Dr. William D Dar
(Message from the Director General)
Access to information and knowledge has long been recognized as a key element for sustainable agricultural development. Information and communication technologies (ICTs), and such specialized ICT applications as e-Learning, offer new options to deliver knowledge and information to agricultural professionals who serve as knowledge intermediaries for farmers.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) through its Learning Systems Unit (LSU) recognizes e-Learning as a potentially viable, cost-effective and flexible approach to a more knowledge-intensive sustainable agriculture, in brokering the creation and management of agricultural knowledge, and as a key element of capacity strengthening/building.
We are therefore proud to launch ICRISAT’s maiden on-line course on Pigeonpea Production System. We believe in the merits and potentials of platforms on learner-centric instruction and support through open and distance learning which means better access and flexibility that can combine work and learning to happen simultaneously. A blended distance learning program is adopted in this pigeonpea on-line course developed using Moodle, an open-source community-based tool for e-Learning which allows feedback and interaction among actors.
Different modalities of learning depending on the requirement of the course content are combined together to overcome constraints in access, time, and place. LSU learned from the experiences of universities transforming themselves from a single mode to multi-mode (i.e. on-site + on-line) in providing its learners with the best and up-to-date information.
With a well-planned course content and innovative delivery, e-Learning could be a key in overcoming the challenges of information and knowledge delivery and in capacity strengthening and building in agriculture.