Two Days Workshop on “Agriculture Education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL),” at IGNOU
Delhi, 28th January 2016
The School of Agriculture of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) organized a two days workshop on “Agriculture Education through Open and Distance Learning (ODL),” at Maidan Garhi, IGNOU. Inauguration ceremony was held at the IGNOU campus where Prof. Dr N.S. Rathore, DDG (EDUCATION), ICAR, New Delhi, Dr. Panjab Singh, Chancellor, Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University (RLBCAU), Jhansi, Prof K.N.S. Yadav, Vice Chancellor, Awadhesh Pratap Singh University Rewa and Dr. S.K. Yadav, Director, School of Agriculture, IGNOU were present during the inauguration.
Dr. Yadav, Director, School of Agriculture, IGNOU welcomed all the guests and participants in the workshop. He also gave brief information about, why there is need of distance education in Agriculture. Prof. Dr N.S. Rathore, DDG (EDUCATION), ICAR, New Delhi was the guest of honor for the workshop. Delivering his speech he said “Agriculture is not limited to harvesting but, it is extended up to secondary level of agriculture.”
Chief Guest of the workshop Dr. Panjab Singh, Chancellor, RLBCAU said “Agriculture is the way of life in India, which will continue to be the central point for any social economic development of the country.” He also quoted some examples of ODL; He said “ODL is important because of its reach to vast; it is the fastest way of education as, it doesn’t require any infrastructure such as physical buildings etc.”
This workshop is proposed to address the following objectives such as, scope of ODL in agriculture, TO evolve suitable pedagogy of ODL in agriculture including online mode, to discuss the scope of integrating new approaches/ technologies in ODL and to discuss the institutional support, linkages and accreditation of ODL in agriculture.
Workshop also has various themes like status of ODL in agriculture, Delivery Mechanism for agriculture education through ODL; Technology enabled learning in agriculture etc.
Agriculture education is one of the important factors of the food production. It enables the stakeholders to update their knowledge and skills in agriculture. Updating knowledge and skills facilitates technology adoption and implementation of better farm management practices.
Agriculture education through ODL is a new intervention. In this mode of education, the knowledge is delivered though study material reinforced with multimedia and information and communication technologies (ICTs). IGNOU a pioneer distance education institution has established School of Agriculture during 2005 to initiate programme development and delivery in agriculture and allied sectors.