Online courses, where at least 80% content is delivered online, on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data (BD), Machine Learning (ML), Block chain (BC), etc. are becoming popular choices among tech savvy youth with eye on job market as their societal benefit is becoming real by the day. But, there is talent shortage given the nascent stage of these developments while the demand is predicted to increase exponentially in near future. Recognising the limitations of conventional curriculum and pedagogy in Indian Universities, this paper proposes integrating online courses on subjects like AI, IoT, BD, etc. in the agriculture and fisheries sciences curriculum harnessing ICT and new age pedagogy. There are already examples of using AI for social good in fisheries and aquaculture. The field is very dynamic as the recent LinkedIn report alerts that the shelf-life of skills is < 5 years and many of today's fastest growing job categories did not even exist five years ago. In such a scenario, any curriculum, including fisheries and agriculture, shall have courses on AI, IoT, BD, ML, BC, etc. along with skilled resource persons to teach them are the key. An analysis of existing and evolving pedagogical frameworks was carried out using a desktop based review of offline and online resources as well as interaction with post graduate students, academicians and policy makers. Based on this, an innovative pedagogical model for generation next is proposed in this paper which integrates the already available online courses on these subjects offered by reputed Universities and Organisations from across the world into the curriculum of Indian Universities. Many students are found to register for such online courses from Udacity, Udemy, Coursera, HarvardX, EdX, learn with Google, and Indian organisations like IIITs, IITs, TCS and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platforms, both free and paid, to have additional skill sets but unable to formally account them in their academic programs. The credit framework for online learning courses through UGC's Choice Based Credit System and SWAYAM Regulation 2016 can be the starting points to further revolutionise the way next gen agriculture and fisheries professionals learn. Now, the universities can permit credit transfers for courses done on SWAYAM platforms, including the course on AI, to the tune of 20%, which is a notable leap in credit mobility. In order to ensure best quality content are produced and delivered, nine national coordinators have been appointed, though ICAR / agriculture and allied fields are not included. Few universities have even recognised NPTEL course credits and certificates as part of their assessment system. Some spadework has already been done to pave the way for integration of MOOCs in NARES with NAAS-CoL brainstorming session (2014) and the Fifth Deans Committee (2017) endorsing the idea. NAARM, TNAU, MANAGE, IIT Kanpur, BHU, etc. have online courses, some already being offered on SWAYAM platform. Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University (MAFSU) and few SAUs have recognised identified online courses as equivalent to face-to-face refresher courses under Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) of UGC which is a win-win situation for the university and the teachers in terms of time, logistics and money. Though these developments are progressive and given the fact that the credit recognition systems are still evolving, a lot more needs to be done and is possible.
Review of online market in USA revealed that 28% of higher education students (5.8 million) are enrolled in least one online course, and their enrolments continue to grow, even in the face of declining overall higher education enrolments. Market forecasts from 2018 to 2023 predicts that the global online education market is projected to witness a CAGR of 10.26% to reach US$286.62 billion from US$159.52 billion in 2017. North America leads the way for the online education market, closely followed by Asia-Pacific which is bound to become a major market in the upcoming years. Percent of higher education institutions that currently have a MOOC increased from 2.6% in 2012 to 11.3% in 2015. About 30% of chief academic officers surveyed in USA report that their faculty accept the value and legitimacy of online education. The analysts forecast the India online education market to grow at a CAGR of 20.03% during the period 2018-2022 with penetration of smartphones and internet connectivity in the country.
Market trends reveal that students take online courses outside the framework of their own University systems also and the market is continuously growing. A pilot study of 35 PG students to assess their behaviour towards online courses at ICAR-Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai revealed that 17% have undergone some free/paid online course during the last 2 years which provided certificate and was of at least 10-20 days duration, major reason being to learn a skill and earning a certificate for strengthening their bio-data. In one of the courses entitled Intellectual Property Rights offered at ICAR-CIFE, students complete a free primer online course from WIPO on the advice of course teacher. Students have a positive attitude towards online courses. Students have shown a keen interest in undertaking courses on AI, IoT, BD, ML, BC, etc. offered by other universities/organisations and will be more accepting of these courses if these are integrated in the academic curriculums as it will give them a competitive edge and improve their employability.
Based on these analyses, this innovative model called as 'Gen Next Pedagogy' was developed which advocates integrating online courses on AI, IoT, BD, ML, BC, etc. in the agriculture and fisheries sciences curriculums by method of credit transfer in the under graduate and post graduate academic programmes. In India, regulations seem to be accommodative under specific frameworks of MOOC/SWAYAM/NPTEL with or without credit transfers. But this model advocates allowing students to take up online courses under all frameworks globally. The 'Gen Next Pedagogy' model has two components. First is selecting appropriate online courses on AI, IoT, BD, ML, BC, etc. offered by other universities/organisations by an expert committee and by using web based tools and the second is to permit Universities for credit transfer of these online courses in their academic programmes up to the tune of 20% of total credits. This model can be adopted for fields other than AI as well. This study was focused on AI because it is felt that education system of the countries should enable agriculture and fisheries sector should have trained youth in AI, and enable the fastest growing sector in food production to become an early adopter of AI.