From a pedagogical perspective, the lectures have a number of positive features, which ensures that they will be of use in the Indian context: first, they are aligned to syllabi commonly found in India, second, they cover the syllabi in a sequenced and systematic manner, and third, they relate to examples and illustrations from the Indian context. A further positive feature, as mentioned earlier, is that each lecture recaps previous concepts that have been introduced. Consideration has been given to the likely profile of the learners and, in particular, their language level. To this extent, the lectures have potential for the 4Rs. Interestingly, anecdotal evidence indicates that a large segment of users is comprised of research scientists in government organisations and engineers in Indian companies.
B. VASAT The Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT; www.vasat.icrisat.org) is an allied institution of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, one of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research centres in India. VASAT seeks to create “demand-driven” and “needs-based” content to educate and support rural communities. It uses ICTs and open and distance learning methodologies to bring home the best knowledge and practices from national and international sources, modify them to suit local needs and enable the rural communities to further adapt them for their specific needs. With this objective in mind, the resources have been released with a Creative Commons noncommercial attribution license. Educators therefore have the right to reuse the resources as they are, revise them as appropriate and remix them with other resources, on condition that VASAT is acknowledged as the author and that the resulting resources are not used for commercial purposes. The resources are designed for use by rural communities with enormous experiential knowledge but little or no classroom-based or formal education. Thus, relevant and just-in-time information is imparted in manageable chunks with viable learning outcomes. The programme consists of eight courses, on Groundnut, Sorghum, Pearl Millet, Pigeonpea, Chickpea, Climate, Plant Nutrition Management and Soil. The individual lessons/units are accessible in different formats — HTML, Flash, PowerPoint and ZIP. This ensures portability across different levels of system requirements and connectivity. The selected sample is a course with 12 modules on groundnut production. The opening page lists the target learners for the course, the structure of the modules and the learning objectives. That the focus of the resource is on tangible outcomes is evident in the fact that all except two objectives (know and understand) use action words: Audience: This course is meant for Farmers, Agricultural Extension Personnel and Others interested in practical agriculture. Structure: This course is divided into Modules, Lessons and Units. After completing 12 Modules in this course you will be able to: • Identify soils to grow groundnut. • Explain the climatic requirements for groundnut crop.
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