Learners' Attitude towards Distance Education Programme: Case of Bachelor Program in Agriculture of Bangladesh Open University

Abstract

The study aimed to explore learners' attitudes toward 'the Bachelor of Agriculture Education (BAgEd) distance education program' and to show its relationship with the selected socio-economic characteristics of the learners. The target population for this study were learners at different BAgEd Study Centers of Bangladesh Open University BOU). Data collection was conducted from June 15, 2020, to April 30, 2022, by the survey through Google form in the web link. Random sampling was used from 438 learners who participated in the study out of 1750 learners. The findings show that around  57.3% of participants stayed in earlier stages in the innovation-decision process related to learners' attitude toward BAgEd distance education (no knowledge, knowledge, persuasion stages). About 42.7% were in later stages (decision, implementation and confirmation). A large portion (22.2%) of the learners think that after acquiring BAgEd degree, one may apply earned knowledge in own service field. On the other hand, only eleven participants think combining web-based and traditional methods in distance education can help learners access higher education. Out of ten selected characteristics of the learners, only one characteristic, family member, showed a no relationship with their attitude towards the BAgEd distance education program. Six of the significant characteristics, such as earning members, training, organizational participation, cosmopoliteness, uses of e-resources and creativity with correlation at 0.01. On the other hand, three independent variables, such as an academic semester, age and educational qualification, are significant at 0.05.