eLearning

Currently, New Zealand providers of farmer education are finding it increasingly difficult to attract farmers to learning events. Anecdotal information from farmers shows that there is a plethora of learning events offered to farmers, but that few of these meet their needs. Farmers want to attend learning events which have direct application to their own needs, contexts and particular farming issues and to learn with and from other farmers.

The FeedSmart project offered the opportunity to co-develop with farmers a learning package that was based on adult learning principles and which took into account farmers different levels of expertise, interest and farming contexts.

One delivery approach that emerged, as a result of survey work into the forms of learning approaches for the FeedSmart content, was eLearning based on video-conferencing. The purpose of this project was to design and undertake a trial of the eLearning approach. This would allow:

  1. An investigation of the viability and feasibility of using eLearning as a learning approach for members of the agricultural community;
  2. An opportunity to determine whether it was possible to successfully translate an interactive, participatory, face-to-face workshop format into a distance format based on video-conferencing supported by other technologies; and
  3. An investigation of the use of different technologies to support and enrich the video-conferencing learning sessions.

This small scale exploratory study demonstrated that it is possible to deliver an eLearning programme which truly reflects the adult learning principles of participatory, interactive, small group learning based on goals and expectations that are both important to and set by the learners. It also demonstrated that eLearning based on video-conferencing supported by other technologies, can successfully deliver a learning programme that caters directly for farmer learning style preferences. The trial demonstrated that it is possible to successfully translate the hands-on content of face-to-face workshops into distance formats using such technologies as document cameras, video cameras and digital cameras. This project is ongoing.