exams (quizzes, short answer, etc.)

Building of questions databank

Provides virtual learning environment beyond classroom walls

Login and registration of users

Manage course catalogs and contents

Record data from learners

Classroom management

Assessment of students

Reports to management

Discussion forum

Chat

Blogs

Glossaries

There are number of e-LMS software available in market. Some notable commercial and

freeware e-LMS are aTutor, Blackboard Learning System, eCollege, Joomla LMS,

Moodle, eFront, CCNet, TotalLMS etc. Among all these MOODLE (Modular Object

Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) is very popular e-LMS among the e-learning

community. It is an open source software freely downloadable from website

http://moodle.org/. The advantages of open source e-LMS are:

Free of cost

Availability of source code along with software.

Embedded standards of e-learning management system

Inbuilt domain knowledge

Availability of regular updates by professionals working in the fields

Moodle is also known as Course Management System (CMS), or a Virtual Learning

Environment (VLE). A CMS is computer application used to create, edit, manage, search

and publish various kinds of digital media and electronic text. The contents managed may

include computer files, image media, audio files, electronic documents and web contents.

Moodle is a web application that can be used to create effective online learning sites where

teachers and students can communicate and collaborate in educational ways. Moodle has

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features that allow it to scale up to very large deployments involving thousands of

students. It can also be used for a primary school or an education hobbyist.

In view of above benefits of e-learning and to keep themselves with the pace of

advancement in the field of ICT and e-Learning, many universities and educational

institutes in the world are opting for e-learning or on-line strategies to provide quality

education to their students through modern tools beyond the class room walls in self

paced, convenient, and flexible mode.

6. ICAR and NDRI Status: e-Learning in Dairy Education

The education system has undergone a sea change in the past few years to improve the

quality of education. The Dairy education in particular is also not untouched by these

reforms. ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) keeps on revising the curriculum

of dairy education courses from time to time and tries to bring uniformity in contents of

dairy programs to improve the quality and standard of graduates produced by Dairy

Technology institutions.

The interest in e-learning has been aroused in dairy education in India too. ICAR has

sanctioned a project “Development of e-Course for B.Tech (Dairy Technology) Degree

Programme” funded by NAIP (component-1) for developing e-contents of international

standards for B.Tech.(Dairy Technology) program. Efforts are also being made at the

institute level to improve the teaching methods in dairy education system. An initiative in

this direction has been taken up in the form of institute research project on “Development

and Evaluation of e-Learning Management System (e-LMS) for Dairy Education”. The

aim of these projects is to create an e-learning environment in the institute and across the

dairy institutions in the country and motivate the teachers to develop teaching material in

digitized form to improve the quality of material and methods of imparting instructions.

The specific objectives of NAIP funded project are:

To create interactive multimedia course contents for B.Tech.(DT) degree program

in accordance with ICAR’s Fourth Deans Committee recommendations.

To create e-content to evoke interest among the learners and promote classroom

and online interaction.

To provide on-line (Web) and off-line (CD/DVD) delivery of the course content to

enhance the class room teaching.

To host the created contents in the server to be shared by all Dairy Science

Colleges/ Institutes across the nation.

To promote the learning effectiveness through empowering teachers with more

effective tutoring skills.

To begin with e-learning activities in the institute, an e-Learning Management System (e-

LMS) MOODLE (Modular Object Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment) has been

installed on Linux platform for designing e-courses and is accessible on-line through

intranet in the institute. The faculty of NDRI is being trained to design and create e-

Courses using Moodle. Recently a sensitization workshop on “Content Management for e-

Learning System using Moodle” was organized to create awareness about e-Learning

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among the faculty members of the institute. Hands on practice sessions are also proposed

to train the faculty on usage of Moodle.

7. National Status: e-Learning in General Education

Online education is a growing concept in India. Approximately 250 sites are using e-LMS

software to provide online education in India. TNUVAS has undertaken a project on

developing e-learning contents of B.V.Sc. program financed by NAIP. National Program

on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) started under the funding of MHRD is to

enhance quality of engineering education in the country by developing curriculum based

video and web courses. Sakshat has been designed and developed by IGNOU for the

Ministry of HRD. It is perceived to be a single stop education portal for addressing the

needs of students, scholars, teachers and life long learners. This shall be done by IITs

(Seven), IISc Bangalore and other premier institutions. ERNET has started SHISHYA and

VIDYA VAHINI open courseware/ portals that contain the educational resources

(question answers ranging from short to long answers) under the subject Chemistry,

Mathematics, Biology, Botany and Zoology for class IX,-XII. Indian Institute of

Information Technology, Kerala (IIIT-K) and IGNOU have launched a project Education

Grid Global Alliance to improve the quality of education offered in all our universities,

colleges and institutions through effective deployment, management and open support for

technology enhanced learning and teaching, taking advantage of the emerging

connectivity, content, systems and IT enabled services. Recently Delhi University has also

launched education portal for e-learning of courses being offered at DU.

8. World Status: e-Learning in General Education

In many Western countries e-learning has taken a definitive shape. Massachusetts Institute

of Technology (MIT) in USA initiated an Open Course Ware e-learning project in 2002 to

put all of the educational materials from its undergraduate- and graduate-level courses

(offering over 1800 courses) online, free and openly available to anyone, anywhere, by the

end of the year 2007. Presently there are more than 30,000 e-learning sites in around 175

countries and still this number is growing. Some of these sites are having more than

20,000 users. Food and Agriculture Organization’s AGROVOC agricultural thesaurus is

used to provide multilingual, structured and controlled vocabulary to cover the

terminology of all subject fields in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, food and related domain.

9. Conclusion

E-learning or on-line education is an emerging concept in India. It provides a medium for

delivering contents and instructions using ICT tools to a large group of students in

synchronous and asynchronous mode. It may be used to solve the problem of shortage of

quality teachers in institutions located at remote places and students can get the excellent

education at par with those in premier institutions. Government of India has already

initiated the efforts in this direction to provide quality education through National Program

on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) in all engineering institutions. ICAR and

NDRI are also not far behind the world’s premier research institutes in harnessing the

benefits of modern technologies by strengthening the Dairy Education through NAIP and

Institutional funded projects on developing e-Courses in the area of Dairying.