Abstract:
The Internet has become a household accessory to nearly 35 percent of America's homes. In addition, a large majority of public schools, libraries, community service offices, and collegiate faculty have immediate access to the Internet and to associated technology-facilitated educational resources. Until recently, the primary use of the Internet has been as a source of information. However, this picture is changing. Public primary and secondary school teachers have been quick to take advantage of the technology-facilitated resources available to enhance classroom instruction and student participation in self-directed learning. College and university administrators are increasingly looking to faculty to utilize the Internet to reach new and more audiences - particularly the non-traditional, place or profession hound, adult learner seeking professional advancement through academic achievement. However, academia understanding of adult learner preferences and aptitudes for Internet-facilitated instruction is limited. To better understand the needs of potential audiences of on-line collegiate instruction and to deternline the applications of distantly delivered curriculum and technology-enhanced instruction in the agricultural education arena, a series of extensive Anceds assessments@ of traditional and non-traditional Extension clientele groups was conducted, with the primary emphasis on the use and appropriateness of the Internet as a medium for providing educational opportunities to audiences other than traditional residence, on-campus students. Five potential agriculturally based audiences, totaling 667 candidates of Internet-facilitated non-traditional collegiate instruction, were surveyed: undergraduate agricultural college students, vocational agriculture teachers, Extension Service field ofifice faculty, and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and USDA Bureau of Land Management subject matter specialists. In addition, tratlitional, resident college of agriculture instructors and campus-based Extension faculty specialists were surveyed. Nearly 90% of all individuals assessed had immediate access to the Internet on a regular basis. Seventy-two percent of all respondents expressed interest in exploring opportunities for technology-facilitated instruction; the lowest percentage (53%) was with traditional, campus resident undergraduate students of agriculture while the greatest percentage of interest (89-92%) came from Extension field faculty and vocational agriculture instructors. Not surprisingly, online, interactive synchronous and/or asynchronous instruction with text-based support was rated as being more preferable to other formats of self-directed, technology-facilitated instruction by nearly a 2 to 1 margin. Similarly, e-mail format, electronic conferencing, and use of list servers was unanimously identified as the most "comfortable", most preferred, and least intrusive technology-facilitated format for instruction, compared to use of videotape with correspondence, multimedia instruction, or interactive video at centralized locations. These needs assessments demonstrate (that an emerging component of agricultural education programming should consist of technology-assisted instruction, including distantly delivered courses and educational offerings of content, level, and requirement directed to specific target audiences with the prirnary purposes of providing off-campus formalized instruction opportunities and curriculum to degree and non-degree students, providing formalized professional improvement and inservice training and certification opportunities to off campus, non-traditional, non-degree participants, and providing personal enrichment and empowerment learning experiences. Our assessments revealed that potential student audiences, whether the traditional classroom undergraduate, the place-bound professional or educator seeking inservice instructional updating or college curriculum, or the practioner in need of educational opportunities to keep abreast of rapidly changing technology associated with his or her profession, is both receptive to and capable of capitalizing on technology-facilitated, distantly delivered educational opportunities. Faculty members who are currently comfortable with distant delivery instruction and remoteness from the university campus are receptive, comfortable with the technology, and eager to engage in this new paradigm, either as instructors or students. In order for that to happen, instructors of agricultural technologies need to come on-line to the use of technology-faciliated instruction.
Keywords:
online instruction
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