Join the Forest farming CoP as they offer a webinar on Forest Farming Non-Timber Products: Opportunities and Challenges. Jim Chamberlain will talk about harvesting products from the forest. Join the CoP on Wednesday, May 16, at noon EDT.
One of the areas we want to address in the new Ask an Expert (AaE) is a better way for people to work together. To this effect, we are looking at introducing groups. Aside from being an organizational tool, groups would provide a new way to assign and answer questions. In fact, a group would function very similarly to an expert — i.e. it would have areas of expertise and geographic locations, and a group can be assigned a question. Groups would also become the new mechanism for creating an AaE widget.
When a question is assigned to a group, the group leaders (plus anyone else who opted in) will get notifications. The leader can then function as a question wrangler and dole out assignments or leave the questions in the group queue.
Questions assigned to a group can be picked off by any group member when they have time to answer. This should prove helpful for groups with volunteers. (i.e. It’s not useful for someone to be assigned a question on Wednesday if they only volunteer on Monday and Tuesday.) We’ve also heard there can be a taboo against answering a question that’s been assigned to someone else — even if they haven’t started working on it yet. Hopefully when a question is assigned to a group, it will be easier for someone to answer a question without worrying about “taking” it from someone else.
For people outside the group, being able to assign to a group can reduce the difficulty of finding the exact right person to answer a question.
Group can also answer a question. When an expert posts an answer, that person can choose to attach the answer to their personal account or credit it to the group.
Please take a look at the these concepts and let us know what you think.
eXtension is excited to offer the 2012 National eXtension Conference, SPUR ON the Evolution of Extension in Oklahoma City, September 30-October 5, 2012. Conference registration will open May 15. General conference information, including hotel and transportation options can be found here.
WANTED: Abstracts to “SPUR ON” the Evolution of eXtension! The call for abstracts is now open for the 2012 National eXtension Conference. Either submit an IGNITE session or a Breakout Track Session.
IGNITE sessions: Presenters talk on any subject related to their Extension or eXtension work: something they are personally or professionally passionate about. The format is 5 minutes, 20 slides that are displayed for 15 seconds each and advance automatically. No discussion or questions and answers (that happens informally after the session).
Breakout Track Session (45 minutes) :
Working Smarter Not Harder–Tools, techniques, methods, applications that can transform our work; making it easier while more effective.
Social Media Successes–It’s clear social media is here to stay! What can you share about your own success stories and the difference you’re making using these tools?
Educating in New Ways–People are learning in new ways and we need to educate them with new tools and methodologies. What’s working for you?
Enhancing State and Local Value–Reaching beyond boundaries can often leave local efforts short. How are you making a difference locally and still collaborating in orbits outside your own?
Methods of Evaluating Reach, ROI and Impact–Is it making a difference? How do you know? And, more importantly, how did you find out?
Social Media 101 (Moodle, Facebook, Twitter, AnE and more)…baby steps
Social Media 201 (Moodle, Facebook, Twitter, AnE and more)…bigger steps
Deadline for submitting abstracts is June 15, 2012.
Scholarships! Scholarships!!!
–Travel scholarships of $600 are available for one member of each eXtension Institutional Team.
–Travel scholarships are also available for Content Management Board members attending the CMB pre-conference; as well as for a limited number of members of NEW CoPs. Click here for more information.
Community of Practice Meetings!!!
Communities of Practice are encouraged to take advantage of NeXC2012 to come together! Schedule either pre- or post-meetings at the host hotel by contacting Carla Craycraft to schedule meeting space.
Pre-Conference Activity!
A Content Management Board (CMB) meeting is scheduled pre-conference on Monday, October 1 at 2:30 p.m. If you are a member of the CMB please plan to attend. Travel scholarships are available to CMB members that attend this meeting.
If you have never attended an event in downtown Oklahoma City, we think you will find it convenient to the Will Rogers Airport and ideal for lassoing a few of your friends and colleagues to walking off-site for dinner in the Brickyard area.
For more information about the 2012 National eXtension Conference contact Carla Craycraft at ccraycra@uky.edu.
As defined in the eXtension 2012 Strategic Roadmap, a new version of Ask an Expert (AaE) is planned for this year. The goal, as described in the Roadmap is “Develop a second generation Ask an Expert system to take advantage of user engagement to serve as a learning and conversation hub. Mechanisms need to be explored to publicly expose these answers, and to facilitate conversations and learning around them.”
Work has begun and eXtension is currently sharing conceptual mock-ups and collecting feedback. An Ask an Expert Redesign page has been created on About.extension to collect all links and materials related to this undertaking.
Some of the biggest changes being explored relate to the concept of AaE as a public facing site. Submitted questions (and answers from our experts) will be publicly viewable, and the public may have the opportunity to post comments on questions. Other features being explored include the creation of groups inside AaE, the ability to assign a question to a group, the ability to post an answer from a group and an improved question assignment system, and multiple mechanisms for protecting the privacy of question askers where appropriate. Developments will be posted on Ask an Expert Redesign so please check back there often.
Information on the AaE changes can be found in an Adobe Connect session held in late April. Information on that session and the recording and discussion can be found here: http://learn.extension.org/events/504
For more information on Ask an Expert, contact Kevin Gamble at kevin.gamble@extension.org.
During April, eXtension conducted 8 listening sessions focused on State and Local Value Enhancement. Four categories of participants were targeted: County secretarial/support staff, County agents/educators/program assistants, State/regional specialists/faculty, and Administrators (directors, state program leaders, regional directors).
A total of 95 persons volunteered for the 96 listening sessions slots and were sent invitations; ultimately 74 participated for a participation rate of 78%. More than 15 states and all geographic regions were represented in the sessions. Sessions were conducted via Adobe Connect and used both oral discussion as well as chat and poll pods.
Facilitators Sarah Baughman, Michael Lambur, Terry Meisenbach, and Jerry Thomas are currently analyzing session recordings and chat pod entries. The information gained will be used in developing resources, tools, and strategies focused on State and Local Value Enhancement.
For more information on the Listening Sessions please contact Terry Meisenbach at tmeisenbach@extension.org.
eXtension colleagues are mourning the loss of two eXtension CoP leaders:
Celia Hayhoe, Financial Security for All, Virginia Cooperative Extension family financial management specialist, died unexpectedly on March 16, 2012. More information on her death can be found here.
Cole Gustafson, Ag Energy CoP, North Dakota State University biofuels economist and head of the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics, was killed in a farm accident on Saturday, April 28, 2012. More information on his passing can be found here.
Our thoughts are with the Hayhoe and Gustafson families, friends, and colleagues.
In this, and subsequent, eXtension UPDATE articles, we will focus on each of the nine Critical Success Factors/Metrics developed in late 2011. While there are some metrics on which we will not be able to report at this time, we will fill these gaps in 2012 as we move forward. Note that in some cases, data will reflect periods prior to 2011.
Critical Success Factor 3: Collaboration with colleagues in other institutions and organizations improves quality of educational products.
Explanation: This Critical Success Factor/Metric focuses on more systematically capturing the extent to which the collaborative development of content improves the quality of educational products and the number of collaborative educational products developed through eXtension.
Metrics data: For those Extension professionals who have embraced and adopted eXtension, the results have been profound in terms of improving their individual effectiveness and the quality of their educational products and programs. Efforts will be made in 2012 to collect additional data on this Critical Success Factor/Metric.
Based on 37 interviews with Extension professionals from 20 states at various eXtension sponsored events and state Extension conferences (see eXtension Voices at http://www.youtube.com/user/eXtensionInitiative?blend=1&ob=video-mustangbase), the following results indicated that:
• eXtension has brought together new people and new partners across states and agencies, many of whom did not know each other, to address common problems of clientele
• eXtension has provided new ways of thinking and sharing information
• eXtension has provided an opportunity to address a broader audience nationwide, allowed us to pool resources nationally, improved access to information across state lines, and provided access to new clientele
• eXtension has strengthened content because of national collaborations
• eXtension has filled gaps in content expertise across state lines
• eXtension has improved our use of social media
Results from the eXtension Transformation Study (see the full report at http://create.extension.org/node/3016), echo the eXtension Voices data. Key conclusions from the study included:
• Enhanced teamwork and professional contacts. eXtension has changed the way that Extension professionals think and act about working together. A majority of individual Community of Practice members commented on how they now spend time working in teams rather than individually. This has also lead to an increase in their own expertise as a result of creating educational content in a Community of Practice. Working in multi-institutional and state teams have made them more aware of research and educational activities occurring in other states and countries, has allowed them to make new contacts with other experts they may never have discovered (within other universities as well as other agencies), and has improved the scope of their educational outreach efforts. As one Community of Practice member commented, It’s given me the opportunity to get to know colleagues in the same area…who I would never have collaborated with before. Finally, working in eXtension has allowed them to work past some of the traditional boundaries between land grant universities to work together on content.
• Increased utilization of new tools/technologies. eXtension has provided the technical expertise to allow individuals to learn and explore new tools/technologies that are not readily or easily accessible on university campuses. As one Community of Practice member noted: eXtension has pushed some of the Community of Practice members to work with new technology such as the wiki, Breeze conferences, and the FAQ system. eXtension has made available a whole new set of tools/technologies (e.g., webinars, chats, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs) that are broadening and enhancing Extension’s capabilities to reach and interact with traditional as well as new digital audiences.
• Broader content and outreach. Because of interactions within and among Communities of Practice, educational materials are broader in content and are being made available to a wider audience than could have been achieved through an individual institutional/state focused effort. As one Community of Practice member commented, Community of Practice members found that participating in a collaborative work environment stimulated their outreach efforts because they were not responsible for being the sole source of all information. This comment appears to emphasize the notion that Extension professionals involved in eXtension are realizing that we can leverage the resources of the entire system to meet the needs of state and local clientele by working collaboratively together.
Twenty-eight universities provided releases to the eXtension Virtual News Room in April:
7–University of Illinois
6 each–North Dakota State University, Purdue University
3 each–Iowa State University, University of Arkansas, University of California, University of Georgia, University of Minnesota
2 each–Cornell University, Michigan State University, Oklahoma State University, University of Nevada, Washington State University
1 each–Colorado State University, Mississippi State University, Montana State University, New Mexico State University, North Carolina State University, Ohio State University, Rutgers University, South Dakota State University, Texas AgriLife Extension, University of Delaware, University of Florida, University of Idaho, University of Kentucky, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin
Thirty-four Communities of Practice had releases posted in April:
8–Families, food and fitness
7 each–Climate, forests and woodlands; Dairy; Parenting
5 each–Entrepreneurs and their communities; Horses
4 each–Beef cattle; Corn and soybean production; Family caregiving; Gardens, lawns and landscapes; Plant breeding and genomics
3 each–Bee health; Blueberries; Creating healthy communities; Farm energy; Grapes; Organic agriculture; Personal finance; Wildfire
2 each–Extension master gardener; Goats; Network literacy; Wood energy
1 each–Child care; Companion animals; Food safety; Forest farming; Hogs, Pigs, and Pork; Home energy; Imported fire ants; Military families; Oil spill; Small meat processors; Wildlife damage management
39 releases came from other sources
3 original releases
101 total news releases
As a result of the recent call for proposals, eXtension has announced the funding of four new Communities of Practice:
Community, Local and Regional Food Systems
This Community of Practice will focus on community, local, and regional food systems (CLRFS) that are important to individuals, families, businesses and communities for health, economic and educational reasons. Members will collaborate on developing comprehensive, web-based resources relevant to Extension educators nationwide. The primary contact for this community is Deno W. De Ciantis from Penn State with leadership represented from West Virginia State; University of Vermont; Ohio State University; University of Wisconsin; University of California, Davis; Delaware State University; USDA/NIFA; North Carolina State University; Michigan State University; University of Wyoming; University of New Hampshire; and Colorado State University. For more information or to join this Community of Practice contact: Deno De Ciantis at dwd5@psu.edu.
Marine Aquaculture. This Community of Practice will better enable Extension agents across the nation to better serve local, regional, and national aquaculture industries as a whole. Members will utilize federal (NOAANMFS, NIFA), regional (Regional Aquaculture Centers), state (Sea Grant, Cooperative Extension System, Land Grant Institutions), and local (County Extension Agents) resources to provide up‐to‐date science based information and resources, as well as facilitate the exposure of the Community of Practice nationally. The primary contact is Anoushka Concepcion with Connecticut Sea Grant and University of Connecticut’s Cooperative Extension System. The leadership team has representation from University of Maryland, Rutgers University, University of Arkansas, Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, University of New Hampshire, Oregon Sea Grant Extension Programs, National Sea Grant Office, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, and USDA/NIFA. For more information or to join this Community of Practice contact Anoushka Concepcion at anoushka.concepcion@uconn.edu.
Prescribed Burning. This Community of Practice will use prescribed fire as a systematic application to the land to achieve a specific management goal or objective. The associated fire effects from prescribed fire and even wildfires are very important to the management of natural resources. The primary contact is John Weir at Oklahoma State University. Their leadership team represents the New Mexico State University, USDA/NIFA, University of Tennessee, the National Park Service, Cal Poly University, Oregon State University, Tall Timbers Research Station, Joseph W. Jones Ecological Research Center, the Noble Foundation, Texas Agrilife Extension, USDA/NRCS, University of Nebraska, Purdue University, American Forest Foundation, USDA/ARS, The Nature Conservancy, Kansas Forest Service and USFWS. For more information or to join this Community of Practice contact John Weir at john.weir@okstate.edu.
Volunteerism. This Community of Practice is designed to reach beyond the traditional audience of 4-H volunteer specialists to encompass Extension staff who work across program areas that engage volunteers. Ultimately, the Community of Practice goal is to bring together Extension professionals who work with volunteers and other nonprofit volunteer managers to share expertise with one another. Expanding the opportunities to a wider audience by acting as a clearinghouse for resources on volunteer management will increase the depth and breadth of the conversations. Online micro-courses focused on specific volunteer topics, webinars, web-based chats that serve as round tables on various subjects, and local, regional, statewide, and national workshops and conferences will be offered and promoted. The primary contact for this CoP is Molly Frendo at Michigan State University. The leadership team represents the University of New Hampshire, Michigan State University, Washington State University, Virginia Cooperative Extension, University of Maine, USDA/NIFA, University of Illinois, University of Florida, and Bays Mill Community College. For more information or to join this Community of Practice contact Molly Frendo at frendo@msu.edu.
Ohioans who have questions — on everything from personal finance to agricultural enterprise budgets, from gardening to crop production, from nutrition to producing fruits and vegetables safely — have a new way to find answers.
County websites of Ohio State University Extension now have an “Ask a County Expert” tool where Ohioans can ask questions related to the educational programs Extension offers.
“The Ask an Expert tool makes it much easier for clientele to ask us questions directly,” said Jerry Thomas, leader for Innovation and Change for OSU Extension who helped develop the tool. “And, it will help speed up our response time and find the right person to answer their questions. If a county doesn’t have that particular expertise, we can access Extension personnel across the state and across the country. It will really help us leverage our resources.”
OSU Extension’s county websites are easy to find: Just type the name of the county in a browser, followed by “osu.edu.” So, the OSU Extension office in Cuyahoga County is http://cuyahoga.osu.edu; the website in Clermont County is http://clermont.osu.edu.
When someone submits a question, it goes first to four “wranglers” — personnel from around the state — who then route questions to an Extension professional with the appropriate subject-matter expertise.
“The whole idea is to make our information more accessible and expand our scope,” Thomas said. The questions answered will become part of the frequently asked questions on eXtension.
The Ask an Expert online tool arrives during the 150th anniversary of the Morrill Act of 1862. The Morrill Act established land-grant universities in every state to promote education in agriculture, home economics, mechanical arts and other practical occupations at a time when much of higher education was focused on learning Latin, Greek, rhetoric and other elements of a classical education.
In 1914, the Smith-Lever Act formed the Cooperative Extension System, formalizing a partnership between land-grant colleges and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to “extend” the work of the universities beyond the traditional academic student to residents throughout the state.
(Thanks to Ohio State University Extension Communications and Technology for this release.)