Attitude of Agriculture Students Towards E-Learning: Factors, Perceived Prospects and Adoption
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/jes.2025.41.2.2Keywords:
E-learning, Learning behaviour, Digital education, Online learningAbstract
In the era of digital transformation, e-learning has become integral to higher education, yet its effective adoption among agricultural students remains underexplored. This study aims to assess the attitude of undergraduate students towards e-learning, identify the influencing socio-economic factors, and analyse the extent of adoption of e-learning platforms at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala Agricultural University. A total of 120 final-year B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture students were surveyed using a structured and pre-tested interview schedule. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlation and chi-square tests. Results revealed that 67.5 percent of students exhibit a medium level of attitude towards e-learning, while 15 percent had a high attitude. Significant positive correlations were observed between attitude and factors such as father’s education (r=0.861*), computer availability at home (r=893**), computer availability at college (r=0.962**), and internet use purpose (r=0.904**). In terms of adoption, higher proportions of students reported high relative advantage (26.67%) and compatibility (55.84%), while lower demonstrability (26.67%) and visibility 940%) indicated usability challenges. Gender differences were statistically insignificant (χ² = 0.708, p = 0.702; Cramér’s V = 0.077), though girls showed a slightly higher mean attitude (Cohen’s d = –0.4). the findings highlight that while students are technologically ready and moderately positive towards e-learning, challenges remain in enhancing use-friendliness, accessibility, and demonstrability. The study underscores future research related to the importance of strengthening institutional support and user-oriented design to foster inclusive and effective digital leaning in agricultural education.
Downloads
References
Adewole-Odeshi, E. (2014). Attitude of students towards e-learning in south-west Nigerian universities: An application of technology acceptance model. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal), 1035, 1–18.
Ahmadpour, A., Mirdamadi, S. M., & Soltani, S. (2016). Attitude towards on-the-job e-learning: The case of agricultural extension workers in Iran. Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology, 18(1), 27–38.
Basumatary, P. (2018). Attitude of senior secondary school students towards e-learning in Sikkim (Doctoral dissertation).
Cakır, R., & Solak, E. (2015). Attitude of Turkish EFL learners towards e-learning through TAM model. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 176, 596–601. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.515
Chang, J. H., Chiu, P. S., & Lai, C. F. (2023). Implementation and evaluation of cloud-based e-learning in agricultural course. Interactive Learning Environments, 31(2), 908–923. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2020.1815217
Dhamija, N. (2014). Attitude of undergraduate students towards the use of e-learning. MIER Journal of Educational Studies, Trends and Practices, 4(1), 123–135. DOI: https://doi.org/10.52634/mier/2014/v4/i1/1493
Dhas, L. J. S. (2017). Attitude of college students towards e-learning. International Journal for Research in Emerging Science and Technology, 4(9), 13–23.
Eze, S. C., Chinedu-Eze, V. C., Okike, C. K., & Bello, A. O. (2020). Factors influencing the use of e-learning facilities by students in a private higher education institution in a developing economy. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 7(1), 1–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00624-6
Gupta, M., & Sharma, M. (2018). A study on attitude of senior secondary school students towards e-learning in relation to their gender, residential background, and nature of school. International Journal of Engineering Science and Mathematics, 7(1), 418–432.
Hanif, A., Jamal, F. Q., & Imran, M. (2018). Extending the technology acceptance model for use of e-learning systems by digital learners. IEEE Access, 6, 73395–73404. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2881384
Jyothi, V., & Vijayabhinandana, B. (2021). A scale to measure the attitude of students towards online learning. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 21(2&3), 37–42.
Kamarulzaman, Y., Madun, A., & Ghani, F. A. (2011). Attitude towards e-learning among students: Evidence from a Malaysian public university. British Journal of Arts and Social Sciences, 3(2), 132–142.
Kar, D., Saha, B., & Mondal, B. C. (2014). Attitude of university students towards e-learning in West Bengal. American Journal of Educational Research, 2(8), 669–673. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12691/education-2-8-16
Khan, N. (2017). An analysis of the attitude of engineering students towards e-learning in Bijnor. International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, 5(2), 1039–1046.
Matla, D., Jena, A., & Thomas, A. (2025). Investigating the attitude of agriculture students towards e-learning. Indian Research Journal of Extension Education, 25(2&3), 156–167.
Mohammed, L. A., Aljaberi, M. A., Amidi, A., Abdulsalam, R., Lin, C. Y., Hamat, R. A., & Abdallah, A. M. (2022). Exploring factors affecting graduate students’ satisfaction toward e-learning in the era of the COVID-19 crisis. European Journal of Investigation in Health, Psychology and Education, 12(8), 1121–1142. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/ejihpe12080079
Moubayed, A., Injadat, M., Shami, A., & Lutfiyya, H. (2020). Student engagement level in an e-learning environment: Clustering using k-means. American Journal of Distance Education, 34(2), 137–156. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/08923647.2020.1696140
Mutisya, D. N., & Makokha, G. L. (2016). Challenges affecting adoption of e-learning in public universities in Kenya. E-Learning and Digital Media, 13(3–4), 140–157. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/2042753016672902
Ogunnowo, O. O. (2016). Analysis of student attitudes towards e-learning: Case of computer science students in Nigeria (Master’s thesis, Eastern Mediterranean University).
Pathak, A., Makwana, K., & Sharma, P. (2019). A study on students’ perception and attitude towards e-learning. Journal of Gujarat Research Society, 21(16), 274–282.
Peyman, N., & Dehghani, M. (2014). On the investigation of efficacy of e-learning on higher education academic achievement. Basic Research Journal of Education Research and Review, 3(4), 29–34.
Rajabalee, Y. B., & Santally, M. I. (2021). Learner satisfaction, engagement and performance in an online module: Implications for institutional e-learning policy. Education and Information Technologies, 26(3), 2623–2656. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-020-10375-1
Ramírez-Correa, P. E., Arenas-Gaitán, J., & Rondán-Cataluña, F. J. (2015). Gender and acceptance of e-learning: A multi-group analysis based on a structural equation model among college students in Chile and Spain. PLOS ONE, 10(10), e0138227. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0140460
Saba, T. (2012). Implications of e-learning systems and self-efficiency on students’ outcomes: A model approach. Human-Centric Computing and Information Sciences, 2(1), 1–11. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/2192-1962-2-6
Sabah, N. M. (2013, September). Students’ attitude and motivation towards e-learning. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Applied Sciences (pp. 24–26). Gaza, Palestine.
Saroha, R. (2013). Attitude towards e-learning: A comparison of age groups. International Journal of Information and Computation Technology, 3(7), 677–682.
Sewandono, R. E., Thoyib, A., Hadiwidjojo, D., & Rofiq, A. (2023). Performance expectancy of e-learning on higher institutions of education under uncertain conditions: Indonesia context. Education and Information Technologies, 28(4), 4041–4068. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-022-11074-9
Shatnawi, S., Gaber, M. M., & Cocea, M. (2014). Automatic content-related feedback for MOOCs based on course domain ontology. In Intelligent Data Engineering and Automated Learning – IDEAL 2014 (pp. 27–35). Springer International Publishing. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10840-7_4
Subedi, S., Nayaju, S., Subedi, S., & Shah, S. K. (2020). Impact of e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic among nursing students and teachers of Nepal. International Journal of Health Sciences Research, 5(3), 68–76.
Suri, G., & Sharma, S. (2013). Impact of age on students’ attitude towards e-learning. Gian Jyoti e-Journal, 3(2), 73–80.
Torun, E. D. (2020). Online distance learning in higher education: E-learning readiness as a predictor of academic achievement. Open Praxis, 12(2), 191–208. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.12.2.1092
Unger, S., & Meiran, R. (2020). Students’ attitudes towards online education during the COVID-19 viral outbreak of 2020: Distance learning in a time of social distance. International Journal of Technology in Education and Science, 4(4), 256–266. DOI: https://doi.org/10.46328/ijtes.v4i4.107
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Journal of Extension Systems

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

