Abstract:

Higher Education Institutions promote to provide effective learning experiences to address the needs of the digitally-oriented generation of learners. E- Learning has emerged as a solution to address these needs and has been adopted by various institutes. The teaching and learning environment is taking up a number of innovations and some of these involve the use of technology through e- learning. The introduction of e-learning initiatives is part of these innovations but its adoption, especially in the developing world faces challenges for it to be an effective innovation in teaching and learning. E-learning has quite a number of factors affecting for its effectiveness and huge number of challenges. There are lots of e-learning initiatives for different users. However, there is limited access for users such as farmers. It is a big challenge for introducing this technology for different kind of users such as farmers. Therefore, it is an important need for investigating about how farmers can successfully use the technology and ensuring their commitment given the individual learner characteristics and encounters with technology.

This paper investigates the relationship between effectiveness of e-learning environment for farmers using the factors such as user characteristics, design features and learner satisfaction. It is aimed at determining the significant predictors of e- learning effectiveness taking student (farmers) characteristics and design features as independent variables and learner satisfaction as dependent variables. A survey was administered to 250 farmer students to gather data on user characteristics, design features and learning outcomes. The study applied the online survey questionnaire for collecting data. Multiple regression has used for data analyzing. It has used multimedia introduction, interactive online tools and online learner support as e- learning design features. User attitudes and self-regulation are used as student characteristics. User satisfaction is used as an outcome. The results indicate that student characteristic such as attitude and design features such as multimedia introduction, interactive online tools and online learner support are significant predictors for farmers learning outcomes/satisfaction in e-learning.

Keywords:

e-learning effectiveness, Learner characteristics, Design features, Learner satisfaction.