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ThesisItem Open Access Students’ perception of online education in an agricultural university during covid-19 pandemic(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2022-04) Beri, Gaurav; Sharma, GyanendraCovid-19 pandemic has adversely affected the educational institutions across the world resulting in the closure of these institutions. There were irregular academic sessions affecting the completion of the students’ degree programmes and also their career prospects. Enforced isolation and consequent lockdowns tremendously affected personal interaction of teachers and students, and all other educational activities. In the absence of traditional classroom education and one-to-one interaction, online education has emerged as an alternative for off-line education. Educational institutions worldwide shifted to online education to overcome anticipated academic loss. Online education became the main method of instruction during the pandemic. The common online platforms used were Zoom, Google Classroom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams which offered online interactive classes; and WhatsApp to communicate with students outside the class. The purpose of this study was to find socio-personal, psychological and communication characteristics, to assess the students’ perception of online education and constraints faced by them during the sudden transition from traditional face-to-face education to an online education due to the pandemic. The crisis-response of university students, challenges and suggestions has also been discussed in this study. The study was undertaken in the Uttarakhand state. G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Udham Singh Nagar was selected purposively as locale of the study since it had the maximum number of undergraduate students and also due to the lockdown situation. A total sample of 150 respondents was selected through PPS method. Descriptive research design was used for this study. The data collection was done using a self developed, pre-tested online survey through Google Form. The data were classified, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted using appropriate analytical and descriptive statistical techniques like frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, correlation and t-test. The findings revealed that 54.00 per cent of the students were pursuing BTech and 24.67 per cent BSc Agriculture, 10.00 per cent BVSc, 8.67 per cent BHSc and only 2.67 per cent were of BSc Fisheries. There were 55.33 per cent male, majority (61.33 per cent) of them belonged to urban areas and mostly (92.67 per cent) had English medium of basic education. Majority (64.67 per cent) of them had mediocre academic performance, majority (62.00 per cent) had medium level of mass media exposure and most (99.33 per cent) of them owned internet. Majority (83.00 per cent) of the students had not attended any online course prior to the conduct of online education during this pandemic and 97.00 per cent of them agreed that university had begun online classes in the wake of COVID-19. Most (89.33 per cent) of the students suggested traditional classes could be managed with online classes and majority (86.00 per cent) of the students had medium level of basic information regarding online education. Majority (54.67 per cent) of the students felt less confident. Mostly (94.67 per cent) they got updates and activities through WhatsApp, preferred device for 50.00 per cent of the students was smartphone and most (96.00 per cent) of them had mobile data pack as the source of internet for attending online classes. Most (95.33 per cent) of the students preferred nature of course material in the form of video content supplemented with reading material, majority (66.00 per cent) of them preferred nature of video content as per the convenience and requirement of the course under study by the instructor and most (92.67 per cent) of them preferred live online classes as suitable format for classes. Most (93.33 per cent) of the students preferred the course instructor to conduct online classes as per the schedule, for majority (71.33 per cent) 45 minutes was the suitable duration of online classes, majority (76.67 per cent) of them liked to spend 2-4 hours for online classes and most (90.67 per cent) of them preferred 15 minutes of break in between two consecutive classes. Students (58.67 per cent) preferred both WhatsApp and other platform for posting queries as a way for clarifying queries with an expected time for clarifying within next class for majority (72.00 per cent) of students. Most (96.00 per cent) of the students felt 5-10 minutes of quiz during each class is necessary to achieve better. Majority (88.00 per cent) of the students did not feel assignments at end of every class to be necessary to achieve effective learning and most (93.00 per cent) of them wanted one week as the deadline for submitting assignments. Majority (71.00 per cent) of the students liked to attend online examination and most (89.33 per cent) of them preferred both objective and subjective nature of online examination. Majority (84.67 per cent) of the students had ‘Neutral’ perception towards online education. Majority (71.00 per cent) of the students had medium level of benefit and most (96.00 per cent) of them felt ease and quick share of educational material, and ability to record a meeting or lecture to be most beneficial. The findings regarding relationship between selected socio-personal, psychological and communication characteristics with students’ perception of online education revealed that academic performance and self confidence has a non significant negative and mass media exposure has a significant negative relationship with students’ perception of online education. There was a non significant positive relationship between basic information regarding online education and students’ perception of online education. A non significant negative relationship of mass media exposure and a significant positive relationship of self confidence were found with students’ preferences for online education. There was a non significant positive relationship of academic performance and basic information regarding online education with students’ preferences for online education. The findings regarding some constraints, attributes, their expectations and suggestion from the students point of view were, most (98.67 per cent) of students felt data limit, data speed (98.00 per cent) and lack of connectivity (97.33 per cent) as the major constraints during online education. For most (96.67 per cent) of the students, attributes that affected their learning effectiveness was lack of interaction between students-teachers and student-student and most (99.33 per cent) of them expected theory classes from instructors during online education. To improve online education experience, most (76.00 per cent) students’ suggested availability of notes, ppts, pdfs, handouts etc. Majority (68.00 per cent) of students thought that online education experience should continue even if the regular offline classes begin.ThesisItem Open Access Listeners’ perception of content of Pantnagar Janvani community radio broadcast(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2022-02) Umriyal, Himanshu; Kashyap, S.K.Communication is one of the important tools that help us to connect with people. It is the process by which a message or information is exchanged between sender and receiver. We are living in a world which is totally networked with communication. Effective communication is not only about conveying your messages to other people clearly and unambiguously, but also about receiving the information that others send to you, with as little distortion as possible. People want adequate and authentic information as early as possible. There are varieties of mass media like television, mobile phones, telephones, radio, etc which are catering to this important need of the people. Radio plays a pivotal role and function as an effective medium among them. It not only informs and educate people but also provide them with healthy entertainment. Radio also broadcast agricultural programs, to disseminate information on current trends in agricultural technology, use of improved seeds, pesticides, fertilizers, implements, information about crop pests and diseases, weather report, crop cultivation practices, etc. for the benefit of farmers. Consequently, a research study was undertaken with the objectives: to study the socio-economic, communication, and psychological characteristics of listeners’ of Pantnagar Janvani, to find out the listeners’ perception of content of Pantnagar Janvani, to elicit suggestions of listeners’ of Pantnagar Janvani for improving the content of the radio broadcast. The descriptive research design was used to meet the objectives of the study. The study was purposively carried out in Pantnagar Janvani Community Radio station, Udham Singh Nagar District of Uttarakhand. The selection of respondents was based on their active participation and active listening behaviour through simple randomsampling. Eight programmes were selected purposively on which listeners bring out their suggestions for improving the content of the radio programmes. The data was classified, tabulated, analysed and interpreted with the help of appropriate statistical procedure and techniques like arithmetic mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed that majority (53.34%) of the listeners were in the age group of 28-53 years with higher proportion of male listeners (73.33%). Majority of the respondents were married (80.00%) and had education up to intermediate level (38.89%), knew Hindi and Kumauni dialect (57.78%), had medium size of the family (82.22%) and their family income (80.00%) belong to medium category. Majority of the respondents had medium mass media exposure (68.89%), had medium scientific orientation (75.56%) and had medium information seeking behaviour (74.44%). Majority of respondents found listeners’ perception of content of Pantnagar Janvani community radio programmes i.e., time and duration, title, characteristics of speakers, language of broadcast, relevance of broadcast, structure of programme, type of information broadcast in programme as appropriate.ThesisItem Open Access Empowerment of women gram pradhan through panchayati raj institutions: a study in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-11) Sawan, Vishaka; Rana, KiranWomen constitute half part of the society, with equal rights, women in India are victims of a multiple of socio-economic, political, and cultural factors. Women with disabilities have been largely neglected. Also due to many societal rules and regulations, they never are a part of the decision-making process. When we talk about the status of women in the Indian society, the most important aspect that comes to mind is patriarchy. Though at present women enjoy equal status with men as per the constitution and legal provisions but still, they have a long way to go. It is correct that “a country flourish if its women flourish”. So, women’s empowerment is vital towards the development of the society. ‘Empowerment’ means ‘to authorize’. In the context of the people, they have to be authorized to have control over their own lives. Women empowerment means to give women the opportunity to fulfil their creative capabilities and desires and take decisions independently. It has social, political, economic, cultural dimensions. Though many laws have been enacted not only at the national level but also at the international level, women could not occupy an equal role in the decision-making processes across the world. Even in the post 73rd Amendment of the Constitution of India, the role of women in its democratic decision-making is not satisfactory. On March 12th, 2008, the Uttarakhand Panchayat Law (Amendment) Bill was passed, establishing a 50% reservation for women in Panchayati raj institutions. For two consecutive administrations, the Act called for a 50 percent quota for women in the Panchayat Raj System. In Uttarakhand, the provisions of the Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj Amendment Act 2008 have been in effect for more than ten years. However, their administrative role is minimal; they work according to their husbands and in-laws and do not make decisions on their own; they are not so aware of their powers and responsibilities; and they have a low political status. It is necessary to comprehend the constraints that women experience under the PRI in the state of Uttarakhand, specifically in the Dehradun District. The present study entitled “Empowerment of Women Gram Pradhan through Panchayati Raj Institutions: A Study in Garhwal Region of Uttarakhand” Four blocks were chosen randomly from the Dehradun district. A total of 170 Gram Panchayats are present in these four blocks, and from these Gram Panchayats, 80 women Gram Pradhans were selected for the study. A semi structured interview schedule was used to collect the data from the respondents. In the present study Interview schedule, Knowledge test by Dak (2008), Empowerment scale by Tyade (2006) was used. The statistical techniques such as percentage, mean, frequency and standard deviation were used to analyse the data for meaningful interpretation. The findings of the study reported that the majority of the respondents were middle aged, there was not a single respondent who was illiterate. All the respondents were married, belonged to the nuclear family type and had a medium family size. Maximum respondents belonged to the general caste, had agricultural background and possessed land of less than one hectare. Majority of them had a political contact with the block pramukh, had a medium level of annual family income, extension agency contact, mass media exposure, cosmopoliteness and decision-making ability. The findings reflect that majority of the respondents possessed medium level of knowledge about Panchayati raj institutions and had a medium level of empowerment (social, economic and political). The results of the study showed that women Gram Pradhans viewed the lack of funds from the government for development work as the major constraint. The findings of the study will help the government and NGOs designing strategies to enhance the knowledge level and empowerment level of the respondents and will also assist them in reducing the constraints face by women gram Pradhans in PRIs.ThesisItem Open Access Effectiveness of e-booklet for apple growers: A study in Garhwal region of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-11) Negi, Rahul; Sharma, ArpitaHorticulture sector is a major segment under the fastest growing agriculture sector. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the World. India ranks eleventh in the World with production of about 2,326 thousand metric tonnes per annum. Uttarakhand produces 57,753.49 metric tonnes of apples per year from both the regions of the State. Majority of apple growers are categorized under medium to low socioeconomic status because of the constraints faced by them. The extension worker and farmers ratio are quite less and shows a huge information gap. As a result, there is a need for alternatives that can bridge the information gap. Today, it is ICT era there are various media available such as print and electronic which can be utilized to bridge the information gap. Out of all these media, electronic media (e-booklet) was used for this study. An ebooklet is an electronic form of a small size book, which has a paper cover and gives us information about a certain subject. It can be delivered instantly. It can be downloaded and saved on the smart phone for future reference. Hence, there is need to evaluate the effectiveness of e-booklet for apple growers was tested. The present study was conducted in the Uttarkashi district of Uttarakhand. Four villages namely Harsil, Jhala, Sukhi and Dharali were selected randomly from the Bhatwari block as it had a maximum number of apple growers. A total sample of 120 respondents was selected by PPS sampling method. Pre and post experimental research design was used for the present study. The data collection was done by using a pre-tested structured interview schedule and knowledge test were used for data collection. Statistical techniques such as percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, percentage and paired t-test were used to determine the data for meaningful interpretation. The finding of the present study indicated that majority of the respondents (72.5%) belonged to middle age group, had education upto intermediate level (32.5%), had medium family size (92.5%), were in medium annual income (67%), had medium size of apple orchard (65%), had ten to thirteen year of experience in apple farming (44.16%), had medium information seeking behaviour (59.16%), had medium risk orientation (69.17%), owned mobile with internet (100%), have medium mass media exposure (65.84%). The information needs of respondents founded that all respondents (100%) needed information regarding plant protection measures. Based on information needs an e-booklet was designed. Regarding the design, name, content, utility, accuracy, clarity, readability, need-based information and overall look found most satisfactory by most respondents. At 0.01 per cent of level of significance, the mean gain in knowledge score of respondents was significantly higher in post-test than in the pre-test. It was found that the participation of apple growers was significantly effective in terms of gain in knowledge. The finding of the study will be useful to extension workers, research workers and the administrators as it provides them the sufficient knowledge about the problems of apple growers and use of mass media by apple growers and will enable them to improve their approach of working with the farmers.ThesisItem Open Access Role of self help groups in empowerment of rural women: a study in Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-12) Rachit Raj; Kameswari, V.L.V.Women comprise 33 % of agriculture labour force and 48% of the self-employed farmers. In India, 85% of rural women were engaged in agriculture, yet only about 13% own land. For the last three decades, many policymaking institutions are influenced by the idea of feminization of poverty. It has become very important to focus on women for gender-sensitive poverty alleviation. Looking at the poverty alleviation programmes over the years, a clear shift is visible in the thinking of the development planners and policy makers in the nature of employment to be generated. Women empowerment refers to increasing the economic, political, socialand legal strength of individuals and communities of women so that they become capable of exercising their choices. SHGs and micro enterprises play a significant role in changing the socio-economiccondition of women and their empowerment. This study attempted to find socio-economic, psychological and communication characteristics, extent of empowerment of SHG members, the relationship between characteristics of SHG members and their empowerment and the constraints faced by SHG members. A descriptive research design was used to meet the objectives of the study. The study was conducted in Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand. Khatima block was selected purposively. Out of 986 SHGs in Khatima block, Ten SHGs were selected randomly. Fifty per cent of SHG members were selected as respondents for the purpose of the study through random sampling. Pre tested interview schedule was used for data collection. The findings of the study revealed that most of the respondents were in middle age group(52%), belonged to Schedule Castes (34.50%) and had intermediate level of education (25.55%). Majority of respondents were part of medium size joint family (67.77) and owned less than 1.5 acres of land (56%). Maximum numbers of head of the households were engaged in farming (47.77%) and majority of the respondents were housewives (82.22%). Majority of the respondents had medium level of economic motivation(90%), assertiveness (50%), leadership ability(96%), and low level of information seeking behavior (63.33%), social participation (100%), Majority of respondents had access to mobile phones (97.77%), TV (90%) and radio (58.88%). It was found that majority of respondents had high level of social and economic empowerment (91.12% and 60%, respectively), medium level of psychological and political empowerment (80% and 51.11%, respectively) and low level of legal empowerment (76.66%). All respondents had high level of cultural empowerment and majority of respondents had medium level of overall empowerment (54.44%). The findings regarding relationship between selected characteristics of SHG members and extent empowerment revealed that age and education had significant relationship with their empowerment. Age had negative association and education had positive association with empowerment. It was found that family size, size of land holding, occupation, monthly family income, economic motivation, leadership ability, social participation, mass media ownership and use and information seeking behaviour were positively related to the extent of empowerment but the association was not significant. All members reported lack of training, absence of market for sale of their products and very little income as constraints. Majority of respondents reported very small loan amount, lack of support from financial institutions and lack of social mobility as the other constraints.ThesisItem Open Access Development of multimedia WhatsApp module for dairy farmers: A study in Garhwal division of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-10) Bhatt, Sakshi; Sharma, ArpitaIndia’s transformation in the field of dairy, from acute shortage to the world’s leading milk-producing Nation has been highly commendable. Over 70 percent of the milk produced in India is by small and marginal farmers whose landholdings are small with few heads of cattle or buffaloes. Hence it is powerful instrument to bring about social and economic transformation which can improve their livelihoods and development pattern that will leads to the economic growth of the country. In the era, where information is considered as a valuable resource yet dearth of information has been a critical concern for farmers of India that leaves them with a wide knowledge gap. The main reason for this gap is the lack of access to information due to scarcity of extension personnel and technical human resource. The farmers’ ignorance towards recent advances like social media and ICTs is another probable reason which keeps the knowledge gap as it is. This is where WhatsApp appears, it makes knowledge dissemination easy, vibrant and effective. It can also be considered as a good extension tool that emerged out of the digitization and communication revolution that strengthen the extension setup. The present study was conducted in the Haridwar district of the Garhwal division of Uttarakhand. One village from each of the two blocks was selected using chit method of simple random sampling. A total of sixty respondents, thirty from each village were procured with the help of Pradhan and Additional Director (Dairy) through purposive sampling. In the present study Interview schedule and knowledge test were the tool used for data collection. The statistical techniques such as percentage, mean, frequency, weighted mean score, standard deviation, t-paired test were used to analyze the data for meaningful interpretation. The finding of the study reported that majority (63.33%) of the respondents were middle aged. None of the farmers were illiterate and 31.66 per cent of farmers were educated up to intermediate level. It was found that 76.6 per cent of the farmers had medium family size i.e. 4 to 9 members, and 58.33 per cent were engaged in dairying with agriculture. About 43.33 per cent of the dairy farmers had small landholdings of 1 to 2 hectare and 58.33 per cent had medium level of dairy experience of 7 to 18 years. It was also found that three fourth of the dairy farmers had medium (3 to 6) herd size and 70 percent of the respondents had medium milk production because of which 80 per cent of the respondents had medium level of dairy income. It was observed that 66.66 per cent of respondents were having medium level of extension contact. All of the respondents had television, Smart phone and Internet subscription and 86.66 per cent of the respondents were having medium mass media exposure. It was also revealed that majority (63.33 per cent) of the respondents were having medium level of information seeking behavior. The information needs of the respondents were assessed on the basis of Weighted Mean Score for every sub-area. The prioritized sub areas on basis of high WMS were selected for the development of Multimedia WhatsApp module with the participation of the respondents. Later, it was observed that at level of significance post- test score of the respondents was higher than pre-test score. It reveals that multimedia WhatsApp module is significantly effective in term of gain in knowledge. The study signifies the role of Multimedia WhatsApp module for the improvement of dairy extension services and in bringing favaourable changes in the knowledge level of the dairy farmers.ThesisItem Open Access Training needs of fish growers of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-10) Pathak, Sonal; AmardeepIn India fisheries is recognized as one of the important economic activity and a flourishing sector with varied potential and resources. With, the increasing pressure of supplying cheap fish protein to meet the growing demand of increasing populations the need for aquaculture emerged. The other major challenge is limited scope for expanding area under crop cultivation. Thus, aquaculture and the realization of its contribution to employment generation, foreign exchange earnings, food production and improvement of rural economy have convinced many Asian nations to include aquaculture development in their national economic development plans. India is the second largest country in aquaculture production. Fisheries sector has shown growth from 4.9 per cent in 2012-13 to 11.9 per cent in 2017-18(FAO 2020). The sector accounts for 5.23 per cent share of agricultural GDP. The fisheries resource of Uttarakhand comprises of fast flowing rivers, high and low altitude natural lakes, manmade reservoirs, ponds etc. Besides the availability of various resources peoples are not that much aware of various scientific practices and fisheries resources are underutilized. The state still depends for supply of fishes from other states. Trained fish growers can bring miracle in state fish production. The first step of training cycle is identification of training need. It plays a very important role in determining success of training. This study attempts to study the training needs of fish growers in fisheries related areas, socio-economic, communication and psychological characteristics of growers, relationship was determined between profile characteristics & training needs and constraints faced by fish growers. The analytical research design was used to meet the objectives of the study. The study has been carried out in purposively selected Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttarakhand as it has highest production among thirteen district of Uttarakhand. Selection of particular block(s) village(s) couldn’t yield a reasonable sample size. So, in order to form reasonable sample, list of fish growers was obtained from District Fish Inspector and 120 fish growers were selected through simple random sampling irrespective of block or village using random number table. The respondents belonged to Khatima, Rudrapur, Sitarganj, Kashipur and Bajpur blocks. Interview schedule was modified accordingly based on pilot study. Interview schedule was used for data collection. Photographs were also taken. The data collected was coded, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted with help of appropriate procedures and statistical techniques like mean, weighted mean, frequency, standard deviation, percentages, correlation and t-test. The findings of the study revealed that majority of respondents belonged to middle age (33-53), had qualification up to higher secondary level and belonged to general category. Majority of respondents had small (1-2 hac) land holdings, medium level of annual family income, medium (0.46-1.88) size of pond area, level of social participation, Utilization of information sources, market availability, fish farming experience( 2-6 yrs), medium level of scientific orientation and economic motivation. Majority of respondents had no training exposure and about 20.83 percent respondents were doing fisheries as primary occupation, other took it as secondary occupation. Regarding training needs of fish growers in related areas, maximum need in fisheries was found to be in Common fish diseases, their diagnosis & control measures (2.70) followed by Site selection, construction & maintenance of ponds (2.54), Composite fish farming (2.46), Use of medicine and antibiotics (2.43), Soil and water quality management (2.38), Control of external parasite (2.36), Methods of fish preservation (2.31), Prophylactic treatment of fish diseases (2.30), Methods of harvesting (2.15), Net making and their care & preservation (2.15), Loan facility (2.11) ,Lime and manure application (2.09), Processed fish marketing (2.06), Formation of balanced fish feed & importance of vitamins and minerals (2.05), Aquatic weed and weed fish control(1.98), Feeding devices(1.91), Integrated fish farming (1.90), Maintenance of brooders during harvesting (1.85), Leasing system (1.83), Stocking density and quality fish seed (1.70), Knowledge of supplementary feeding (1.66), Operation of craft and gear (1.61), Formation of cooperatives (1.62), Feed ingredients(1.50), Proper time of feed application (1.36), Air breathing fish culture (1.3), Ideal size of harvesting (1.29) and Live feed culture (.81) . Age was negatively and non-significantly correlated with training need of fish farmers, scientific orientation and fish farming experience were negatively and significantly correlated with training need. While, Education, pond area, size of land holding, annual family income, utilization of information sources and economic motivation were significantly and positively correlated with training needs. While, social participation was positively and non-significantly correlated with training needs in fisheries related areas. The major constraint faced by fish growers was diseases of fish & lack of government subsidies followed by non-availability of quality fish seed, Lack of marketing facility, Lack of natural feed in pond, high labour cost, Lack of extension services, Theft and pilferages, draining of pond water, distance from house, high cost of fish feed and flooding.ThesisItem Open Access Training needs assessment of rural women of migrant households: a study in Kumaon division of Uttarakhand(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-10) Pandey, Kanika; Kameswari, V.L.V.According to the report of Rural Development and Migration Commission 2018, more than 66 percent of Uttarakhand population lives in rural areas. Majority of the rural population in the hills either survive on subsistence agriculture or migrate for better livelihood opportunities. The state has witnessed significant changes in its demographic structure with slow decadal growth of population in the hilly regions during the period 2001-2011. In conformity with earlier studies on migration, report on outmigration from hill region of Uttarakhand (Mamgain and Reddy 2015), most of the migrants are men and youth. About 86 percent of migrants are men and 51.4 percent of them are in the age group of 30-49 years and another 35.5 percent in the age group of 15-29 years. The excessive rate of male out migration has changed the overall demography and socio-cultural system of Uttarakhand leading to a number of changes in the lives of rural women. Rural women faces greater vulnerability and various problems due to male out-migration and limited livelihood opportunities. Their ability and capacity to cope with the uncertainties and vulnerabilities in the hill region is determined by the knowledge and skill they have. This study attempted to find socioeconomic, communication and psychological characteristics, change in the role of rural women after male out migration, training needs assessment of rural women, designing a training module and to find the relationship between selected profile characteristics of rural women and training needs. The descriptive research design was used to meet the objectives of the study. The study was purposively carried out in Almora district of Uttarakhand. One block, Dwarahat was selected randomly. Villages viz. Talli Mirai and Kaphara were selected randomly and rural women in age group of 18-55 were selected purposely through census method. Pre-tested interview schedule was used for data collection. The data was classified, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted with the help of appropriate statistical procedures and techniques like frequency, percentage, Z-test, correlation and t-test. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the rural women were in the age group of 31-42 years, mostly married, majority of respondents belonged to General category, had middle level educational qualifications, had a medium-sized nuclear family, had small size of the land holding, involved in farming activities and had low monthly income. Most of the respondents had medium level of innovativeness and extension agency contact. Almost, all the respondents owned television and mobile phone. Only a quarter of the respondents had attended a training program in the last three years. Majority of them have medium level of innovativeness, change proneness, economic motivation and risk preference. It was found that out of the 18 roles that were identified, there had been a significant change in eight roles. These were household chores, care for elderly, care of livestock, fetching firewood, attending social events, voting for local bodies, participation in development activities at local level and value addition/post harvest activities. Regarding training needs of rural women, out of the six areas that were identified it was found that high training need was expressed in the area of mushroom cultivation, followed by disease and pest control of field crops and vaccination and disease management of cattle. A training module was prepared for organization of training program on mushroom cultivation. The findings regarding relationship between selected personal, socioeconomic, communication and psychological characteristics of rural women and their training needs revealed that age has significant negative relationship with training needs of rural women. Education, size of the land holding, monthly income, mass media ownership, mass media access, cosmopoliteness, innovativeness, change proneness and economic motivation have significant positive relationship with needs of rural women training needs. There is no significant relationship between family size, risk preference and training..ThesisItem Open Access A study on awareness and use of social media by university teachers(G.B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar - 263145 (Uttarakhand), 2021-08) Azizi, Hazrat Shah; Ansari, M.A.Social media have comprehensively changed the way we communicate, interact and share our feelings, exchange information and express our opinions. Increasing technology integration in education sector has driven the interest of researchers as well as educationists in exploring the potential of social media in teaching and learning process. There is no denying the fact that if used skillfully, social media can contribute immensely in the process of teaching-learning thereby enhancing the learning outcomes. However, to realize this, our teachers should acquire the requisite knowledge and skills related to creating content and then incorporating it the process of teaching learning. Thus, this study entitled “A Study on Awareness and Use of Social Media by University Teachers” was undertaken with the objectives to study: i) the profile characteristics of university teachers, ii) the awareness and use of social media by university teachers, iii) to determine the extent of use of social media by university teachers, iv) to determine the attitude of university teachers towards social media, v) to determine the relationship between selected profile characteristics and extent of use of social media by university teachers, vi) to determine the barriers affecting the use of social media by university teachers. The study was carried out in one purposively selected college (College of Agriculture) of GBPUAT, Pantnagar; and using census method of sampling; all the faculty members of the selected college were included in study sample. Mailed questionnaire was used for data collection. Appropriate statistical tools were used to analyse the data The study findings revealed that all the faculty members were aware of social media and many of them were using social media for connecting with students and colleagues, sharing course materials, accessing online digital resources for academic purposes. The extent of social media use by the teachers was ‘medium’. Most of them displayed positive attitude towards social media use in education and had positive orientation towards ICTs. Further, the relationship between selected profile characteristics of teachers (age, educational qualification, annual income, work experience, ICT orientation, &attitude) and extent of social media use for educational purpose was found to be significant. Barriers to social media use faced by the teachers were slow speed of internet, connectivity problem and lack of adequate competency.
