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† Corresponding author 
© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 
 

 

AWARENESS ABOUT E-LEARNING AMONG AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 

SCHOLARS OF BANARAS HINDU UNIVERSITY 

 

Shoji Lal Bairwa
1
 --- Kerobim Lakra

2
 --- Pradeep Joliya

3
 --- Saket Kushwaha

4
 --- 

Dheeraj Mishra
5
 

1,2,3Department of Agricultural Economics, BHU, Varanasi  
4Vice Chancellor, L. N. Mithila University, Darbhanga (Bihar) India 

5Department of Extension Education, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi  

 

ABSTRACT 

The present study is emphasized on find out the awareness level and perception about e- learning 

among agricultural research scholars at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) 

India. This research study is based on the primary source of data which was collected from fifty 

respondents through structured questionnaire during the year 2013. Statistical tools such as 

frequency, percentage, and standard deviation were used to analyze the data for making 

interpretation. In this study, it was found that majority of respondents have a low awareness about 

e-learning whereby it accounted for 70 per cent of the respondents, 10 have moderate awareness 

about e-learning and only 20 per cent of the respondents have high awareness about e-learning. 

Overall awareness of respondents about e-learning tended to be low (M=1.44, SD=0.49, range=9-

18). Thus, there is need that government should promote researches on the various aspects of e-

learning and maintaining standard of e-learning resources by establishing national level standards 

of e-resources. 

Keywords: E-learning, E- resources, Perception, Awareness level, Agricultural research scholars. 

 

Contribution/ Originality 

This study is one of very few studies which have investigated awareness level and perception 

about e- learning among agricultural research scholars and contributes in the existing literature 

which is necessary for creative learners and agricultural research community during the qualitative 

research study. 

 

1. INTRODUCTION 

The present age is known as age of information and communication technology (ICT). Due to 

information technology a revolution has been brought in almost every field of life throughout the 

Current Research in Agricultural Sciences 
2014 Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 35-41 
ISSN(e): 2312-6418 
ISSN(p): 2313-3716 
© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

 



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2014, 1(2): 35-41 

 

 
36 

© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

world. As defined by Hall [1] “E-Learning is instruction that is delivered electronically, in part or 

wholly – via a Web browser, through the Internet or an intranet, or through multimedia platforms 

such as CD-ROM or DVD”. Though E-learning is electronic learning but it seems to be easy 

learning on the way it is attaining its place in India. E-learning is a very attractive, effective and 

resourceful tool in enhancing the scope of education across the globe. There are many reasons to 

opt e-learning as alternative in order to improve quality of education. The major reasons includes 

saving of time to go for the classroom and highly interactive learning. E-learning is widely reached 

to masses in India due to its time saving and electronic mode. E-Learning tools, techniques, models 

and concepts can be applied for business and interactive education. Like in business, industry, 

engineering and medicine, internet is widely used by teachers and students of the India right from 

metric to university level, but due to scarcity of resources, infrastructure, this popular and enriched 

means of learning is not prevalent in education institutions [2]. It can be said that e-learning is 

riding on the shoulders of the giant (Internet). E-Learning shall enable us to attainment of the 

objectives and to bring out the overall development of the education. 

History timeline of e-learning was divided into four categories viz. Instruction led training (Pre 

1983), multimedia era (1984 to 1993), introduction of web - (1994 - 1999) and the text generation 

web (2000 to now). The framework of e-learning consists of pedagogical dimension, technological 

dimension, interface design dimension, evaluation dimension, and management dimension, 

resource support dimension, ethical dimension and institutional dimension [3]. There are various e-

learning tools like e-mail, chat, e-mentoring, video-conferencing, e-tutoring, discussion group, 

internet forum, shared whiteboard, application sharing, instant messaging, virtual classroom, e-

lecturing and blog. In this dynamic era, government organizations, corporations and educational 

institutions have to keep gait with the E-learning phenomenon and make future strategic decisions 

on how to adopt e-learning techniques in their unique business and educational environments [4].  

 

1.1. Objective and Scope of Study 

The present study entitled “A study on E-learning among Agricultural Research Scholars of 

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi has been undertaken to find out the awareness and perception 

by agricultural research scholars towards the e-learning with specific objectives to study the 

sources of e-learning in agriculture. The finding of the study will have immense practical utility in 

the field of education. It will helpful to the various agencies which are working for agricultural 

development through the use of ICT. The study also helpful in different aspect like, strategic 

planning, implementation of various ICT projects, determining efficiencies and effectiveness of 

projects related to educational planning and monitoring. 

 

2. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY  

Research methodology deals with various methods and procedures used with respect to the 

selection of the area of the study, sampling designs, selection of the respondents,  their empirical 

measurements, the data collection procedures and statistical methods employed for the analysis of 

the data. 



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37 

© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

1) Area of the Study: The research was conducted at institute of agricultural sciences, 

Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi during November, 2013. 

2) Sampling Designs and Selection of the Respondents: Appropriate research design is the 

prime need of any research. It is the arrangement for collection and analysis of data in a 

manner that aims to combine relevance to research objectives with economy in procedure.  

Simple random samplings were used for collection of data from the all agricultural researchers. 

Out of 280 scholars, 50 respondents were selected from institute of agricultural sciences, 

Banaras Hindu University. 

3) Data Collection Procedure: A structural schedule for data collection was designed and 

exercised by interviewing with few respondents for pre-testing. Suitable modifications were 

made according to need of the study. Thereafter, the data were collected from the respondents 

through questionnaire method. 

4) Statistical Method:  there are various statistical techniques like frequency, percentage, 

and standard deviation were used to analyze the data and for making simple interpretation. 

 

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION  

The findings and inferences drawn with respect to the objectives of the study on the basis of 

analysis by using relevant statistical techniques have been presented in this chapter. The results are 

discussed under following subheads: 

 

3.1. Sources of E-Learning in Agriculture 

Source is a thing (place or person) from which someone can obtain information. A source of e-

learning includes the websites from which agricultural student’s gets information about the 

agriculture and allied sector. These e-learning sources documented from agropedia website, in 

which some websites of state government were included because there was so many sources 

available which provides the agricultural information such as agmarknet, naip.icar.org.in, 

nationalfertilizers.com, fertindia.com, icrisat.org, dacnet.nic.in, ikisan.com, gisdevelopment.net, 

uttamkrishi.com, agricoop.nic.in, icar.org.in, punjabgovt.nic.in, upagriculture.org, 

indianaglink.com, nafed-india.com, krishi.net, iiss.nic.in, agricultural marketing, delhigovt.nic.in, 

dare.nic.in, agri.mah.nic.in, indg.in/agriculture, mahyco.com, agrisurf.com, ranadey.com, 

indianorganic.com, irri.org, agriculture.exportersindia.com, afarm.org, kerenvis.nic.in, 

kissankerala.net, abtecbiofert.com, agriculture.exportersindia.com, indiancommodity.com, 

agropedia.iitk.ac.in, and tradejunction.apeda.com. 

Table 1 reveals that maximum number of respondents (37) used the ICAR website fallowed by 

Agropedia website (35) , Wikipedia website (27), science direct website (21) , website of IARI 

(15), agriwatch website (12), agrostat website (11), agricoop website (9), indiaagronet website (8), 

website of MANAGE (7) and other websites were used by minimum number of respondents in the 

study. 

 

 

http://www.agrisurf.com/
http://www.icar.org.in/-


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38 

© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

Table-1. Name of websites respondents used for getting agricultural information 

N = 50 

S.N. Name of websites No. of response Percentages 

1. http://www.icar.org.in/: 37 15.48 

2. http://www.wikipedia.org/ 27 11.29 

3. www.indiaagronet.com 8 3.34 

4. www.agriwatch.com 12 5.02 

5. http://mofpi.nic.in/ 5 2.09 

6. http://www.ikisan.com/: 6 2.51 

7. http://agricoop.nic.in/ 9 3.76 

8. www.fciweb.nic.in 5 2.09 

9. http://agropedia.iitk.ac.in/ 35 14.64 

10. http://www.ndri.res.in 5 2.09 

11. http://www.manage.gov.in/ 7 2.92 

12. http://www.agriculturetoday.in/ 4 1.67 

13. http://www.fao.org/ 6 2.51 

14. http://www.sciencedirect.com/ 21 8.76 

15. http://www.iari.res.in/ 15 6.27 

16. http://www.agrostat2010. 11 4.60 

17. http://www.indianjournals.com/ 8 3.34 

18. http://www.ugc.ac.in/ 3 1.25 

19. http://www.bhu.ac.in/ 4 1.67 

20. http://www.agriculturetoday.com/ 7 2.92 

21. http://www.agritechindia.com/ 3 1.258 

22. http://www.tnau.ac.in/ 1 0.41 

Total 239 100.00 

Source: Field Study, 2013 

 

Table-2. Descriptive statistics on awareness about e-learning 

N =50 

S.N. Statements 

 

Total No.  of 

Respondents 

 

frequency 

 

Percentages 

 

Yes No Yes No 

1. Knowledge about Online Learning 50 45 5 90.00 10.00 

2. Knowledge about E-Learning 50 45 5 90.00 10.00 

3. Knowledge about Distance and E-

Learning 

50 41 9 82.00 18.00 

4. Knowledge about UGC-INFONET 50 16 34 32.00 68.00 

5. Knowledge about DELNET 50 9 41 18.00 82.00 

6. Knowledge about EDUSAT 50 11 39 22.00 78.00 

7. Knowledge about NPTEL 50 6 44 12.00 88.00 

8. Knowledge about Brihaspati/Vartalaap 50 12 38 24.00 76.00 

9. Knowledge about University which offer 

e-learning 

50 16 34 32.00 68.00 

Total 450 201 249 402 498 

Average  50   44.67 55.34 

Source: Field Survey, 2013 

 

 

http://www.icar.org.in/-
http://www.agriwatch.com/
http://mofpi.nic.in/
http://www.ikisan.com/-
http://www.fciweb.nic.in/


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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

3.2. Awareness about E-Learning   

Awareness is the ability to feel, to perceive or to be conscious of objects, events or sensory 

patterns. In this, sense data can be verified by a perceiver without necessarily implying 

understanding. Thus, awareness is the state or quality of being aware of something. In bio 

psychology, awareness may be defined as a human's perception and cognitive reaction to a 

particular condition or event. To analyze the awareness level of respondents about the e-learning, a 

total of 10 questions were prepared and asked to the respondents. The descriptive statistics on 

awareness about e-learning among agricultural research scholars presented in Table 2. 

For measuring overall awareness about e-learning sum the scores of statements about 

awareness and classified in three groups (low, moderate, and high). Table 3 indicates the 

distribution of respondent’s awareness about e-learning.  

 

Table-3. Distribution of respondent’s awareness about e-learning 

     N = 50 

Awareness Frequency Percentages Mean S.D. 

Low (9-12) 35 70.00 1.446667 0.497192 

Medium (13-15) 5 10.00 

  High (16-18) 10 20.00 

  Total 50 100.00 

  Source: Field Survey, 2013 

 

Overall awareness of respondents about e-learning tended to be low (M=1.44, SD=0.49, 

range=9-18). Majority of respondents have low awareness about e-learning whereby it accounted 

for 70 per cent of the respondents, 10 have moderate awareness about e-learning, and only 20 per 

cent of the respondents have high awareness about e-learning. From the above data it is concluded 

that majority of respondents had low awareness followed by high awareness. This may be due to 

the newness of term e-learning for the respondents. This is not good indicator for the future of e-

learning in agriculture education. The present finding is not similar to the findings of Ken [5] but 

similar to the findings of Kinley [6]. 

 

3.3. Perception towards E-Learning 

According to Intodia, et al. [7] perception is the “Process whereby the individual organizes and 

make sense of his sensory experience”. According to Halbelch [8] perception is the “Organization 

of sensory information into meaningful experience”. According to Schnadelbach, et al. [9] 

perception is the “Process of encompassing what individual see, hear, feel, taste or smell, how 

individual construct this information mentally and their interpretations of the information”. For 

analyzing the perception of respondents toward e-learning, statements were written on the basis of 

reviewing previous research. This statement includes positive and negative statements. Ranking 

were done by calculating the percentage to each statements by the respondents. The scoring, 

percentages and ranking to each statement are presented in Table 4. 



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© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

Table 4 indicates that perception towards different statements about e-learning as perceived by 

the respondents like “E-learning boosts learners’ learning interests.” was ranked I followed by “E-

learning makes it easier for college and teachers to provide learners a personalized learning 

environment” ranked II and “E-learning is important in crossing over the restraint of geography” III 

ranked respectively and further likewise in descending order. 

 

Table-4. Perception of respondents towards e-learning 

N = 50 

 

Source:  Field Study, 2013   

 

The negative statements like “E-learning is not good solution for agriculture” and “E-learning 

is the wastage of time for agriculture courses” ranked IX and X respectively. Thus, the perception 

towards e-learning is positive amongst the respondents, because the negative statements scores 

lowest rank than positive statements. 

 

4. CONCLUSION  

Higher education in view of globalization cannot afford to remain indifferent and unresponsive 

to the irresistible aura of e-learning. The spectrum of e-learning with its mind-boggling progression 

has exercised a well discernible shift from formal schooling to de-schooling and to electronic 

schooling. With collaborative tools e-earning is moving into virtual classes and virtual 

communities where the old methods of practice and test have melted into new interactive teaching 

learning methodologies. A judicious blend of both traditional and virtual learning environment with 

special attention to researchers need and satisfaction can create constructive and creative learners, 



Current Research in Agricultural Sciences, 2014, 1(2): 35-41 

 

 
41 

© 2014 Conscientia Beam. All Rights Reserved. 

teaching community and learned society in India. On the basis of above study following 

conclusions we can draw: 

1. Overall awareness of respondents about e-learning tended to be low (M=1.44, SD=0.49, 

range=9-18). Majority of respondents have low awareness about e-learning whereby it accounted 

for 70 per cent of the respondents and 10 have moderate awareness about e-learning, only 20 per 

cent of the respondents have high awareness about e-learning. 

2. Perception towards different statements about e-learning as perceived by the respondents 

like “E-learning boosts learners’ learning interests.” was ranked I followed by “E-learning makes it 

easier for college and teachers to provide learners a personalized learning environment” ranked II 

and “E-learning is important in crossing over the restraint of geography” III ranked respectively 

and further likewise in descending order. 

3. The negative statements like “E-learning is not good solution for agriculture” and “E-

learning is the wastage of time for agriculture courses” ranked IX and X respectively. 

 

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[1] B. Hall, Web-based training cookbook: Everything you need to know about online training. NY: 

John Wiley & Sons, 1997. 

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vol. 47, pp. 20-21, 2010. 

[3] G. A. Ajuwon, "Use of internet for health information by physicians for patient care in a teaching 

hospital in Ibadam," Nigeria. Bioned. Digital Libraries, vol. 3, pp. 12-21, 2008. 

[4] D. Zhang, L. Zhou, and R. O. Briggs, "Instructional video in e-learning: Assessing the impact of 

interactive video on learning effectiveness," Information & Management, vol. 43, pp. 15-27, 2006. 

[5] Y.-N. Ken, "E-learning awareness high but usage low in Japan," Available: 

http://whatjapanthinks.com/2008/04/03/e-learning-awareness-high-usage-low-in-japan/, 2008. 

[6] K. Kinley, "Faculty and students awareness and challenges of e-learning in a college of education," 

Journal of the International Society for Teacher Education, vol. 14, pp. 27-33, 2010. 

[7] S. L. Intodia, L. L. Somani, and J. P. Lakhera, "Performance of SRI and traditional paddy," 

Dictionary of Extension Education, vol. 65, pp. 114-146, 1993. 

[8] N. M. Halbelch, "Investigating learner perceptions, preferences and adaptation of E-learning 

services in Egypt," presented at the 2005, International Conference on Education and Management 

Technology, 2005. 

[9] H. Schnadelbach, B. Koleva, M. Flintham, M. Fraser, S. Izadi, P. Chandler, M. Foster, S. Benford, 

C. Greenhalgh, and T. Rodden, The augerscope: A mixed reality interface for outdoors. 

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