Development of a prototype web site for making yoghurt

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Introduction

This thesis reports on the development of a prototype web site for small to medium scale farmers who are interested in making yoghurt on the farm. This web site should enable them to consider a variety of yoghurt products, as well as requirements for production, before any costs are incurred. The prototype web site can also serve as an aid to the advisers of Agrelek.
Agrelek as part of Eskom, the national electricity provider in South Africa, was established in 1988. It is an advisory service assisting the agricultural sector in the cost-effective and efficient use of electricity. Agrelek Electrotechnology Centre, situated at the Glen Agricultural College near Bloemfontein, was established as a demonstration centre for the latest electrotechnologies applicable to farming (Agrelek, 1999:1).
In consultation with Agrelek, the manufacture of yoghurt was selected for this prototype web site, because quite a number of farmers have surplus milk available on their farms. A HTML document for use on the web as well as a CD-ROM of the proposed prototype web site, was developed. As far as can be determined no product of this kind is currently available in South Africa. It is envisaged that similar web sites for other products that can be made on the farm, will be developed in the future.
In the past few years, many changes affecting farming activities, have taken place in South Africa. These changes are, among others, the abolishment of control boards regulating the marketing of agricultural products, the opening of world markets for agricultural products from South Africa and accelerated land reform, enabling more people to own land and farm on a small scale (Jordaan, 1999:45).

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Aim of the study
1.3 Agriculture in South Africa
1.3.1 Extent of agriculture in South Africa
1.3.2 Natural factors
1.3.3 Human factors
1.3.4 Regulatory factors
1.3.5 Economical factors
1.3.6 Technological factors .
1.4 The South African dairy industry
1.4.1 Extent of the dairy industry
1.4.2 Regulatory factors affecting the dairy industry
1.4.3 Economical factors relating to the dairy industry
1.5 The value of information
1.6 The changing face of agricultural information
1.7 Sources of information currently available to South African farmers
1.8 Summary .
1.9 Research problems
1.10 Research questions
1.11 Limitations of this study
1.12 Summary of chapters
Chapter 2: Information needs .
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Information behaviour
2.2.1 Information seeking behaviour
2.2.2 Application of models of information seeking behaviour to South African dairy farmers
2.3 Information needs .
2.3.1 Kinds of information needs .
2.3.2 Obstacles to meeting information needs .
2.4 Information needs of South African dairy farmers
2.5 Summary
2.5.1 Information needs
2.5.2 Information seeking behaviour of the target group .
2.5.3 Obstacles to meeting information needs
2.5.4 Content of the web site
2.5.5 Availability of the web site .
Chapter 3: Considerations when designing and developing a web site
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Specifications for developing a web site .
3.3 Elements of instructional design of importance in developing a web site
3.4 The use of multimedia .
3.5 The use of the World Wide Web (WWW) .
3.6 The use of Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) .
3.7 HTML editors .
3.8 The use of Dreamweaver as a web-authoring tool
3.9 The use of an Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) programme .
3.10 General considerations
3.11 Conclusion
Chapter 4 Development of a prototype web site for making yoghurt
4.1 Introduction .
4.2 Phases in the development of the prototype web site .
4.3 First phase in the development of the prototype web site
4.4 Second phase of the development of the prototype web site .
4.5 Third phase of the development of the prototype web site
4.5.14 The development of a Quick tour
4.6 Summary
Chapter 5: Evaluation of the prototype web site
5.1 Introduction
5.2 What is evaluation? .
5.3 Evaluation strategies
5.4 Types of evaluation .
5.5 Evaluation questions and methodologies .
5.6 Design of a questionnaire .
5.7 Evaluation of the prototype web site
5.8 Results of evaluation .
5.9 Interpretation of results and making changes to the web site
5.10 Summary .
Chapter 6: Conclusions and recommendations