Tag: i-Three Issue Corps

Categories
Success Stories

Impact Collaborative Process Helps Extension Professionals Create Online Civil Rights Training

What I think helped with the process was having people tell their own personal stories. It made the difference. People resonate more with personal stories versus, “this is the law.”

While presenting at the first eXtension Issue Corps (now called the Impact Collaborative) Designathon in 2016, Renee Pardello, assistant dean for the University of Minnesota Extension, began to have conversations with Extension professionals from across the country about integrating global dynamics and cultural knowledge into Extension education, research, and outreach.

“What I discovered is there is a wide range of people’s knowledge regarding the interplay of global realities and understanding the variety of cultures representing work clients, partners, and colleagues,” Pardello said.  “Some people said they’d never even thought about it,” regarding topics such as civil rights and why Extension complies with civil rights laws and the value it brings to Extension.

After finishing her Impact Collaborative experience, Pardello began developing a civil rights training designed to be effective for Minnesota faculty and Extension faculty across the country. Pardello received assistance creating the training with more than 40 Extension faculty, educators, and staff from the University of Minnesota. She also used resources from other land-grant universities to include Washington State University, Ohio State University, and Pennsylvania State University.

Pardello credits the Impact Collaborative process for reinforcing the need. “What I think helped with the process was having people tell their own personal stories. It made the difference. People resonate more with personal stories versus, ‘this is the law,’” Pardello said.

The training, which is currently offered through eXtension, is a robust online training with five modules consisting of videos, activities, and resources that provide a thorough review of civil rights laws and resources. Real-life scenarios and group discussions are included to educate, enlighten and inform Extension professionals about equity, diversity and civil rights. The goal is to address equity, diversity, and inclusion and to surpass civil rights expectations.

As a result of the work and expertise used to develop the civil rights training, Pardello was asked to return in 2017 and serve as a key informant for the 2017 Impact Collaborative.

The original Designathon was a day and a half process that includes four steps, which are design thinking, key informant expertise, growing base of evidence-based practice and dynamic synergy. Each step comes with objectives that serve to change the way the teams work. After completing the process, the teams leave with a new plan allowing them to work more effectively.

As a key informant, Pardello spoke to each group about their projects. She also helped the groups develop strategies to effectively reach new audiences and to be inclusive in regards to language. When creating a strategy map, Pardello began to understand the barriers that challenged many of the groups.

“The barrier was giving people language so they could be successful in initiating conversations with diverse groups. Hopefully, as these groups move forward, they will feel comfortable going into a community in the U.S. where they don’t fit in,” Pardello said.

Holli Arp, the University of Minnesota program leader for leadership and civic engagement, recently completed her online civil rights training. She said the training provided a common understanding of the laws and expectations of a land-grant institution. She said the intentional efforts of the organization to have everyone complete the training, but also to go beyond what is required by law, helped her analyze the team’s programming delivery.

“It gave you a chance to reflect on your own thinking and your own processes,” Arp said.  “It made me really think, is our programming really accessible to all?”

Recognizing there are communities that are underserved or unserved because of current processes, Arp said in Minnesota they began focusing team conversations about how to expand their reach.

Through the help of a seed grant with South Dakota State University, Arp said they are initiating conversations in the Latino community with the goal of helping the community understand the breadth of what Extension is and the services it provides.  They also would like to create leadership programming that fits the community’s needs.  “We hope to co-create something that can be more meaningful and grow,” Arp said.

In addition to Arp, Michael Darger, Extension community economics specialist at the University of Minnesota, said the training helped him realize the need to be prepared to do something different.

“Changing structure is hard, but I’m optimistic. I recommend the course; I think it was put together intentionally,” Darger said.

Although this effort began in Minnesota, concepts such as global dynamics, cultural knowledge, and civil rights are ideologies that Pardello believes will overall benefit Cooperative Extension programming in the U.S. and abroad.

More Information

This story was written by ChaNae Bradley, Senior Communications Specialist  at Fort Valley State University

Categories
Newsroom

eXtension Launches New Community Issue Corps with Designathon

community issue corps logoOn December 8-9, 2016, 64 members of the eXtension Foundation’s new Community Issue Corps representing eight project teams from Communities of Practice (CoPs) convened at the Detroit Renaissance Center Hotel to participate in an eXtension Designathon. The Designathon is a high-energy workshop that guides participants with innovative ideas for addressing local issues through the creation of concept maps for their projects, supported by one-on-one mentoring from expert key informants.

The Designathon method was first introduced to the 126 members of eXtension’s first Issue Corps at eXtension’s NeXC2016 national conference. Feedback from this event and several smaller “test” events were so positive that eXtension has refined the Designathon and made it part of eXtension’s “issue response toolkit” offerings.

The Designathon is included as part of each Issue Corps and is available as a stand-alone service that can be requested by eXtension Foundation member institutions. The process helps teams develop and articulate an issue response strategy focused on local, regional, or statewide impact.

For more on the Community Issue Corps projects and teams, see the CIC Roster.

Categories
Newsroom

Diversity & Inclusion Issue Corps Designathon Planned for February

diversity and inclusion corps logoMore than 40 project teams, representing 28 institutions from all five Cooperative Extension System (CES) regions, focused on a variety of diversity and inclusion issues will meet in Cincinnati, OH February 14-15, 2017, to participate in an eXtension Designathon. Proposed Corps projects include topics such as cultural competency in youth, community health hubs and diversity, food insecurity, civic engagement, racial equity training for CES, health equity and much more.

The Designathon is a high-energy workshop that guides participants with innovative project ideas addressing local issues through the creation of concept maps for their projects, supported by one-on-one mentoring from expert key informants.  The process helps teams develop and articulate an issue response strategy focused on local, regional, or statewide impact.

Key informants are currently being recruited for the Designathon. Key informants mentor the teams in areas such as evaluation, networking, technology, social media, marketing, and much more. Past Designathon participants frequently relate that access to key informants is one of the most beneficial aspects of the workshop. If you have expertise that would be beneficial to the Corps and would like to be considered as a potential key informant, contact Luann Phillips luannphillips@extension.org.

The event will be held as a pre-conference workshop in conjunction with the annual Tri-State Diversity Conference.

The Diversity & Inclusion Corps organizing committee includes: Pamala Morris & Shalyse Iseminger, Purdue University, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Community of Practice;  Natasha Saunders, University of Kentucky, Office of Diversity; Brent Elrod, USDA/NIFA; John Phillips, AIHEC/FALCON; Terrence Wolfork, Fort Valley State University, 1890 Institutions; June Mead, Cornell University, CYFAR; Renee Pardello, University of Minnesota, Internationalizing Extension Community of Practice; and  Rachel Welborn, Southern Rural Development Center, Leader, ECOP Rapid Response Team for Civil Discourse.
For more information on the Diversity & Inclusion Issue Corps contact LuAnn Phillips luannphillips@extension.org.

Categories
Design Extension i-Three Corps

i-Three Issue Corps – 10 Keys to Developing Engaging Online Extension Courses

binoculars-on-a-ledgeHave you ever taken an online course?  Was it required or for fun?  What was your motivation?  Semester-long, short course, less than a week?  For a fee or free?  Did you complete it?  Was it a good experience or more like how NOT to teach online?

From your experience, think about three things that make an online course good and three things that make an online course bad.  Was it easier to come up with three bad examples?

The keys to a good online course boil down to engagement.  So, what does it mean to be engaging?  Definitions include, “very attractive or pleasing in a way that holds your attention,” “tending to draw favorable attention or interest,” and “to occupy the attention or efforts of a person or persons.”  Synonyms include absorb, engross, interest, and involve.

I am currently developing an online course in Urban Food Production for backyard and community gardeners in Eastern Nebraska as part of the i-Three Issue Corps and want to make sure that my course is engaging so that learners have a good experience.  Here are ten suggestions you too can use to make your online Extension courses more engaging.

  1. Use Good Design Principles & Make the Learning Environment Visually Appealing

Another word for engaging is attractive.  Have you ever visited a website and immediately left because it looked and felt outdated or awkward?  Think about the first impression of your online course from the learners’ point of view.  Are they going to want to stick around?

While your creativity might be limited by the learning management system supported by your university, here are a few best practices to follow to make your course attractive to all learners:

  • choose simple backgrounds and fonts
  • choose fonts, font sizes, and colors for readability and accessibility
  • close caption all audio and video components or provide scripts
  • keep the screen clear of clutter (if an image has nothing to do with the lesson, skip it)
  • maintain a clear, organized structure to optimize navigation throughout the course
  • make sure all pages and linked documents are free of distracting typos and grammatical errors
  1. Develop an Engaging Getting Started Module & Syllabus with Clear Objectives and Expectations

Teaching a successful online course means being clear about where we’re going and how we’re going to get there.  Learners want to have confidence in our leadership and their ability to achieve their goals.  This starts with the syllabus and introductory course information.  If learners are lost and frustrated from the beginning, they’re less likely to complete a course, especially if it’s not mandatory.

  1. Be Present & Responsive

That brings me to my next point, be present and responsive.  Learners need to know that there is a real person (or persons) behind a course.  Introduce yourself in the Getting Started section of the course with a photo or video.  Tell them a little about your background, your hobbies, why you’re passionate about this course.

Devote time each day to respond to emails and calls.  Nothing is more frustrating for an online learner than to have technical issues or questions about content and have to wait a week (or more!) to receive a response.  With high enrollment courses, especially those with mandatory enrollment, you may want to hire someone to handle this day-to-day management.  If this is not possible, post an FAQ with troubleshooting techniques and offer your help via a weekly Zoom session.

If your course includes a discussion forum, act as a facilitator (the guide on the side rather than the sage on the stage) by commenting and asking questions to keep the conversation going and make it a true learning experience for all participants.

  1. Make it Media-Rich

Boredom and distraction are engagement’s worst enemies.  Use pictures, charts, infographics, animations, audio, and video to give learners multiple ways to interact with the course content.  If they wanted to just read text they could visit a webpage or pick up a book.

  1. Utilize Guest Speakers

As Extension Educators we’re used to public speaking and we know how to put together a presentation.  But Extension is a team and no one is an expert in every topic, so we should invite colleagues to contribute to our courses when appropriate, if for no other reason than to save learners from listening to the same voice in every module.  This also introduces course participants to other experts in the area that they can contact with questions, follow on social media, or to get involved in applied research.  Another way to accomplish this is by inviting guest moderators in a discussion forum (e.g. if you have an Master Gardener, intern, or technician that is particularly knowledgeable about a topic but not comfortable being recorded).

  1. Make it Relevant

Adult learners are busy and if they’re going to devote their precious time to something, they want to know why it’s important and how it relates to them.  We can accomplish this by tying course content to real-life applications and benefits (how it will save them time or money, how it will give them the vocabulary to talk to buyers and customers, etc.).

One way to make course content relevant to participants is by giving them some autonomy in how they complete course requirements.  For example, we can require completion of a certain number of modules, but let participants choose which modules they complete.  Or we can give research/writing assignments that participants can tailor to their individual situation and interests (e.g. it is more valuable to let a prospective orchardist write a paper on orchard management than on meat production, though both topics may be taught in an organic food production course).

  1. Chunk Information

Chunking information into easily digested pieces shows that you respect that your learners’ time and attention are limited.  Small bits of information are easier to process, comprehend, and retain.  This builds confidence and motivation.  If a learner knows that each learning resource will take no more than 15 minutes to complete, they’ll be more likely to squeeze one in during a lunch break or before bed.

  1. Challenge with Puzzles

Utilize crossword puzzles, flash cards, fill-in-the-blank, drag-and-drop labels on a figure, true/false, matching, multiple choice questions, etc. for learners to self-check their comprehension throughout the course.  Come up with problem-solving exercises, internet scavenger hunts, and case studies that require participants to look for and find solutions.  These activities may be required before learners are allowed to move on to the next module.  They make the content interactive and reinforce comprehension of the material.  This will help them quickly identify content areas they need to devote additional attention to and give them confidence going in to any major assessments.

  1. Tap into Emotion

If participants feel emotionally connected to the subject matter, then they are more likely to be engaged, absorbing the content and applying it to their situation.  Use the personal experience and goals of your course participants as a resource.  Ask them to reflect on periods of their childhood or experiences in the workplace.  Incorporate realistic and timely stories and news articles that they can relate to.  Utilize scenarios and exercises that introduce conflict and dilemma to force participants to consider how they would react in a given situation.

  1. Grow Community through Social Media

Social media is a powerful tool for collaboration and sharing.  The social media strategy for your course may rest on the discussion forum included in your learning management system or take on a life outside of the formal course through a participant-contributed blog, Pinterest board, or group Facebook page.  Posting photos, experiences, and found resources related to what they’re learning in the course will foster learner interaction with the content, the instructor, and peers, and ultimately enrich the experience for all participants.  And sharing their wins/failures as they try to apply that information to their daily lives allows participants to encourage, commiserate with, and help each other, truly forming a community.  Plus, you can then use information and photos from their posts to report course impact.

Binoculars photo source: https://pixabay.com/en/binoculars-view-focus-optical-1209892/

Categories
Content Development Design Extension Food Systems i-Three Corps Review Process

i-Three Issue Corps – Design of Online Extension Courses Using the Quality Matters Rubric

stack of stonesOne of the tools I use when developing an online course is the Quality Matters (QM) rubric.  QM is a nationally recognized, faculty-centered, peer review process designed to certify the quality of online course design and online components.  A QM rubric can be used by an individual evaluating their own course, or can be used by an institution for an internal or external course review.  Four different QM rubrics are available: Higher Education, K-12 Education, Educational Publishing, and Continuing and Professional Education.  Courses offered through Extension are primarily Continuing and Professional Education; this rubric can be viewed and printed from http://www.elo.iastate.edu/files/2016/03/qm-rubric.pdf.

screenshot of QM continuing and professional education rubricThe Quality Matters Rubric consists of 43 standards assigned different point values depending on their relative importance.  Twenty-two of the standards are considered ESSENTIAL and given a point value of 3.  Each standard is evaluated and scored as MET and receives the points for that standard, or NOT MET and receives zero points for that standard.  To meet Quality Matters review expectations the course must meet all 3-point essential standards and earn an overall score of 85 out of 100.  QM peer reviewers give detailed feedback on each standard to help the instructor or facilitator improve the course.

Even if you never have an online course that goes through a formal Quality Matters review, this rubric is good to use as a checklist of best practices when designing an online course.  It can even help improve face-to-face teaching, for example in General Standard 2 you check to see that the course learning objectives are measurable, related to course activities, and suited to the purpose and level of the course – this is a good habit to get into for all of our teaching.  I don’t know about you, but I’m usually running in ten different directions, so if I don’t slow down and focus on this for each training opportunity I offer, I may look back at the end and see things that could have been better aligned.  It’s much better to design with these standards in mind.

I presented a webinar on this topic on June 10, 2016.  Check it out at https://nextgenerationextension.org/2016/05/13/best-practices-when-blazing-the-trail-for-online-learners/.  And feel free to email me at connie.fisk@unl.edu if you have any questions.

QM is one tool that I am using in the development my i-Three Issue Corps project, an online course in Urban Food Production for backyard and community gardeners in Eastern Nebraska.  The course will cover the basics of growing and raising food in an urban setting, including everything from site evaluation and considerations of zoning regulations to harvest and handling of fresh produce and will provide easy-to-understand, research-based recommendations tailored to Nebraska growing conditions through interactive lessons, short video demonstrations, and links to available web resources.  The course is expected to launch in the spring of 2017 at http://campus.extension.org/.

Stack of stones photo source: https://pixabay.com/en/feng-shui-stones-texture-material-1536892/

Categories
Success Stories

“As If You Were There…” The Little Video Project That Grew

Jennifer VolkJennifer Volk’s i-Three Issue Corps project seeks to share stories of agriculture and forestry climate adaptation and mitigation practices across the 12-state Northeast Region. Recent weather variability in this area—unusually dry in the north to unusually wet in West Virginia—indicated a need for quickly produced, easily shared information for farmers, ranchers and forest owners about established adaptation and mitigation practices that were proving effective. To meet this need, in 2015 the Northeast Climate Hub University Partnership envisioned creating an online showcase of examples, and Jennifer volunteered to investigate using 360-degree panoramic photography to provide viewers with virtual tours of demonstration sites where they could see and learn about these practices from the practitioners. The impact Jennifer and the USDA Northeast Climate Hub are seeking is to create a widespread network of information, education and referral resources across the region that will speed their audiences’ adoption of these practices, when needed. At the NeXC2016 Conference, Jennifer used the Designathon to develop and refine her work plan and evaluation strategy. She also made many contacts with key informants and colleagues who could advise her on the leap she was about to make into, for her, a totally new technology. An especially important resource has been key informant and eXtension Innovation Project Awardee Shane Bradt who introduced her to story mapping, which will play an important role as the project concludes, bringing together all the tours to present the completed project and its resources to the world. Jennifer is an Extension Specialist with the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension.

Like most of the United States, the Northeast has been experiencing weather variability that is requiring its citizens—and particularly its farmers, ranchers and forest owners—to adapt and respond in new ways to protect their livelihoods. This includes adopting new practices or operational changes that they have not tried before and that potentially entail risk.

“Landowners want first to see a new technique being used effectively before they invest time or money in trying it,” says Jennifer Volk, Environmental Quality Extension Specialist with University of Delaware Cooperative Extension. “That’s why demonstration sites are so effective. And it’s also why websites featuring videos and other multimedia techniques are so helpful in accelerating change.”

So in fall 2015, when Jennifer was attending a Northeast Climate Hub meeting that was considering creating an online showcase of the climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies currently practiced across the 12-state region, she stepped up and offered to explore various forms of media that might be used—and particularly 360-degree photography and videos. Her offer was accepted. Shortly thereafter she learned of the launch of eXtension’s new i-Three Issue Corps and recognized the access Issue Corps membership would give her to consulting and technology support that could guide her in this venture.

First Steps: Research and Project Management

Setting up a photo shoot.

Jennifer, with collaboration and support from Erin Lane, Northeast Climate Hub Coordinator, and Karrah Kwasnik, Northeast Climate Hub Digital Content Manager, launched the research she needed to execute the project. The research had two components. First was the 360-degree photo and video technology:  its best uses, the limitations of 360-degree multimedia for website posting, and obtaining advice and consulting from others in Cooperative Extension who had used it. Second was the content: the various adaptation and mitigation techniques (such as high tunnels and cover crops), types of agriculture or climate conditions in which each can be used, and where good examples were located throughout the region.

“In no time I recognized this was a larger project than one person could do without leveraging the effort,” Jennifer recalls. She soon found herself organizing production teams to visit and photograph sites at the land-grant universities in each of the 12 states (plus D.C.) in the Northeast Region. These teams, all working simultaneously, set out to identify the examples of techniques, the types of producers using each, and the potential demonstration sites in the northern, middle, and southern parts of the region.

“Creating a virtual field tour using 360-degree photography sounds like such an exciting thing to do,” says Jennifer. “I would go home at night and my daughter, with big expectations, would ask me what I did today, and I had to tell her—I was on the phone. Setting up meetings, organizing site visits, briefing site visitors, asking owners of sites if they might agree to the video. In every dimension, this project has grown and grown.”

Jennifer credits the Designathon at eXtension’s NeXC2016 conference for forcing her to have intense focus on her project and to get the entire plan on paper for her to take back and share with Erin. “At NeXC it went from an idea to actually happening—the design concept and project management plan to make it happen,” she says.

Getting Down to Work:  Implementation and Production

Our production team reviewing the 360 photos taken at the DSU Smyrna Outreach & Research Center: John Gattuso, Gattuso Media Design; Karrah Kwasnik, Digital Content Manager for the Northeast Climate Hub through the University of New Hampshire; and Jackie Arpie, Extension Scholar with the University of Delaware.

In mid-July, Jennifer and her three production teams took delivery of their virtual kits—each containing a 360-degree camera, a tripod, and a tablet to remotely operate the camera and view the photos in the field. However, she laments, “This technology is so new and cutting edge, that even the experienced photographers on our team are novices with this equipment!”

This required another planning step in addition to developing the shot lists once they learned of the subjects and techniques to be captured at each site. The teams needed to discuss their overall strategy and decide on standards for data collection, processing, and sharing. In addition to initial equipment testing, field sample tests were needed to test the camera settings for positioning of the camera, exposure, reflection, backlighting and other shooting complications.

Another requirement was the preparation of a set of orientation points for the site managers and comprehensive storyboarding questions to ask site hosts and managers prior to and during the shoot.

“It’s very important to document the sites carefully, since traveling and revisiting them to capture what we missed will be very difficult,” says Jennifer. “We need to know all the information about the site, the people working there, the adaptation and mitigation practices, the benefits the growers have experienced from the practices and the challenges that they faced in trying to implement them.”

Finally, in mid-August, shooting started. From the beginning, Jennifer and Erin had the end in mind: a portfolio of multimedia, web-based virtual tours they named “As If You Were There.” By mid-September, Jennifer estimated that the shooting of the project—still photos, 360-degree photos, video interviews with site managers and others—plus supporting content such as descriptive text, fact sheets, contact information, and other educational resources were approximately one-third done.

For Jennifer, the creative work she has been looking forward to will now begin: the organizing of all of this material into stories. “There’s so much to do,” she says, “editing videos, selecting what to use, then building our virtual tours on RoundMe, a platform where viewers can move through our demonstration sites from one 360-degree image to the next and interact with the images by clicking on icons that will open embedded still photos, videos, and other linked informational materials.”

The capstone of the project will be connecting all the demonstration stories together in a story map so viewers can see a geographic overview of entire Northeast project and visit the sites that interest them.

Meanwhile, the project continues to grow with now as many as 22 stories planned. The tours will be released in phases as they become available, with the initial release planned for early 2017. First audiences to be targeted to view the virtual tours will be Extension professionals and other university researchers and technology service providers so that they can consider both the content and the approach for their possible use.

Categories
Success Stories

Increasing Seafood Consumption among Populations with Heart Health Risks

Ingrid Adams
Ingrid Adams
Ingrid Adam’s i-Three Issue Corps project addresses the issue of low seafood consumption in low-income populations and their higher risk of heart disease with an education program on the benefits of eating seafood. The impact she is seeking is to convince these families to eat seafood two times per week. When Ingrid arrived at the NeXC2016 Conference, she and Jennifer Austin, her project partner, had launched a trial of their planned program and were dissatisfied with the results. Key informants at the conference challenged Ingrid to rethink her approach, both how she was offering her program and her messaging. The Designathon helped her reconceptualize her project to create a new format that engages her audience where they shop rather than in a classroom and revise her messaging from an emphasis on “what the research says” to “how choosing seafood is in the interest of your family.” An outcome is an innovative approach to engaging low-income populations in nutrition education that she hopes can be adopted and successfully practiced at Extension programs across the country. Ingrid is an Associate Extension Professor with the University of Kentucky.

Engaging low-income populations in nutrition education programming is notoriously difficult. When Ingrid Adams, University of Kentucky Associate Extension Professor and Specialist in Nutrition and Weight Management proposed her i-Three Issue Corps project, she knew that audience engagement could be a challenge from the outset.

When asked how her i-Three Issue Corps and NeXC2016 experience helped her, Ingrid replies, “It made me think about the future, about changing how we do business, about meeting people where they are to increase our impact.”

Ingrid’s Issue Corps project addresses the issue of higher incidences of heart disease in low-income populations caused by unbalanced diets. In particular, research shows that low-income families and individuals typically do not include enough seafood in their diets to get the heart-healthy benefits of omega-3 fatty acids and other nutrients.

“I had an opportunity to partner with a national association, the Seafood Nutrition Partnership, which is conducting an intervention in eight cities, including Lexington, Clark County, Kentucky,” recalls Ingrid. “We use research and focus on encouraging the low-income audience to prevent heart disease by increasing their consumption of seafood to two times per week.”

Creating a New Model

Prior to eXtension’s NeXC2016 Conference in March, Ingrid, in collaboration with Family and Consumer Sciences Agent Jennifer Austin, launched their first education outreach, offering a 1.5-hour class session one night each week for four weeks at the Extension Office. Eight families attended the four-week session, but by the follow-up session, only one family returned for the session where Ingrid and Jennifer planned to collect their impact evaluation data. As an experienced educator and specialist who has consistently won recognition for the content and approach of her programs, Ingrid arrived at eXtension’s March NeXC2016 wondering: “Now what? What do we try next?”

At the conference, the Designathon held for Issue Corp members introduced Ingrid to concept mapping, encouraging her to rethink her original education delivery plan. She also met with a key-informant expert in communications and marketing who challenged her to consider: “Why not take your program to where your audiences are and keep your presentations short, concise and high energy—no more than 15 minutes? More like the Ignite Sessions at the NeXC conference?”

When Ingrid returned to Kentucky, she launched a whole new approach.  She developed relationships with local food pantries, WIC (The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) and Head Start to gain access to their audiences. She effectively condensed her presentation to 15-minute sessions followed by demonstrations and taste testing. As part of the research process at the food pantries, she identified all the seafood products they carried and created product lists. She tagged the shelves to identify where the seafood products were located, and she created short, simple recipes for handout–she even cooked one up to share!

“It’s important to weave critical thinking throughout this approach,” she says. “It’s empowering for people to see how the choices they make can be in the best interest of their children and families.”

The response has been gratifying. Food-pantry clients are engaged by the quick, convenient on-site approach and often take immediate action, selecting seafood products and carrying away the recipes and product lists. Tracking seafood inventory following presentations informs impact evaluation.

Discovering the Best Message

When asked how her i-Three Issue Corps and NeXC2016 experience helped her, Ingrid replies, “It made me think about the future, about changing how we do business, about meeting people where they are to increase our impact.”

In particular, advice provided by Ingrid’s Issue Corps key informant prompted her to rethink how she was shaping her messages. Advised to talk with members of her audiences more about why they might now want to increase their consumption of seafood, she learned that they were far less interested in research findings on lowering the risk of heart disease than in wanting to be sure they would be around for their children and grandchildren–that they would live to know them well and to enjoy them.

“My Issue Corps experience completely changed my project from focusing on persuading with research and content to making sure I started working to get people to the table and empowering them by talking about what was important to them.” she says.

Originally Ingrid intended her project to refine her traditionally modeled program, then offer it to Kentucky Extension educators statewide. Now she aspires to refine her new approach and messaging, then scale up her new model for use by Extension professionals nationwide for connecting with low-income audiences to deliver nutrition and health education.

Categories
Success Stories

Pollinator Spaces: Promoting Pollinator Conservation and Sustainability

Becky GriffinBecky Griffin’s i-Three Issue Corps project is dedicated to creating gardens that support pollinator habitats and provide hands-on pollinator education throughout Georgia. The impact she is seeking is to increase pollinator awareness in her state by facilitating the development of school and community gardens and supporting the effort with high-quality, engaging communications. At the NeXC2016 Conference, she gleaned advice from key informants that she applied to achieve an award-winning gardening blog and to integrate management of her social media to facilitate message delivery across platforms. Finally, she applied what she learned about story mapping to create a map showing the many locations and photos of the completed pollinator spaces–a visible, measurable evaluation of her project’s progress and results. Becky is a community and school garden coordinator with the University of Georgia Extension.

When Becky Griffin first learned of eXtension’s i-Three Issue Corps initiative in fall 2015, she immediately recognized an opportunity to expand the impact of her gardening program for 2016.

“Being part of the Issue Corps is one of the best things I’ve done in my professional life,” Becky says.

Becky, who is University of Georgia Extension’s community and school garden coordinator, worked in the past primarily with food gardeners. However, for 2016 she envisioned introducing education on pollinators and their habitat needs into her work.  Increasingly in past years, her community gardeners, both rural and urban, were experiencing a decline in typically abundant crops, such as cucumbers and squash, that require pollinators.

Addressing the Needs of Pollinators

The decline of pollinators—not just domestic honey bees (which most people think of as the pollinators), but wild native bees, wasps, butterflies and even birds and bats—has been so alarming in Georgia that the state has developed a statewide plan to promote public awareness and proactive stewardship of its pollinator workforce.

Through her Issue Corps Pollinator Spaces Project, Becky set out to create experiential learning opportunities for students and community members about the needs of pollinators by adding pollinator habitats into their gardens statewide. Her project required exceptional energy and project management skills, covering communities and presentations throughout the state. It also required strong communication outreach.

Becky looked to her Issue Corps experience to provide her with professional development in using the right mix of social media effectively. She needed to support her volunteer gardeners with educational resources, to record and share photos of the new gardens and to inform the public about these special gardens and their purpose: to address the urgent issue of declining pollinator populations.

Agility in the Face of Change

Green Meadows Community Garden Pollinator Plants
Green Meadows Community Garden Pollinator Space

Georgia had an early planting season in 2016, making it easier for Becky to travel the state giving presentations to schools and community gardening groups, gaining their commitment and capturing information for tracking their progress. This was the first step in her goal of creating behavior change—getting them to deliberately include pollinator spaces in their gardens.  As an inducement, she distributed seeds for Sulphur Cosmos, a pollinator-favorite flower.

Early in the growing season, however, concern about the mosquito-borne zika virus gripped the state, prompting gardeners and public members to begin heavy spraying of pesticides.

“It was what I call a light-bulb moment—a teaching moment,” says Becky. “Most people, including many of my project gardeners, didn’t understand that mosquito-targeting pesticides can kill all sorts of insects. I found myself unexpectedly having to focus on pesticide education: ‘Don’t ever spray on the blooms. Don’t spray during the pollinator’s working hours between early morning and sundown.’”

“Pesticide management is critical,” Becky adds. “Georgia is still not seeing the butterflies we were hoping for. Education about the habits and homes of native bees is essential—they can be mistaken for pests and attacked with pesticides.  I’ve also created classes on protecting honeybees,” says Becky who is a certified beekeeper.

Then, unexpectedly Georgia experienced record heat and went into a drought. Mosquitos all but disappeared. Becky’s education focus had to shift to emphasize planting heat and drought-tolerant varieties (Sulphur Cosmos luckily are), recognizing symptoms of heat stress in a garden and responding with proper irrigation practices.

Communication Strategies That Delivered

Becky credits her i-Three Issue Corps experience and eXtension’s March NeXC2016 Conference, particularly the day spent with key-informant experts, for her agility in adapting her messaging while maintaining the momentum of her social media outreach to her many followers. At this writing, she has more than 80 gardens and hundreds of volunteers in her project.

“Being part of the Issue Corps is one of the best things I’ve done in my professional life,” Becky says. “There are so many things I can point to that helped me. A key-informant reviewed my blog website and urged me to ‘use more voice’ to make the content more friendly, personal, sharing my failures as well as successes with my own garden.” This advice alone led to a big increase in hits, and Becky’s gardening blog website was selected in July as Number 20 among the top 100 gardening blog sites.

Other benefits she cites are the Impact Statement Reporting Course on eXtension.org, “where I learned how to measure impact and behavior change.” She also praises the social media expert group at NeXC2016 who taught her “how to be smarter with social media, how to report more judiciously on Facebook, and how to run it all from my website.”

Perhaps the showcase of her expanded communication skill is her just-completed story map, developed with coaching from eXtension Innovation Project Awardee Shane Bradt of the University of New Hampshire. Becky met Shane, leader of eXtension’s Geospatial Technology community, at NeXC2016.  She was referred to him after asking if anyone knew a strategy for using photos, like those of the pollinator spaces she was collecting, for evaluating a project.

Becky’s story map communicates the spirit and achievement of her Pollinator Spaces Project far better than any article, such as this, can. Clearly, Becky’s project and innovative approach to sharing it throughout Georgia suggest a model that other Extension professionals might adopt for increasing pollinator awareness and protection in their states.

Categories
Success Stories

Connecting University Students and Community through Gardening

Andrea MorrisAndrea Morris and Rudy Pacumbaba’s project set out to be a community garden with nutrition and physical activity education programming. By the NeXC2016 Conference, the dimension of service learning for freshman students at Alabama A&M had been added. At the conference, their exposure to key informants and new technology thinking resulted in “light-bulb” moments that expanded their project with an app, solidified their evolving plan in a concept map and introduced them to Working Out Loud which they plan to apply to achieve more rapid program development in the future. Both Andrea and Rudy are Extension Specialists with Alabama A&M University.

In Huntsville, Alabama, the E-3 Garden Project will soon to be up and running full speed ahead in the community of Edmonton Heights, an underserved community with primarily African-American residents. This innovative eXtension i-Three Issue Corps project represents a blending of two opportunities that came together to Engage, Educate and Empower both residents of Edmonton Heights and freshman students at Alabama A&M University.

“Today’s culture is fluid. It requires vigilance and quick movement on change,” says Rudy. “Working out loud is intuitive and interactive. It provides a new way of conceptualizing and building programs that will enable us to get ideas out early, get feedback, develop programs, test them and respond more rapidly. The working out loud model fits perfectly for this.”

Rudy Pacumbaba, Alabama Cooperative Extension Specialist in urban horticulture, had for some time been eyeing the Crawford Park part of Edmonton Heights adjacent to the Alabama A&M campus as a potential site for a community garden.

He and Andrea Morris, Extension Health and Nutrition Specialist, had collaborated on some work with schools in the past, and both were looking for a new way to do outreach to Edmonton Heights. Together, with Rudy’s skills in garden development and Andrea’s as a nutritionist, they were more likely to succeed at engaging the community on a garden. When Rudy was asked to help the university with a new freshman student service-learning initiative, he and Andrea found the catalyst that would bring their community garden project to life.

“We put those two initiatives together—the community garden and the university’s desire to get students really working in the community,” recalls Andrea. “We saw a way to engage, educate and empower both community and students on topics of nutrition, physical activity, conservation–and of course gardening!”

A Slow but Promising Start

The first phase of the plan—the first service-learning class and site preparation—was launched in spring 2016, and it was anticipated the new garden would be planted at the end of spring semester. However, delays in the start of the growing season pressured the students’ involvement, and they were delayed in getting the project ready. Unfortunately, when that first class was unable to launch the garden before spring semester ended, there were not enough summer students around to hold the service learning class. However, a full class is lined up for fall, and it will finish site preparation and put in a fall crop. ”Delayed, but still going forward,” confirms Rudy, “The university is really excited about it.”

Meanwhile, Andrea is completing her work on developing nutrition and food safety education materials that will be shared by students and community members and available on the web, in education program handouts and even at locations in the garden. Eventually, Andrea plans to add physical education to this list, incorporating physical activity education and stations to complement the gardening work. “It will be a one-stop education place on gardening, food, and exercise. We want participants to get all they can from it,” she says.

Multiple Benefits from the Issue Corps Experience

As Issue Corp members, Rudy and Andrea praise the new-model, highly interactive learning experience they had at the NeXC2016 Conference in March 2016. Some of the highlights of that experience for informing their project include the exposure to emerging technologies, the designathon and working out loud. All of these have prompted changes and enhancements — to their project.

“All of the technology was amazing to me,” says Andrea. “Thinking about it provided us with a light bulb moment.”

SOW AppEarlier, the Alabama Extension’s Home Grounds, Gardens, and Home Pests programming team had created an app called “SOW” for home gardeners. Suddenly they realized they could add it into the E-3 Garden Project to support participants, add more functionality to the project and attract more public notice.

The original SOW app provides individuals throughout Alabama with a planting guide and calendar for planning their gardens by day, month and seasons, with information on what is best to plant at what time, how to grow each plant, potential growing problems and how to address them.

“By integrating the app into our garden project,” says Rudy, “we can use it to schedule and monitor student work times, introduce the student project to Edmonton Heights community gardeners and also encourage community members to start home gardens behind their houses.”

“What better way is there to work with millennial students?” adds Andrea. “It’s a great opportunity for us, for Alabama, and since the idea has not yet been applied in other states, it can go there too—it’s scalable.”

During the designathon, Rudy and Andrea found that concept mapping helped them better define the steps in their project in a way that energized it and got it moving. They’ve shared concept mapping with colleagues, and Andrea is looking forward to using it in the new grant year to develop project proposals.

Finally, Working Out Loud rang a bell for Rudy, who sees it as a breakthrough strategy for the rapid development of any initiative—an essential response required in today’s Extension education environment.

“Today’s culture is fluid. It requires vigilance and quick movement on change,” says Rudy. “Working Out Loud is intuitive and interactive. It provides a new way of conceptualizing and building programs that will enable us to get ideas out early, get feedback, develop programs, test them and respond more rapidly. The Working Out Loud model fits perfectly for this.”

Categories
Success Stories

A Down-Home Approach to Meeting a Global Challenge

Alice HennemanAlice Henneman’s i-Three Issue Corps project promotes personal awareness and behavior change to reduce consumer food waste. Using educational tools consumers are familiar with, such as food audits, daily logs of food wasted and recipes that teach them new shopping and meal considerations, she is developing a whole new curriculum that she is rolling out locally for statewide and, potentially, national adoption. At the NeXC2016 conference, she networked extensively with other Extension professionals to test her concepts, collect suggestions and refine her project plan. Through working with the key informants she gained the confidence and tips encouraging her to “think bigger” and build plans for scalability into her project that are being realized as the project progresses. Alice is an RDN and University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Educator. She serves Lancaster County in Nebraska.

Throughout her life, Alice has had a close relationship with food from growing up on a farm to embarking on a career as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who chose to focus on consumer food concerns. As an award-winning educator with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension in Lancaster County, she is now recognized nationally and locally as a leader and innovator in food, nutrition and food safety education for communities, families, and individuals.

When eXtension announced the i-Three Issue Corps in late 2015, Alice anticipated it could provide the support she needed to develop an innovation for her program and organizational food website, food.unl.edu, which serves Nebraska as well as national and international visitors.

Making a Ginormous Task Personal and Doable

In particular, Alice values the time she spent with the key-informant experts, and how they provided a one-stop, multi-topic consultation. The Designathon helped her expand possibilities while also recognizing parameters, resulting in a more precise and concise roadmap for her project.

The innovation Alice was eager to pursue was ignited by an article in National Geographic Magazine on “Feeding 9 Billion” and the projection that by 2050, we’ll need to feed two billion more people.

Through research on the topic, Alice learned as much as 40 percent of the overall edible food produced in the United States is wasted each year. In response to this, Alice proposed an Issue Corps project to develop and add a comprehensive new education component to the food website, promoting awareness and practices for reducing food waste. Her hope for the project was that it would be scalable for use by the entire Cooperative Extension System.

“While many people think the solutions are mainly agricultural and commercial interventions and innovations, they really don’t realize consumers also CAN do something about it in their own food practices. They can be part of meeting the challenge, and each person can go home and begin immediately.”

An important tool in her education and behavior change plan is a food audit. Alice notes that there’s a laundry list of food waste reduction practices people can be encouraged to do, but that some are quite complicated and not scalable.

“Like with fitness or other habits, it helps if you keep track of what you waste as you do it,” she says.  “Better to do a simple audit for a day or week—similar to keeping track of what you eat–then you can go back and really think about it. Then you realize it’s YOU, and you can see what you can do about it. Awareness becomes personal.”

Moving Forward Quickly with a Multi-Faceted Approach

Alice is now working on developing resources, like the food waste audit tool to add to the food website and use in programming in Lancaster County and beyond. She credits the Issue Corps and the NeXC2016 Conference experience for moving her original concept rapidly into development.

In particular, Alice values the time she spent with the key-informant experts, and how they provided a one-stop, multi-topic consultation. The Designathon helped her expand possibilities while also recognizing parameters, resulting in a more precise and concise roadmap for her project.

At the conference, Alice spent a good deal of time talking and brainstorming with other attendees. She found that these discussions, as well as the communications experts’ advice, honed her approach for reaching consumers.

Trash can filled with food
As much as 40% of the food in the United States is wasted yearly.

“I came to realize that “Feeding 9 Billion” would not motivate consumers as it did me,” she admits. “I was coached to think about what resonates: money lost, and people like fresh food. Over lunch with another attendee who is in communications, she produced what is now my slogan: ‘Food Tossed Is Money Lost.’” Alice now has this up on Pinterest where it’s having an impact in Lancaster County and beyond, with people from other states joining her network and following the new content.

Finally, she’s conceptualized a new way of doing recipes to reduce food waste that educates about ways to prevent waste and what to do with what might become waste. She and her coworkers are working on special recipes for individuals and families, with many education topics integrated into them—feeding tips for children; food safety; and incorporating foods often consumed in less than recommended amounts, like fresh fruit and vegetables, into meals.

“Recipes can teach at the teachable moment,” Alice says. “If something is left over in a recipe, what can you do with it? It’s a time to think about providing answers to questions like, How do you freeze things for later use? How do you store foods for best safety and quality?”

Alice claims her i-Three Issue Corps experience made her “think bigger.” She is currently planning a presentation for a local medical center, “Leftover Makeovers and Refrigerator Reboots” which she plans to share with others and expand into such possible venues as online videos. She also is considering some type of downloadable eBook on preventing food waste when purchasing and preparing fresh produce, whether at a grocery store, farmers’ market or through a Community Supported Agriculture share.