Designing of computer based instructional resource material (CD-ROM) on mushroom cultivation-an emerging enterprise for women

Transfer of home-based technologies for entrepreneurial ventures through appropriate media is crucial for the economic upliftment of rural women. Past studies have revealed that electronic communication media have a significant impact on the ways in which people learn, teach, communicate and have an access to information. In the present era, the electronic course delivery techniques have much to offer in terms of efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer in both formal and non-formal situations. An effort was made through this study to design a compact Disc-Read only Memory (CD-ROM) on Mushroom cultivation.

Contents were developed in English language in modular format including all the aspects of mushroom cultivation i.e. importance of mushroom cultivation, varieties of mushrooms available, purchasing of spawns, cultivation pattern of different types of Mushrooms, Pest management, training facilities and economics of mushroom growing. Multi-media elements i.e. text, video, graphics & audio were developed according to the script. Screens on the contents were designed by using different softwares. The designed CD-ROM was evaluated by 25 experts on Four-point Rating-scale. The data were analyzed with the help of Mean scores. Mean score for the appropriateness of multimedia elements used for designing the CD-ROM was 3.91 whereas mean score for the overall appropriateness of the CD-ROM was 3.96. This indicates that the developed CD-ROM is very effective for transfer of Mushroom cultivation Technologies.