MOOCs in Agricultural Education in India – Scope and Potential

Abstract

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) is the latest online medium for course delivery and learning with immense potential. This article reviews substantial reinforcing standpoints in terms of identification of similar courses for reaching more learners through MOOCs in the domain of agricultural education. The study uses a rational methodology in understanding the educational topology of all domains of agricultural education at the graduate level thereby, understanding conceptual similarities and exclusivities for each sub-domain in agricultural education. The topical coverage of each sub-domain was semantically divided and analysed using the Venn diagram concept. The study reveals that agriculture has a wide variation in courses across disciplines and there are two generic courses which can be adopted in MOOCs format immediately. The study also brought some commonalities in some sub-domains like plant sciences
which offer courses in agriculture, horticulture and forestry separately. These efforts help in prioritising the development of courses in MOOCs. The
findings of this study can help develop future strategies in adopting MOOCs methodology in agriculture education domain.