Innovations in ODL in Agriculture using the Practices in Re-usable Learning Objects and

Semantic Web Technologies

B S Hansra, Professor and former Director, School of Agriculture, IGNOU, New Delhi

Surya Gunjal, Director, School of Agriculture, YCMOU

V Valluva Paridasan, Director, ODL Directorate, TNAU

Praveen K Jain, Reader, School of Agriculture, IGNOU

Venkataraman Balaji, ICRISAT (currently with COL, Vancouver)

 Open and Distance learning to promote new and sustainable livelihoods is emerging as a key
development in the context of India where more and more farmers are moving towards non-subsistence
farming. Such groups require access to new learning materials to augment their skills and knowledge
base and to participate in market-related and output quality-sensitive practices in farming. A pilot
project has been jointly launched by a Consortium of OU’s, an agricultural university (with an
established ODL directorate) and an international agricultural research center. This project makes use of
the practice of semantic web technologies to build and manage a collection of re-usable learning objects
which can be accessed in easy-to-navigate ways. These are used to generate learning materials at a
participating institution which enrolls and mentors farm-based learners. The entire chain of generic RLO
creation, validation repository and its re-use in a local context and assessment of its value in learning is
in practice in this project”.

Review of Literature

Introduction:

Owing to past lack of investment, higher post-secondary and higher education in agriculture is
currently simply unable to supply the training that is needed, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia. A 2007 World Bank report described five constraints on agricultural education:
(1) the numbers enrolled in postgraduate education are declining and too few women are
enrolled, (2) higher education and training institutions tend to be isolated and fragmented, (3)
many institutions face shortages of trained staff, and (5) teaching methods and resources are
often inadequate. The recent global report of the global Inter-Academy Council (2004), the
World Development Report 2008, the report of the International Assessment of Agricultural
Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (2008), and even the leaders of the G8
countries at their July 2008 summit all emphasize the importance of strengthening higher
education systems in agriculture in developing countries.
Given the limitations of higher education in many developing countries, reaching potential
learners with high-quality agricultural content is going to take innovative methods of content
development, management, and delivery. Open educational resources (OERs) (see Box 1) and
new collaborative online spaces such as Web 2.0 have the potential to open up traditionally
closed educational systems by taking advantage of the growing availability of digital networks,
improved access to computing in learning centers in many countries, and new forms of
intellectual property protection. The bibliography in the Annexure 1 and the table of online
resources reveals new opportunities.

Although innovative models are now making many university-level courses available as global
public goods, no comparable initiative allows for the collaborative creation and unrestricted use
of learning materials in the agriculture and food sectors. New models need to be built. In this
paper, we describe briefly an initiative in India that attempts to build such a model.This
Consortium will offer a new, practical model at a national level in India.

Open Educational Resources

The term “open educational resource” (OER) was first adopted at UNESCO’s 2002 Forum on the
Impact of Open Courseware for Higher Education in Developing Countries. OERs are
educational materials and resources offered freely and openly for anyone to use and, under
some licenses, to remix, improve, and redistribute. OERs include learning content; software
tools for developing, using, and distributing content; and implementing resources such as open
licenses (Atkins et al. 2007; D’Antoni 2008).

The Open Course Ware program of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

(http://ocw.mit.edu) was a pioneer among higher education institutions in making learning
resources available as a global public good, focusing on engineering education. The Connexions
project of Rice University (www.cnx.org) in the United States is another example of unrestricted
access to online educational resources, although it does not focus on agricultural topics either.
The hugely popular Wikipedia has inspired the development of the Wikiversity
(www.wikiversity.org), which uses Wikimedia server technology to write and share learning
materials. In developing countries, the National Project on Technology Enhanced Learning of
India (http://nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/Webcourse-contents/IIT-MADRAS/Hydr/left_mod1.html)
is one example of a national educational institution making learning resources freely available.
The growing number of such initiatives has led to an OER movement that aims to increase
access to knowledge and educational opportunities worldwide through sharing educational
content.

Reusable Learning Objects: A New Way of Thinking about Learning

An RLO is an independent unit of learning content that is designed for reuse in multiple
instructional contexts—that is, the smallest standalone unit of learning on a specific topic
(Polsani 2003). Research has shown that a combination of different media can help stimulate
learning, and some RLOs include photos, audio, video, and animation as well as text. RLOs are
digital and Web-based, so they are accessible 24/7. They are self-contained and usually small in
order to focus the learner’s attention. Because they help avoid duplication of learning
materials, they are easy to update and cost-effective. RLOs can be made available in an offline
mode as well. They can be combined and used in any number of ways to meet a wide range of
learning objectives.

Methodologies

This project will beis developed by a consortium of Open Universities, an agricultural university
with an ODL directorate, and an international agricultural research center which is a member of
the CGIAR. It is oriented towards stimulating and enhancing farmer entrepreneurship through
knowledge and skill empowerment. Contemporary methods and techniques based on ICT and
KM will be are deployed to strengthen ongoing or conventional processes of ODL. The
innovation is primarily in two areas: in learning material generation, and in a din learner
support. In the area of material generation, the new technique of re-usable learning objects
(RLO’s) will beis being deployed, and the philosophy of Open Educational Resources (OER) will
has been be adopted. They both complement on going NAIP-KM projects and investments in
the area of e-learning and knowledge sharing. In the delivery side, we will makethe consortium
partners make use of multi-modal delivery using on line availability of RLO, or offline using
DVD/CD’s or print.CD and Self Instruction Materials (SIM).The standard practice of designing
self-instructional material is followed.

This project will be implemented in a consortium mode, with the YCMOU serving as the lead
partner. The core activities on this project are:

 Learners’ needs assessment

 Generation of learning materials using contemporary methods like. (RLO’s).
 Delivery of such materials in the distance learning mode to learners DL mode

 Provision of ding learning support through technology-enhanced and conventional modes.
 Capacity strengthening of faculty of the participating universities in design of learning
materials (in RLO format) and in offering support to learners in multiple modes.
 Design, development and maintenance of linked digital repositories of learning materials at
national as well as at the university level (using the two-tier architecture of the aAgropedia,
http://agropedia.net, developed by a team led by Professor T V Prabhakar at Indian
Institute of Technology, Kanpur).
 Organization and implementation of impact assessment.

For each of these activities, well-tested and well-founded methods and techniques will be are
used.
Learners’ needs assessment: This process will beis being carried out in accordance with the
standard practices in Open and Distance Learning Universities
(http://www.colfinder.org/materials/
Education_for_a_Digital_World/Education_for_a_Digital_World_part1.pdf). Three partner
universities will identifyhave identified two 2 Hhigh Vvalue Hhorticultural cCrops important in
their respective areas of project implementation.

RLO approaches in material and curriculum development: The methods already developed
and tested by the consortium partners in association with the University of Florida and with the
Commonwealth of Learning will be used. A description is available in the publication of
S.Grunwald and V.Balaji, at www.ecolearnit.ifas.ufl.edu (see “Ecolearnit” site). All these
methods were further refined by UFL-ICRISAT on an Indo-US AKI partnership.

The approach here is to develop the framework of modules which are identified with units and
sub-units. Such sub-units that normally have a specific learning outcome in a reasonably
limited time (about 20-30 min on an average) will be developed as RLO’s. The five modules are:

1. Horticulture Nursery Management

2. High Value Crops Production
3. IPM in Agro-horticulture
4. INM in Agro-horticulture, and
5. Post-harvest Value Addition in Agro-horticulture

Together, they will comprise about 500 Re-usable Learning Objects. This method is already
implemented in AGORCURI Project.

Design of Course Modules using RLO’s: an innovation in agricultural education

There is a limited amount of discussion in the literature about the use of RLO’s in development
of course modules. A detailed analysis is found in the work of Grunwald (Grunwald and Reddy,
2007). While the availability of digital information resources is substantial via the Internet, the
amount of online learning resources are much smaller in comparison. The volume of
educational resources readily available for immediate use or rapid adaptation is significantly
smaller compared to digital learning resources. Our understanding is that this is partly in the
nature of the online learning materials which are often created without the intention of serving
any particular curriculum. There is no single engineering solution to effect the transformation of
an online learning resource, which has good pedeagogic attributes, into an educational
resource that has well structured assessment in relation to a curricular framework. We propose
to make use of a process of building a curriculum up from “chunks” of learning to allow for use
of re-usable learning objects more easily.

• Data Object
Simple
• Example: Efficiency in irrigation

• Information Object
Intermediate
• Example: Water use in citrus cultivation

• Learning Object
Complex
• Example: Efficient management of irrigation in citrus production
In our effort on this project, we are attempting to do two things: One is to build a collection of
RLO’s which, by themselves, will have sound pedagogic value and can be used in various
learning/instruction contexts: instructor-led, learner-managed or facilitated by a community.
The other is to develop a curriculum that enables meaningful grouping of such RLO’s to provide
the educational resources needed to fulfil credit requirements in a certification process.
Bringing together of these two separate processes in our judgment, constitutes the innovation
in our effort. The other innovation consists in linking the combined process with enabling
learner access through enabling local print material generation, online spaces for socialization,
mobile telephony-based interaction and delivery.

Semantic Web Approach: bringing the two strands together

The semantic web approach is rapidly gaining attention in many quarters as the next generation
web. Tim Berners-Lee, widely regarded as the inventor of the World Wide Web, has pointed out
that the future evolution of the Web in the direction of computer-based applications
communication with each other more autonomously. Emphasis shifts from syntax in the
present to meaning in the semantic web. Concepts and relationships between them become
critical to the functioning of Web-based services. In our view, this approach is best suited to
bring together a software application, namely an online repository of RLO’s, with another
software application that comprises the curriculum structure and assessments for
accreditation. When such communication between the software applications occurs, a number
of possibilities can emerge that allow mix-and-match development of learning content to fulfil
slightly varied educational or credit requirements.

The Agropedia platform (http://agropedia.net), already built with support from the ICAR, is a
unique platform of its kind in agriculture, especially in extension. This platform is built with
many collaborative and sharing features that are characteristic of Web 2.0 and includes
elements of online social networking features (Figures 1). Quite important, this platform is
semantically enabled; the content in Agropedia is organized using the practice of Knolwedge
Models and nine crop KM’s have been developed collaboratively by crop science and agronomy
experts across India (Figure 2 contains a section from the crop knowledge model for chickpea).
The approach here has been to identify comprehensively all the sub and sub-sub topics under a
topic, and to position them in fairly precisely stated relationships with each other. Such models,
represented here by a technique called “concept maps” (closer to the more popular Mind
Maps), can be rendered in many human languages while retaining the relationships intact. As
content is generated in different languages, on depositing it in Agropedia, online tagging allows
content to be conceptually related to one or more segments of the knowledge model. This
enables the software to group content by meaning. Because of this feature, one can locate
material in the Agropedia in different languages even while querying only in one language
(Figure 3).

These are the critical features and methods in Agropedia we are making use of. The RLO’s can
be grouped and organized in a new repository using the equivalent of knowledge models. For a
topic such as Agro-horticulture, the theme of this project, a comprehensive KM is under
discussion and it will cover all the five sub themes of this project (see above). The sub themes
will be developed as concepts and the relationships amongst them. Any RLO developed,
irrespective of its format (text, or slideshow or HTML pages with or without Flash elements),
will be placed in the repository while specifying its tags using the online tool. Once described
so, the RLO is visible in a variety of searches; locating any related RLO is enabled as well (as in
Figure 3 above).
We have thus separated the process of authoring an RLO (using multimedia or other authoring
tools) from the process of identifying an RLO for its pedagogic value in this effort. We make
available the RLO with its meta-data (generated using the knowledge model) to a search via the
repository design. We believe this practice of separating an RLO access from its authoring
platform has long term advantages and benefits.

Over the knowledge model of Agro-horticulture which enables tagging for ease of search and
access to an RLO, we propose to add a curriculum layer. In our approach, a module in the
curriculum (there are five on this project), consists of units which are in turn compsed from sub
units each of which will have well-defined educational outcome. The sub units will be a
combination of RLO’s, depending upon the simplicity or complexity of the outcome intended.
This is described in Figure 4. Our effort is to project the curriculum as a map-like structure, as a
an arrangement that shows relationships between the module-unit-sub unit hirerachy while
employing specific tags that relate to the subject matter (the theme and the sub themes). There
will be additional tags that relate to the educational and accreditation values. This overlay acts
as a filter to view and access the RLO’s for use or for re-purposing to suit a particular
educational requirement. The engineering aspects of this overlay are in development by the
Agropedia team. When completed, a user would be able to access the learning resources
directly, using a semantically-enabled search (based on knowledge model of the theme and sub
themes) or through an education-related view. The contributors/authors will be trained initially
in development of knowledge models, concept maps and tags.

Delivery/Exchange with and among learners:

The Virtual KVK is a pilot program operated by the Agropedia team in select areas of the State
of Uttar Pradesh where an interface for an expert is available to create highly specific SMS/text
messages for a particular group of farmers. The messages, in text or voice format, can be
created from a desktop computer using a web interface by anyone with suitable credentials.
Such messages are delivered to the specific group of recipients either as an SMS/text message
or as a voice call or both. The trials conducted over the period May-September 2010 by the
Agropedia developers indicate high levels of efficiency in terms of user responses. It is proposed
to make suitable variations on this platform to suit the purposes of reaching learners in
dispersed communities by teachers/instructors in different levels.

Conclusion:

This is an ongoing effort that has just commenced. The lessons and analysis from this effort will
be useful to ODL experts and institutions in the developing countries where there is s trong
need to build economies-of-scale in generation of content and to develop methods for access
to them and to learning support services using affordable technologies such as mobile phones.

Acknowledgements:

Financial support from the National Agricultural Innovation Project of the Indian Council of
Agricultural Research is gratefully acknowledged. We would like to record our appreciation of
the partnership of the Agropedia team at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IITK).

Learning Support and Engagement in Multiple Modes: The University partners on this
consortium have been operating several contact centers that enable the learners to meet
teachers for support. On this project, we shall further enhance this arrangement by enabling
learner access to faculty time and expertise through a digital forum that can be accessed using
mobile phones or using PC-based web browsers. Online social networking techniques will be
experimented with. These will be fully complemented by on-station and on-farm
demonstrations, which are now standard part of ODL in agriculture.
Capacity Strengthening of Faculty and Extension Personnel in Content Matters: In ODL
systems, the course material generation proceeds with the involvement of many experts, a
large part of them outside the institutions. They play roles as writers, editors and reviewers.
They need to have their capacity augmented for using the new approaches involving the RLO’s.
Training in such matters will be organized hands-on programs and will involve technology-
resource institutions who designed and built technologies for the NAIP. Extension personnel
from NGO’s and private sector especially agriculture input dealers will be covered wherever
feasible.

Maintenance of Learning Material Repositories: This is a core activity of the project. The
content in the form RLO’s becomes an on line asset available to anyone, anywhere in the
country for carefully-considered re-use in local or national projects. We propose to use the
NAIP-supported agropedia architecture; it allows for closed-group review and publication of
expert-derived RLO’s, while allowing sharing of practitioner tips and notes, from learners and
faculty, in a different space. Such two-track approach is necessary to sustain dynamism in this
knowledge space. While a national repository based on agropedia will be designed and
developed, each partner organization will maintain a local installation more to capture and
analyse and publish practitioners’ tips and information, constituting the “Jan dhara” track of
agropedia