Perception of faculty towards online education in state agricultural universities

The covid-19 pandemic had forced the closure of educational institutions all over the world. To maintain academic activities, educational institutions had shifted to online learning platforms. Since, online education was new concept in India, especially in State Agricultural Universities (SAU’s). Therefore, present study was planned to access perception of faculty towards online education. Data were collected through questionnaire and Google form from 120 faculty members equally distributed in Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. The findings of the study revealed that faculty had medium level of perception towards online education. However, respondents also reported that in agricultural education system, many courses are practical in nature, therefore it is not possible to shift completely to online mode and faculty preferred a blended mode of education. Age and teaching experience of faculty was negatively and significantly related to perception towards online education. This suggests that as age of faculty members’ increases, their perception towards online education tends to decrease. The negative correlation might indicate that younger faculty members were more likely to embrace and actively participate in online teaching methodologies, while older faculty members might be more resistant or less inclined to adopt these methods.