Author: Sandra Conn

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Fellowships Grants Innovation Newsroom

First Call for eXtension 2017 Innovation Project Grants

Are You an Extension Innovator?

Submit Your Concepts Now for 2017 Innovation Grants

eXtension Foundation, Inc., the U.S. Cooperative Extension System’s national resource for advancing innovation and providing professional development for Extension professionals, is seeking initial abstract proposals for prescreening for 2017 Innovation Projects funding.

50-Word Abstract Deadline is Monday, December 19th, 2016, 5:00 p.m. PST.

The Innovation Projects initiative is part of the eXtension Foundation’s mission to support experimental projects that will drive opportunities to adopt innovation in the greater Cooperative Extension System. In the 2017 round, we will award up to 10 grants of up to $10,000 each to recipients for a one-year period. Recipients will also receive support of their project from eXtension’s Innovation Lab.

To be eligible for this funding, you must be an Extension Faculty Member, Specialist, Educator, Agent or Staff Member of an eXtension Foundation Premium Member Institution.

The submission process for prescreening requires a brief abstract describing the initial project concept, plus applicant contact information. Finalists selected during prescreening will then be invited to submit expanded, complete proposals for 2017 Innovation Project grants. All proposals will be submitted online for both the prescreening and final application processes.

For full details on 2017 Innovation Project proposal requirements and access to the online abstract proposal submission form, please visit https://www.extension.org/innovation-lab/announcing-call-for-2017-innovation-projects/.

Please direct any questions about the 2017 Innovation Projects initiative or the proposal process to Jamie Seger, seger.23@osu.edu or Jerry Thomas, jthomas@extension.org.

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Ask an Expert Newsroom Webinars

Ask an Expert Transition Webinar Meetups

eXtension Web Meetup to Begin Orienting Extension Professionals on Changes to Ask an Expert

On November 18, 2016, the eXtension Foundation Board of Directors accepted, with final revisions, the recommendations for redesigning the delivery of Ask an Expert that emerged from a summer’s study project led by a team of eXtension staff and participated in by interested Extension professionals nationwide. Next week, two web meetups will be held to begin the transition process for 2017 by introducing attendees to the changes and what they mean for you and your audience(s).

Please plan to join one or both of these two meetups. Learn how to make changes for profiles of experts working Ask an Expert and also to update profiles of Ask an Expert Groups. Share your tips and training resources to prepare you and your Ask an Expert group for managing a direct, incoming flow of questions without a national Question Wrangler group.

Tuesday, November 29, 2016, 2:00 pm EST

Learn more and add to your calendar or join directly on November 29 at 2:00 p.m. EST at https://extension.zoom.us/j/851420320

Friday, December 2, 2016, 2:00 pm EST

Learn more and add to your calendar or join directly on December 1 at 2:00 p.m. EST at https://extension.zoom.us/j/851420320

Both events will be recorded and the recordings will be posted on their Learn event pages shortly after each meetup.

Please also save the date December 13, 2016, 3 pm EST, for a special meetup focused on discussions of the action plan for state and local Question Wranglers under the Ask an Expert redesign to happen in 2017. If you would like to learn more about the original study and recommendations, please review the October 12, 2016, recording of the introductory webinar and the initial recommendations document.

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Fellowships NAEPSDP Newsroom

First Fellow Announced in New NAEPSDP/eXtension Fellowship Program

Introducing the First 2017 NAEPSDP/eXtension Fellow

The eXtension Foundation and the National Association of Extension Program and Staff Development Professionals (NAEPSDP) have named Julie Huetteman, PhD, as recipient of the first 2017 Program Evaluation NAEPSDP/eXtension Fellowship.

Dr. Huetteman is currently Coordinator, Extension Strategic Initiatives, at Purdue Extension, where she supports over 500 faculty, specialists, and educators across campus and the state of Indiana for program and project evaluation with in-person and virtual consultations for their planning, design, protocols, and reporting.

Dr. Huetteman’s strong foundation in program evaluation is grounded in her undergraduate and graduate studies in health education and the progression of her career which has included a variety of strategic planning, needs assessment and evaluation projects. Examples include a multi-state research and extension project, county-based community networking, Indiana resident input via community forms, marketing training, program planning, 4-H common measures and staff performance.

Throughout 2017 Dr. Huetteman will serve as a key informant to the 2017 i-Three Issue Corps, providing professional development and one-on-one consulting with Issue Corps members on measuring and reporting impacts on their projects. “My interests in this fellowship are to further that collaborative effort by supporting Cooperative Extension peers active in the i-Three Issue Corps projects,” she said in her application.

The NAEPSDP/eXtension Fellowship Program was created in July 2016 as a partnership between the two organizations. Altogether, the program anticipates funding four fellowships in 2017: two focusing on program evaluation and two focusing on program design/development. Learn more about the NAEPSDP/eXtension Fellowships at https://www.extension.org/about/naepsdpextension-fellowship/ or http://www.naepsdp.org/eXtension-Fellowship.

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Newsroom

eXtension Month in Review – October 2016

October, 2016

October was another packed month at eXtension with funding and impact reports for activities of the past 12 months coming due and new project plans lining up to be launched in 2017. So, this review got pushed aside a bit in the rush to make room in early November for the continued rollout of new programs and learning events for Extension professionals. Please excuse us for running late and also mentioning some of the already-launched November opportunities below.  They are just too good to hold until month’s end!

Release of the Horizon Report: The NMC Technology Outlook for Cooperative Extension 2016-2021

Horizon ReportLast spring, following the March NeXC2016 and the launch of the ECOP Innovation Task Force, leaders of eXtension and the Task Force became focused on the question: “Even if Cooperative Extension cannot predict the future, how can we prepare for it?” They formed a partnership with the New Media Consortium, publishers of the Horizon Reports for other education institutions and other related organizations, to produce a Horizon Report for Cooperative Extension. The report was completed and released in October and eXtension is running a series of webinars that focus on the recommendations by timeframe for adoption. The series began in October and continues through December 8. Learn more about the webinar series, add the remaining ones to your calendar and find recordings of the ones completed at the links below.

Five 2016 eXtension Fellowships Awarded

eXtensionThe eXtension Foundation proudly introduced five new eXtension Fellows. Their projects focus on Makers, Social Media and Big Data innovations to advance Cooperative Extension. Learn more about the Fellows and their projects.

Redesigning the Future of Ask an Expert

Ask an Expert logoThis summer, a team of eXtension Foundation staff members initiated a reassessment of Ask an Expert, evaluating its usage, resource requirements, performance and other key factors to identify how best to address a steadily increasing volume of questions. On October 12, 2016, a special webinar (recording posted) was called so all Extension professionals interested could review and consult on the initial recommendations this team was proposing. Based on feedback the team received, revised recommendations were presented to the eXtension Foundation Board of Directors, who approved the recommendations, pending answers to questions they posed and any revisions required. This process continues and is scheduled to conclude on November 18. Shortly thereafter, the final recommendations, action plan and training schedule will be shared with all interested Extension leaders and professionals in a webinar event yet to be announced.

eXtension Conducts Designathon at Tuskegee for Booker T. Washington Economic Development Summit

Booker T. Washington SummitDuring the first week of October, eXtension conducted one of its signature “Designathon” events at the 21st annual Booker T. Washington Economic Development Summit held at Tuskegee University in Alabama. The 3-day event promoting entrepreneurship included a Business Pitch Competition, and eXtension’s Designathon engaged pitch competition participants in hands-on learning activities to refine their entrepreneurial ideas and prepare their pitches.

Diversity & Inclusion Issue Corps Launched with Call for Proposals

Diversity & Inclusion ProjectThroughout October, i-Three Issue Corps director Terry Meisenbach and his team continued working on developing the new Diversity & Inclusion Issue Corps, the first of several Issue Corps for 2017. At the end of the month, a Call for Proposals was issued with a deadline of December 5, 2016. On November 9, the first of two webinar information sessions was held, with the second scheduled for Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 2:00 pm EST.

Community Issue Corps Moving toward Project Launch

Community Issue CorpsThe October 7 deadline for the Community Issue Corps resulted in eight projects from 28+ states and a total of 64 team members. The group will gather in Detroit on December 7, 2016, for a Designathon to plan their project and prepare for implementation.

eXtension Quarterly Webinar

Beverly CoberlyeXtension Foundation’s Quarterly Webinar was led by our new COO Bev Coberly and presented updates on many topics, including the new competency capacity for online courses, 2017 i-Three Issue Corps planning, webinars, the new omnibus landing page for professional development and more. Check out the recording of this session to hear about these and other initiatives at eXtension in the voices of the people who lead them.

eXtension Foundation One-Year Snapshot

eXtension SnapshotWonder what we are doing besides sending out email notifications and presenting webinars? Here’s a graphic snapshot of our year October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016.

Launch of Exciting New WoW! (Webinars on Webinars) Series

WoW Webinar SeriesOctober 26 saw the launch of a 3-webinar series on lessons learned in the trenches of producing eXtension webinars. Created by a group of veteran webinar developers, it focuses on the planning required to produce webinars that provide quality learning experiences and are repurposable for continued use in your programming. The first in the series focused on “The Best of the Best Webinar Logistics” (recording posted). The remaining two are:

Please save these dates and plan to join us for these valuable sessions, complete with support materials, created by Extension professional peers.

If You Miss a Webinar You Wanted to Attend…

eXtension LearnWebinar recordings and related resources that have been shared are posted on the link for that webinar in Learn, often within 24 hours after the webinar ends.

Don’t Miss the Recent 2016 i-Three Issue Corps Blog Posts

eXtension blogsLearn about Climate and Food Systems Issue Corps members’ work and how their projects are delivering impact in communities across the country. Be sure to check out these stories…

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Diversity & Inclusion i-Three Corps Newsroom

Call for Proposals for New Diversity and Inclusion Issue Corps

The eXtension Foundation is launching the first Issue Corps of 2017 with a call for proposals for projects on improving Diversity and Inclusion within Cooperative Extension, its partners, and the public. Proposals are due December 5, 2016.

The Issue Corps experience combines virtual and face-to-face events to assist corps members in developing projects that can have a visible, measurable impact at the local level. Emphasis is on developing innovative projects, programming, applications of technology and professional skills, enabling members to design and implement new approaches they might not have the opportunity pursue otherwise.

Learn more about the Diversity and Inclusion Issue Corps and find answers to these questions and more.

  • What is an eXtension Issue Corps?
  • What does an Diversity and Inclusion Issue Corps project look like?
  • How does the Diversity and Inclusion Issue Corps work?
  • What is required to apply?
  • What are the proposal guidelines?

Additionally, the eXtension Issue Corps leadership team will present a special webinar on Wednesday, November 9, 2016, 2:00 p.m. ET to answer questions and provide more information on the Diversity & Inclusion Corps and this call for proposals. For details on this event and to add it to your calendar, visit https://learn.extension.org/events/2881.

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Extension Horizon Report Newsroom

Third Event of Five on Horizon Report

Please plan to join your peers on Thursday, November 2 2016, at 2:00 p.m. EDT, for an #EdTechLN Tweet-Up on the “Horizon Report for the Cooperative Extension System to Prepare for the Future”

Guest host Christine Geith, CEO of eXtension (@christinegeith) will lead participants through a conversation on the Cooperative Extension Horizon Report and the challenges and opportunities to come. Have question suggestions for this Tweet-Up topic? Tweet Jamie or Paul to @JamieMSeger or @4Hpro.

To follow the entire Horizon series of web events, please visit the two bulleted links below to learn more and add the fourth and fifth dates to your calendar. Catch up on the series with the first recording of the report overview and the second recording featuring the 4-5 year horizon on Internet of Things and Wearables. Yet to come are:

The Education Technology Learning Network is the educational technology resource and support network for Cooperative Extension professionals.

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Announcements Newsroom Webinars

Webinar Series on Modernizing Cooperative Extension

Transforming Organizational Models

Please join us on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 at 3:00 EDT, for the first in a two-part series on modernizing Cooperative Extension. Presenter Neal Vines, Director of Information Technology for the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech, will introduce the first of two similar program support efforts underway at two different universities — Virginia Tech and Penn State.

The series will provide a close-up look at the planning and implementation process of these notable programs, useful for anyone considering comparable projects, including Extension directors, administrators, communication professionals, and program teams.

This first webinar focuses on Extension21 at Virginia Cooperative Extension, a four-year modernization initiative aimed at improving program support infrastructure to better meet the needs of Extension professionals and address the expectations of Extension clientele.

For more information and to add this first in the series to your calendar, visit: https://learn.extension.org/events/2870.

One week later on Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at 3:00 p.m. EST, the second webinar, “Not Your Father’s Cooperative Extension! The Transformation of an Organizational Model,” will be presented by Mary Wirth and Jon Emigh and focus on continual advancements at Penn State.

For more information and to add this second in the series to your calendar, visit: https://learn.extension.org/events/2868.

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Newsroom Webinars

Series of Three Webinars Will Share Lessons Learned from the eXtension Trenches

Series of Three Webinars Will Share Lessons Learned from the eXtension Trenches

A group of veteran webinar developers have come together to create a new series about the planning required to produce webinars that provide quality learning experiences and are repurposable for continued use in your programming. The webinar developers and presenters are all members of different eXtension communities and have several years of experience producing webinars on multiple platforms in different settings, including live streaming from conference sites. In this series they will share their lessons learned and offer advice for making the most of your webinars. Please save these dates and join them.

  • October 26 at 2 pm EDT: “The Best of the Best Webinar Logistics” Presenters include Alice Formiga, Coral Owens, Leslie Johnson, Jen Chilek and Jill Heemstra. This presentation will cover important tasks to consider and how different platforms change the way those are accomplished; alternative streaming options; saving time in production; and archiving discoverable recordings. For more information and to save this date to your calendar, visit https://learn.extension.org/events/2859
  • November 16 – 2 pm EDT: “Planning and Executing Quality Learning Experiences via Webinar” Presenters will be Brigitte Scott, Karen Jeanette, Alice Formiga and Leslie Johnson. This presentation will cover working with presenters and using adult learning techniques to increase learner engagement; messaging around the webinar topic on social media, blogs (etc.); creating web content or educational modules; and managing continuing education credits and requests. For more information and to save this date to your calendar, visit https://learn.extension.org/events/2860
  • December 7 – 2 pm EDT: “Using Analytics to Report Impact and Improve Future Webinar Offerings” Presenters will again be Brigitte Scott, Karen Jeanette, Alice Formiga and Leslie Johnson. This concluding presentation in the webinar series will cover getting to know your audience; helping presenters focus their presentation to that audience and preparing for commonly asked questions; ensuring presentations are engaging in the webinar environment; getting analytics, sharing them with presenters, and using them in year-end reports and funding proposals. For more information and to save this date to your calendar, visit https://learn.extension.org/events/2861
About the presenters:
  • Jen Chilek – Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service, Military Families Learning Network and Network Literacy Community of Practices
  • Alice Formiga – Oregon State University
  • Jill Heemstra University of Nebraska and eXtension
  • Karen Jeanette – Military Families Learning Network and Network Literacy Community of Practices
  • Leslie Johnson – University of Nebraska, Northeast Research and Extension Center
  • Coral Owens – University of Illinois and Chez Family Foundation Center for Wounded Veterans in Higher Education
  • Brigitte Scott – Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
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Announcements Fellowships News Newsroom

eXtension Names Four eXtension Fellows and First eXtension/GODAN Fellow

The eXtension Foundation proudly announces the four new Fellows in its seventh annual eXtension Fellowship program and the first new eXtension/GODAN Fellowship. eXtension Fellows come from eXtension Foundation Premium Member Institutions and spend one year advancing knowledge on applied innovation in their topic area for the benefit of all Cooperative Extension professionals.

The 2016 topic areas focus on new approaches to Makers, Social Media, and Big Data. Following are the 2016 eXtension Foundation Fellows, their projects, and the focus of their plans.

2016 eXtension Fellows

Dave Francis, Extension Associate Professor, Utah State University
“Maker Movement, Horticulture Fusion”

Within the Maker Movement, there is a new trend developing with a tie to agriculture and gardening. Known as “geek gardening,” it refers to gardening enhanced with technology-focused methods to increase the production of plant products or to solve issues such as irrigation or pest control. Dave will identify and showcase this movement and a variety of these makers and their innovations for awareness throughout Cooperative Extension.

Daphne Richards, County Agent and Educator, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service
“Expediting Social Media Campaign Management with Evergreen Content Development and Distribution”

Most Cooperative Extension professionals have tried one or more social media platforms, including videos, infographics, and webinars. A good deal of duplication is now developing among these offerings that might be addressed with a single “evergreen” product applicable for a broad geographic area. Daphne will investigate topics ripe for creation from an “evergreen-content” perspective and provide guidance for Extension professionals and teams considering this approach.

Christian Schmieder, Qualitative Research Specialist and Lecturer, University of Wisconsin Cooperative Extension (Program Development and Evaluation Unit)
“Responding to the ‘Data Imperative’ in Extension:  Developing a National Online Qualitative Analysis and Analysis Software Learning Platform”

Increasingly, Cooperative Extension and its partner organizations are expected to produce strong, data-driven insights for a variety of audiences from Big Qualitative Data–ever larger, more diverse and complex data sources. To meet this need, Extension needs to build capacity to analyze large amounts of qualitative data in a consistent, methodologically sound way. Christian will assess the scaleability of analysis-focused Qualitative Data Analysis Software training and develop a working prototype for Extension, including online materials and teaching modules that might be disseminated for national use.

Laura Thompson, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Extension Educator, Cropping Systems and Agriculture Technologies
“Data Visualization in Publications, Live Presentations, and Recorded Data Videos”

Big Data has expanded exponentially our ability to generate and collect data in all sectors of Cooperative Extension. In addition to the challenge of storing and processing this data is the challenge of how to make it meaningful for Extension’s many audiences. Data visualization is an important communications tool for distilling and presenting data so audiences can interpret it, remember it, and apply it to change behavior. Laura will examine data visualization and presentation techniques and develop recommendations and guidelines for their use in Extension.

First eXtension/GODAN Fellow

Justin G. Smith, PhD, Director, Mason County Extension and Assistant Professor, Community Economic Development, Washington State University
“Unified Knowledge Translation Framework for Integrating Interdisciplinary Research and Scholarly Activity Related to Climate Resilience and Food Security”

For Cooperative Extension, a pressing Big Data challenge is the need to address issues supported by a collective ability to organize, link, retrieve and translate cross-disciplinary data, research and action. Working with eXtension and GODAN leadership, Justin plans to develop a prototype “Unified Knowledge Translation Framework” that will present a model for integrating interdisciplinary research and scholarly activity related specifically to climate resilience and food security. This work is a first step toward developing a metadata-labeling protocol and production-level indexing system that can organize and link relevant information from diverse domains of knowledge, institutions, and other sources for use by Cooperative Extension and its partners.

About These eXtension Fellowship Programs

The eXtension Fellowship program is offered in partnership with USDA-NIFA and dedicated to developing projects on applied innovation in U.S. Cooperative Extension settings. The eXtension/GODAN Fellowship is offered through a partnership with Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN), and it focuses on testing and demonstrating protocols, including the use of competency frameworks, to make eXtension and Extension information more open, accessible and linked to open research and data.

Please contact Jerry Thomas, Director of eXtension’s Innovation Lab for more information on eXtension Fellowship programs. Find more comprehensive descriptions of the Fellows’ projects.

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Announcements Newsroom

New Position Announced: Executive Director for New National Pesticide Safety Education Center

The National Pesticide Safety Education Center is a new entrepreneurial venture led by university extension Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) state and territory coordinators. Planned to become the premier national provider of pesticide safety education, its focus will be in establishing a national website that aggregates, cross-references and expands access to individual state’s pesticide safety offerings in a way that ensures high quality research-based education and generates revenue for local Cooperative Extension programs. The successful candidate will be an independent contractor, working virtually using eXtension’s resources. The position requires an entrepreneurial leader who can build a financially self-sustaining organization within two years. Deadline for applications is 5:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, Friday, October 21, 2016.
A detailed position description can be found here: https://catalog.extension.org/catalog?pagename=NPSEC-ExDir.