CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction

Nowadays appropriate training and education are important. Many organizations have adopted e-learning as a solution for their corporate training. The Ministry of Agriculture also have considered the necessity of e-learning in agricultural extension for training extension agents throughout the country. As a result, understanding factors influencing development of e-learning in agricultural extension centers is crucial for creating the new opportunities for extension agent to obtain and update their needed information. The advancement of computing and communication technologies have promoted the learning style from conventional learning to electronic-learning (e-learning) [1].

E-learning, can be defined as an educational system in which knowledge is found in a physical distance between the teacher and the interested parties and lead the individuals to the concept to be autonomous or else to find the way to knowledge by themselves. This new type of learning gives respect to individuals who want to acquire knowledge with no emphasis on age, gender, time or space constraints. Moreover it managed to improve the quality of learning, to enhance the ability to have access to information and finally to reduce the cost of education. For the significance of e-learning a great number of definitions exist and a lot of theories are being formulated, but a precise definition for it cannot be given. However for our comprehension we could give a definition and say that e-learning is a form of education based on new technologies and network and give access to information anytime and anywhere. In other words its content is delivered via the internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video tape, satellite TV, and CD-ROM. E-learning includes all users’ activities whether they are online or offline (self-paced) or even in a synchronous or asynchronous way (group based) and includes media in the form of text, image, animation, streaming video and audio [ 2].

Applying electronic learning to poultry farming will aid the availability of systems that can be used to educate poultry farmers on the best practices they should adopt to be able to be more productive in their poultry farming business. However, with the absence of such a system, farmers will solely rely on old information they have about poultry farming. Most of those practices may be obsolete and does not guarantee survival of the poultry business. But when there is a system with updated information on poultry farming, farmers will quickly learn better ways of improving [3].

It is view of this need for an information system to educate poultry farmers that necessitated the development of this research work on An E-Learning System development for poultry farming

The following identified problems necessitated this study:

1. Ministry of education does not have an electronic learning system to aid in the training of farmers on poultry management.
2. Poultry farmers do not have access to modern and updated information on poultry farming.
3. It is very expensive to contract experts to provide valuable information on poultry farm management.
4. High mortality rate of poultry birds and businesses due to limited information on best practices of poultry management.
5. Inability to learn poultry independent of an

1.2 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of the study is to develop an E-Learning system that can be used to educate users of the system on poultry farming. The following are the objectives of the study:

1. To develop an electronic learning system for the ministry of agriculture to utilize in educating farmers on poultry farming.
2. To develop a system that can be used by farmers independent of an instructor.
3. To provide a system that will provide access to valuable information on poultry farming and management.
4. To automate the learning process of poultry farming by providing link to electronic materials on poultry farming that can be read.

1.3 Significance of the Study

This study is significant in the following ways:

1. It will provide an e-learning system for the ministry of agriculture to utilize in educating farmers on poultry farming.
2. It will aid easy access to vital information to poultry farming resources by users of the system which may primarily be farmers or anyone interested in learning poultry farming.
3. It will eliminate the challenge of paying heavily to be trained on poultry farming.
4. The study will also serve as a useful reference material to other researchers seeking related information one-learning system for poultry.

1.4 Scope of the Study

This study covers An E-Learning System development for poultry farming (A case study of ministry of Agriculture, Akwa Ibom State). It is limited to the development of a software system that will grant users access to valuable electronic materials on poultry farming.

1.5 Organization of Research

This research work is organized into five chapters.

Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the, statement of the problem theoretical background, , aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.

Chapter two focuses on the literature review, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.

Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It presents the description of the existing system, analysis of the proposed system and design of the proposed system is also presented in this chapter.

Chapter four presents the choice of development environment, implementation architecture, software testing, documentation, user manual and source code listing.

Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.

1.6 Definition of Terms

Electronic: Carried out or accessed by means of a computer or other electronic device.

E-learning: Learning conducted via electronic media. Also refers to the process of using a computer to deliver part, or all of a course.

Poultry farming: The raising of domestic birds such as chickens, ducks turkeys and geese for the purpose of farming meat or egg for food.

Farming: The activity or business of growing crops and raising livestock