Benefits and challenges of online instruction in agriculture and natural resource education

Many land-grant institutions with agriculture and natural resource programs in the United States offer online courses to meet student demand. The goal of this study was to understand how major educational stakeholders, including instructors and students, perceive the benefits and limitations of onli...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Interactive learning environments 2022-07, Vol.30 (8), p.1402-1413
Main Authors: Joshi, Omkar, Chapagain, Binod, Kharel, Gehendra, Poudyal, Neelam C., Murray, Bryan D., Mehmood, Sayeed R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agricultural Education
Agriculture
agriculture and natural resource
Analytic hierarchy process
Barriers
CAI
Computer assisted instruction
Computer Security
Data collection
Distance Education
Distance learning
Educational Benefits
Electronic Learning
Family Work Relationship
Integrity
Interpersonal Relationship
Land Grant Universities
learning perceptions
Natural Resources
Online Courses
Online instruction
online learning
Online Surveys
Opportunities
Program Effectiveness
Social behavior
Social factors
SWOT-AHP
Teachers
Threat evaluation
Virtual Classrooms
Web Based Instruction
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Summary:Many land-grant institutions with agriculture and natural resource programs in the United States offer online courses to meet student demand. The goal of this study was to understand how major educational stakeholders, including instructors and students, perceive the benefits and limitations of online teaching and learning in agriculture and natural resource sciences. This study utilized a mixed mode data collection method, which involved informal meetings as well as online survey administration. The data were analyzed through strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT)-Analytic Hierarchical Process (AHP) framework. The study results offer novel perspectives on the perceived utility and challenges of several attributes of online learning including work-home balance, lack of social interactions, virtual classroom opportunities for working professionals, and academic integrity and cyber scam issues among others. Our findings may be beneficial to academic administrators, instructors, and institutions in identifying opportunities, challenges, and adopting programmatic strategies to improve effectiveness of online learning.
ISSN:1049-4820
1744-5191
DOI:10.1080/10494820.2020.1725896