Constraints in Online-Teaching of Agricultural Undergraduates in North-East Region of India during COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced educational institutes in India including Agricultural Universities to adopt online remote teaching. This sudden shift to online-teaching are was a big challenge. For the North East Region of India (NER), already constrained in terms of ICT infrastructure and higher education, the challenges were relatively bigger. The study was conducted in NER to study the constraints in teaching agricultural undergraduates. All the teachers of institutes in the region, offering undergraduate level degree course in Agriculture constituted the sampling frame. Online questionnaire was sent to all the teachers of which 75 responses were received, which formed the respondents of the study. A total of 22 constraint items were identified. Constraints items were categorized into four categories. Difficulties in conducting field and lab related practical class was rated the most important constraint. Teaching Facilitation constraints had the highest mean intensity score followed by Infrastructural constraints, Personal constraints and Technological Competency constraints. Capacity building on creation of e-teaching contents; training on online communication and facilitation skills; strengthening technical and administrative support system for online teaching; sharing of learning experiences of innovative e-teaching and hybrid teaching strategies amongst teachers; and development of topic specific appropriate strategies and e-teaching modules for conducting classes were recommended.