National eXtension Initiative

We are very excited to announce major new features in the eXtension FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) application! This is the biggest change yet to eXtension FAQ and it includes a very powerful information management technology called Tagging. (read more about it in the feature list below.)

There are also helpful visual changes. The “Ask an Expert” tool (used to answer questions submitted from the eXtension public site) is now a standalone application that works side-by-side with the FAQ tool. The cleaner design makes the program much easier to use and addresses previously identified points of confusion.

The new site is going live Monday morning, November 5th. If you can’t wait until Monday, go visit the FAQ demo site and get a sneak peek. Feel free to play in there because the data is not live and questions and responses are not actually sent.

7 Brand New Features in the FAQ Application

Tagging
The revamped FAQ application offers a beefed-up system of information management called tagging that offers users enormous flexibility to find and organize their FAQs. Tagging allows users to construct their own personalized systems of information organization from the ground up. These systems become very valuable to the community as more and more tags are added.

Save for later
Save the question now, write the answer later. We now support a more flexible workflow for users who want to get FAQs into the system.

Ask an Expert
This feature is now a standalone tool inside the FAQ application. It’s easier to use and offers a new “area of expertise” and geography filter.

Convert any Incoming Question into a FAQ
We added tighter integration between Ask an Expert and FAQs. Any resolved incoming question can now be converted directly to a FAQ.

Search
We’ve added a faster more stable search. (But tags are so useful, you may find yourself using search less)

Cleaner Design
Individual FAQs and Incoming Questions both have improved layouts and navigation.

Reporting
Users can now custom select a date range when generating reports.

These are just a handful of the new features we’re introducing. There are many more all designed to make the FAQ application more powerful and easier to use. We hope you like the sneak peek and look forward to seeing you in the new system!

Learn how to use the template buttons in the edit window of the CoP wiki to insert images and Flash applications; create tables, call out box, partnership box, and many more. This session is appropriate for CoP leaders and members who are or will work in eXtension’s CoP (Community of Practice) wiki.

Plan to join us on November 21, 2007 for this online professional development opportunity presented by Craig Wood, associate director for eXtension.

Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 3:00p Eastern Time (2:00p CT, 1:00p MT, 12:00n PT, 11:00a AT; 9:00a HT) unless otherwise noted. Get more information about participating…

This session is an FAQ Orientation for agents/educators to find answers to your clients’ questions, also how everyone can contribute to enhancing quality of the FAQ System to make it a more valuable resource for you personally in your educational programming.

Plan to join us on November 20, 2007 for this online professional development opportunity presented by Beth Raney.

Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 3:00p Eastern Time (2:00p CT, 1:00p MT, 12:00n PT, 11:00a AT; 9:00a HT) unless otherwise noted. Get more information about participating…

So you think you want to be a blogger? How you can use blogging to enhance your educational programming? What’s involved, how it’s done, and how to get started. Participants will be exposed to several blogging tools with an emphasis on Blogger.com, Google’s newly revamped blog hosting site

Plan to join us on November 15, 2007 for this online professional development opportunity presented by Kevin Gamble, associate director for eXtension.

Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 3:00p Eastern Time (2:00p CT, 1:00p MT, 12:00n PT, 11:00a AT; 9:00a HT) unless otherwise noted. Get more information about participating…

This session will demonstrate major changes of the Updated FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) application for eXtension! We have introduced a whole new process for organizing of questions and answers based on a Web 2.0 technology called Folksonomies. This is your chance to be introduced to the changes, and ask questions. We’ll show you the new capabilities and how they’ll make it easier for you to find, answer and submit your FAQs to share with all in Extension. You’ll also see how the Ask an Expert (AaE) section of the application is more clearly distinct from the FAQ. This session is targeted at previous users of and/or contributors to the FAQ.

Plan to join us on November 13, 2007 for this online professional development opportunity presented by Ben MacNeill.

Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 3:00p Eastern Time (2:00p CT, 1:00p MT, 12:00n PT, 11:00a AT; 9:00a HT) unless otherwise noted. Get more information about participating…

This session will show you how simple it is to use Google search technology to create a free Custom Search Engine that reflects your knowledge and interests. It will also show you the Cooperative Extension CSE, teach you how to place a custom widget on your own site, and show how you can participate in a collaborative environment to further customize and make it better.

Plan to join us on November 8, 2007 for this online professional development opportunity presented by Kevin Gamble, associate director for eXtension.

Give us 30 minutes and we’ll teach you something useful! This session will be held at our Web Conferencing Center at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/learn and your telephone. Plan to join the session 5 minutes before the starting time. Each session will be held at 3:00p Eastern Time (2:00p CT, 1:00p MT, 12:00n PT, 11:00a AT; 9:00a HT) unless otherwise noted. Get more information about participating…

In-MoodleMeet is held the first and third Mondays of every month from 2-3:30pm ET, in the chat of the Moodle 101 course, which you can enter as a guest. During the chat we get together in Moodle text chat to share stories, ideas and provide support for Moodle. To join go to http://courses.extension.org/mod/chat/view.php?id=96. Past chats are also available from the “View past chat sessions” link from within the chat. To get a course shell to begin developing in or get more information about Moodle email moodlehelp@extension.org.

The recording of last month’s 30 Minute Session on Moodle is at http://about.extension.org/wiki… search on Recordings. Plan to join Jennifer Jahedkar, Texas A&M, on November 19, 2007 for this opportunity to talk and learn with others using Moodle.

We will have the next meeting for planning for Extension in Second Life, using Web conferencing, on November 8th at http://connect.extension.iastate.edu/Learn at 11 AM SLT (2:00 PM ET).  If you are interested in what’s being planned, join the Cooperative Extension Second Life Educators group in Facebook (facebook.com).

Come test out your audio capabiliites, learn, and share with others in an informal setting. Meet at 1 PM SLT (4:00 PM ET) in Second Life, on Morrill Island at http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morrill/165/136/29.

Plan to join us on November 2, 2007 for this informal session in Second Life.

In-MoodleMeet is held the first and third Mondays of every month from 2-3:30pm ET, in the chat of the Moodle 101 course, which you can enter as a guest. During the chat we get together in Moodle text chat to share stories, ideas and provide support for Moodle. To join go to http://courses.extension.org/mod/chat/view.php?id=96. Past chats are also available from the “View past chat sessions” link from within the chat. To get a course shell to begin developing in or get more information about Moodle email moodlehelp@extension.org.

The recording of last month’s 30 Minute Session on Moodle is at http://about.extension.org/wiki… search on Recordings. Plan to join Jennifer Jahedkar, Texas A&M, on November 5, 2007 for this opportunity to talk and learn with others using Moodle.