Tag: ntae

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New eFieldbook Available! Using Radio & Digital Advertising for Extension Campaigns

As part of eXtension’s New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA, the eXtension Foundation selected the National Pesticide Safety Education Center (NPSEC) in partnership with Prairie View A&M Cooperative Extension to pilot a mass media campaign using radio and digital advertising to promote pollinator protection messages to the public. The results and method is published in this new eFieldbook.

Using this eFieldbook, Cooperative Extension professionals can learn more about how they can replicate a similar model for their Extension programs. Topics of this eFieldbook include:

  • Narrowing the Audience – Characterizing Millennials, Reaching the Audience, Creating the Campaign
  • Collaboration Team Demographic Diversity, the Speed of Changes, and Strategic Plan Alignment
  • Campaign Outcomes – Metrics, Behavior Change, and Future Campaigns

NPSEC researched how to tap Millennials—a large segment of the intended audience—with the help of several research resources, including the advertising and marketing students from the University of Missouri School of Journalism’s Adzou program, a capstone course in the university’s School of Journalism. Additionally, NPSEC created a network of media partners for both digital and radio advertising to make this possible. In the spring of 2020, Prairie View A&M University’s Cooperative Extension Program in Prairie View, Texas, became the Extension partner, as they were interested in new ways to reach large audiences. The mass media campaign was then focused on driving the public to Extension resources created in partnership with Prairie View A&M University regarding pollinator stewardship.

 

Key campaign metrics of the work of NPSEC, Prairie View A&M Cooperative Extension, and their media partners includes:

  • Over the six weeks, radio messaging through the Texas State Network (which broadcasts across the state) reached 21,411,900 people.
  • Over the six weeks, radio messaging through the Gow Media network (which focuses on the Houston area) reached 1,270,500 people.
  • Banner ads displayed through Learfield IMG on college sports websites generated 1,181 total clicks. People saw the banner ad and clicked through to AgNearMe.com.

Authors:

  • Kara Maddox, Creative Director, Communications, National Pesticide Safety Education Center
  • Tom Smith, Executive Director, National Pesticide Safety Education Center
  • Courtney Weatherbee, Executive Assistant, National Pesticide Safety Education Center

Contributors:

  • Nathan Hermond, Lead Entomologist on the Pollinator Stewardship Pilot, Prairie View A&M University
  • Dr. Carolyn Williams, Executive Associate Director for Extension, Prairie View A&M University
  • Dr. Clarence Bunch, Cooperative Extension Program Leader, Prairie View A&M University

Media Team

  • Herb Hoffman, President, Blackhawk Audio
  • Adam Winters, President, Explore.US and Land.US
  • Juan Rivas Caban, Senior Vice President, Explore.US and Land.US
  • Graham McKernan, CMO, Gow Media
  • Eddie Quagliariello, Learfield IMG Associate
  • Rachel Conrad, Senior Account Executive, Culture Map
  • Braden Kobeski, University of Missouri Adzou Graduate
  • Erica Overfelt, University of Missouri Adzou Graduate

The Mass Media: Sustaining Pollinators eFieldbook is available on the eFieldbook bookshelf at efieldbooks.extension.org, or can be found on the main navigation in Connect Extension at connect.extension.org. 

LinkedIn login is required to access the eFieldbooks. This is similar to using Google or Facebook to log in instead of setting up an account via email. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, you can register for one free here. The purpose of the LinkedIn login is to provide an encrypted ID to the eFieldbook so users can securely interact with that eFieldbook, take notes, and make contributions. The eXtension Foundation is not collecting your personal information. In order to receive notice updates from eXtension, we invite you to opt-in the first time you login to an eFieldbook by providing your desired email address.

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New eFieldbook Available! Kemēcemenaw: Tribal Extension Partnerships That Support Indigenous Food Sovereignty on the Menominee Indian Reservation

“This eFieldbook will serve as a valuable resource to Cooperative Extension professionals that are working with indigenous populations, while focused on sovereign food production.” – Fred Schlutt, New Technologies for Ag Extension Catalyst, Former Extension Director – University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

The US Department of Agriculture 2018-2022 Strategic Plan recognizes it’s role in helping provide access to safe and nutritious food for limited income people, by supporting limited resource individuals and families in their efforts to escape food insecurity and hunger and improve their well-being. These objectives require partnerships between State, local agencies, and Federal, public and private entities to support best practices in implementing effective programs and ensuring eligible populations have access to programs that support their local food needs. One of the USDA’s strategies is to provide Indigenous peoples with traditional foods that are desired.

The Menominee Indigenous food system initiative is a collaborative project between the 1994 College of Menominee and UW Madison Extension programs. The initiative is built on the concept of a sovereign food systems that connects the Indigenous cultural beliefs of spirit, body, mind and heart to the food system. 

As one of four topics within the 2019-2020 New Technologies for Agricultural Extension federal grant, the Menominee food project developed an eFieldbook to be shared with other 1994 Tribal institutions, First American Land Grant Consortium (FALCON)gmail.com, and tribal organizations. This project takes a deep dive into sovereign food production, exploring the impact that workshops and seed and plant distributions have on the presence of Indigenous food being sold at community Farmers Market’s and CSA’s.

This eFieldbook includes:

  • Assessments
    • Defining Menominee Food Sovereignty
    • First Nations Toolkit
    • Menominee Food Sovereignty Assessment
    • Menominee Wellness Initiative
    • Survey Research
    • Stakeholder Analysis
  • Integrating Culture: Indigenous Planning Systems, Cultural Assets, Historical Trauma & Healing
  • Outreach Strategies
  • Cultural Considerations
  • Case Studies of Successful Projects

Authors:

  • Jennifer Gauthier, Senior Outreach Specialist, Menominee County/Nation
  • Brian Kowalkowski, Dean of Continuing Education, College of Menominee Nation
  • Meg Perry, eFieldbook Fellow

The eFieldbook bookshelf is available at efieldbooks.extension.org. Additionally, eFieldbooks can be found in the main navigation of Connect Extension at connect.extension.org. 

LinkedIn login is required to access the eFieldbooks. This is similar to using Google or Facebook to log in instead of setting up an account via email. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, you can register for one free here. The purpose of the LinkedIn login is to provide an encrypted ID to the eFieldbook so users can securely interact with that eFieldbook, take notes, and make contributions. The eXtension Foundation is not collecting your personal information. In order to receive notice updates from eXtension, we invite you to opt-in the first time you login to an eFieldbook by providing your desired email address.

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County Connectivity Landscape Dashboard Announced

For Immediate Release
September 23, 2020
Contact: Aaron Weibe, aaronweibe@extension.org

COVID-19 has sped the adoption of virtual programming in Cooperative Extension across the nation and has highlighted a need for information about connectivity at the county level for use in planning virtual programs. A new tool developed by a team at Purdue University may help. With funding from eXtension Foundation, they’ve created a County Connectivity Landscape Dashboard to help Cooperative Extension professionals as they plan online programming and outreach methods. 

Dr. Roberto Gallardo, Director of Purdue’s Center for Regional Development and a specialist with Purdue Extension led the team. He said that “The County Connectivity Landscape Dashboard can be used by Extension professionals at the local level to inform their program design and delivery, particularly in making choices for reaching audiences with digital formats.”

The dashboard is intuitive and easy to navigate. Users can quickly identify a range of county-level statistics on access to the internet, computing devices, limited English proficiency, along with state-level metrics for comparison purposes. This can be helpful in program planning. Gallardo notes, “If a county’s share of children with no computers is higher than the state average, the Extension professional can plan accordingly by, for example, providing digital devices as part of their digital programming.” The goal of this project is to support Cooperative Extension Professionals in making data-driven decisions as they meet the needs of their communities in new ways in response to COVID-19. The funding comes from the New Technologies for Agricultural Extension cooperative agreement with USDA-NIFA through Oklahoma State University.

The dashboard is accessible here, and is free-of-charge.

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eXtension Selects 8 Projects For Acceleration From Cooperative Extension for 2020-2021

As part of eXtension’s New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA, the eXtension Foundation selected 8 projects from 33 competitive nominations across the system for year two to participate in its project accelerator program. The nomination process opened in May 2020 and closed in July 2020. All Land Grant Universities were eligible to submit nominations. The project period is September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2021. Requirements included:

  • Projects must be in early stages of maturity and have a high potential for making a significant local impact and providing a model for adoption by other Extension professionals regionally or nationwide. This means the project is likely to have objectives completed, audiences identified, outcomes identified and has had some early stage of implementation. 
  • Each nomination should identify a lead (a Fellow) for the project that will serve as the primary contact.
  • All nominations must have the support of the Extension Director/Administrator.

These projects will receive wrap-around services from the eXtension Foundation to support and amplify the project outcomes. Wrap-around services include:

  • Project/Program advisory support from a Catalyst (current or past senior program or administrative Cooperative Extension Service (CES) personnel).
  • Support to compose a peer-reviewed publication of resources and processes used by the project which might be an eFieldbook or ePub publication.
  • Evaluation support
  • Digital engagement support for digital learning and instructing
  • Leadership support and training for adaptation to a digital environment 
  • Optional Wrap Around Services
    • Market research and messaging
    • Partnership development assistance 

Nominations were reviewed for alignment to the USDA Strategic Goals.  The selected projects are:

  • Community Learning Through Data Driven Discovery: Barriers to Rural Health, Virginia Tech
  • Southern University Jagriculture Emergency Preparedness, Southern University
  • The Juntos Program: Building Common Measures for National Sustainability, North Carolina State University
  • Equipping Western Rangeland Managers to Create Land Management Plans, Oregon State University
  • Oregon State University Extension Fire Program, Oregon State University
  • Wellness In Tough Times Toolkit, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Strengthening Health, Resilience and Farm Vitality through Online Forums, University of Delaware
  • Navigating the Grocery Store Aisle: Understanding Non-GMO Labeling, University of Connecticut

Three of the selected projects that were nominated had incubated their projects through eXtension’s Impact Collaborative program. This includes the Southern University Jagriculture Emergency Preparedness, Wellness in Tough Times Toolkit, and Strengthening Health, Resilience and Farm Vitality through Online Forums projects. eXtension’s Impact Collaborative project incubator program is a professional development experience for Cooperative Extension professionals. It provides learning opportunities geared towards innovation while bringing strategic support and new capacity to the System. These experiences are enhanced with the help of external partners and supporting organizations. Working together, we find new ways to generate visible and measurable local impact. The Impact Collaborative is supported by membership funding and is available exclusively to eXtension members.

Several teams that were not selected as projects for 2020-2021 have been invited to further develop their projects over the next year through eXtension’s Impact Collaborative program to help prepare them for future nomination opportunities. 

eXtension Catalysts providing the program/project advisory support for Year 2 include:

  • Scott Reed, Retired Vice Provost for University Outreach and Engagement and Director of OSU Extension Service
  • Fred Schlutt, Retired Vice Provost for Extension and Outreach at University of Alaska Fairbanks
  • Rick Klemme, Former Executive Director, ECOP
  • Chuck Hibberd, Retired Dean of Cooperative Extension, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

More information about each project will be available in the coming weeks at eXtension.org/ntae.

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New eFieldbook Available! Using Digital Technology in Extension Education

As part of eXtension’s New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA, the eXtension Foundation selected Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith as the Technology in Extension Education Fellow for year one (2019-2020). Part of her fellowship was the creation of the first version of the Using Digital Technology in Extension Education eFieldbook. 

The eXtension eFieldbook series provides a digital platform for aggregating content, tools, and engagement, and is available to all professionals in Cooperative Extension.

The emergence of COVID-19 has required Cooperative Extension professionals to respond quickly to changing needs. Many are working out of their homes and working hard to find ways to use technology to serve their communities. Cooperative Extension is facing unprecedented challenges and we are learning.

This edition of the Using Digital Technology in Extension Education eFieldbook provides timely content that aims to help Cooperative Extension professionals consider the role of technology in their work, and perhaps increase the adoption of technology, particularly social media. The information in the eFieldbook provides both food for thought and practical information that will enable you to apply what you’ve learned and to take action. Topics include:

  • A series of perspective essays that explore the nature of technology in Cooperative Extension work and what the future may hold; 
  • An exploration of two featured technologies with case studies, including a newly created social intranet/audience engagement platform designed for Cooperative Extension, and a popular social media platform (Instagram); 
  • A section on leveraging the digital information – content – we already produce using technology, including resources about search engine optimization;
  • Suggested resources that will support your work; and
  • An ongoing series of blog posts to provide additional information to help you stay abreast of technology topics.

This eFieldbook is closely connected to visioning work underway at the eXtension Foundation. To help determine developing technologies that may impact Cooperative Extension through 2025, the eXtension Foundation has developed a futuring panel to explore future options. The panel is led by Jerry Thomas at The Ohio State University. The project’s goals are to:

  • Identify key emerging technologies that may impact Cooperative Extension;
  • Provide a context about how they may impact Cooperative Extension; and
  • Recommend policy and professional development options for Cooperative Extension.

The Using Digital Technology in Extension Education eFieldbook is available on the eFieldbook bookshelf at efieldbooks.extension.org, or can be found on the main navigation in Connect Extension at connect.extension.org. 

Curator/Editor:

  • Dr. Rose Hayden-Smith, eXtension Foundation Technology in Extension Education Fellow. Emeritus, Cooperative Extension, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR). 

Perspectives Contributors:

  • Greg Aronoff, Oregon State University
  • John Buzzard, Oregon State University
  • David J. Krause, Driscoll’s Berries
  • Dr. Mark Lubell, University of California, Davis
  • Dr. Lindsey Shirley, Oregon State University

Case Study Contributors

  • Dan Macon, M.A., UC ANR
  • Aaron Weibe, M.A., eXtension Foundation

Leveraging Content Contributors

  • ChaNaè Bradley, M.P.A., Fort Valley State University
  • Cynthia Kintigh, UC ANR
  • Liz Sizensky, UC ANR
  • Victor Villegas, Oregon State University

LinkedIn login is required to access the eFieldbooks. This is similar to using Google or Facebook to log in instead of setting up an account via email. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, you can register for one free here. The purpose of the LinkedIn login is to provide an encrypted ID to the eFieldbook so users can securely interact with that eFieldbook, take notes, and make contributions. The eXtension Foundation is not collecting your personal information. In order to receive notice updates from eXtension, we invite you to opt-in the first time you login to an eFieldbook by providing your desired email address.

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Ask Extension Pilot Program

The eXtension Foundation is seeking volunteers to pilot the upgraded Ask An Expert platform, dubbed Ask Extension, to test features and provide input on user experience for long term improvements. Historically, Ask An Expert has served Cooperative Extension as a digital outreach tool to connect millions of U.S. citizens with you – their local Extension experts. The upgraded Ask Extension provides significant improvements in terms of enhanced ability for clients to dialogue with the expert, create accounts to view their entire history of questions and answers, and for experts – expanded permissions to allow groups to control access to their questions. Experts and clients are also able to respond using email without having to log into the Ask Extension platform, making it more convenient for spontaneous responses. Further, the forms through which clients ask questions will reside on institutional or group websites, each carrying their own branding rather than through a central eXtension site.

To become a pilot group for the new Ask Extension upgrade , fill out the form and join us at https://askhelp.extension.org/become-a-pilot-group/

Background

eXtension’s Ask an Expert system began in 2006 as one of the core services provided to all land grant universities.  From the beginning, the underlying technology has remained the same, although a number of enhancements were deployed over time. For many Extension programs, this has served as a key educational outreach tool in responding to specific individual educational needs. In the past 14 years, this system was created, hosted, and serviced by eXtension application developers. This has resulted in the creation of a repository of a half-million questions, answered by more than 7,700 experts. Many of these questions are available to the general public to search. In 2019 ask.extension.org received almost 10,000,000 unique pageviews, and for the peak summer season, 1,160 experts handle about 11,000 questions per month.

To leverage this important national digital asset, eXtension launched two new projects with funding from its USDA-NIFA New Technologies for Ag Extension cooperative agreement. ,  Building an artificial intelligence platform that provides information from a wide range of Extension educational resources, and  modernizing the current Ask an Expert system. 

Over the past 10 months, the eXtension Engineering Team including Mark Locklear, Ben MacNeill, and Larry Lippke, along with a team of current Ask an Expert users from several institutions, have been working with staff from Eduworks to design and develop the replacement Ask an Expert component, known as Ask Extension.  In June this team of users alpha-tested and provided quite valuable feedback. Indeed, there are more, mostly administrative changes that remain to be done, but we are ready to begin the next pilot phase of the testing and rollout of Ask Extension.  

Since the beginning of Ask an Expert, there have been two primary gateways through which the public has been able to ask questions. One is the very broad, general interface currently available at https://ask.extension.org. With this gateway, questions are directed to experts based primarily on the subject of the question and the location of the customer. The second gateway is through group-specific widgets that are embedded on group websites.  For example, several states have chosen to deploy county specific widgets on county Extension websites, in which all questions are directed to county Extension educators within those respective counties. In other cases, a subject matter department (e.g., horticulture, entomology, etc.) may have a widget on its departmental website, inviting questions specific to that respective subject matter.

Current Pilot Details

In this upcoming phase of the rollout of Ask Extension we are looking for groups using widgets who are willing to engage in our pilot test. This first phase entails our working with individual groups and updating their existing widgets to receive questions in the new system. This approach allows us to test the scaling of the new system and work out any interface and workflow issues experts might encounter. We are also looking for new groups that do not yet use such widgets but would like to give it a try. You can view an example of this widget at https://askhelp.extension.org/widget-demo/.

If your group is interested in participating in this first phase, we’ll provide new widget code to be installed on your site. When questions are submitted via this new widget they will be processed in the new system. Your group might still get questions in the existing Ask an Expert system if the questions come in through the broad ask.extension.org gateway or if they are reassigned by someone to your group. This means your experts may potentially need to work in both systems during this pilot. But, all the work done in the new system can be considered permanent; i.e., all questions asked and answered will remain and become part of the permanent repository when the full rollout is complete.

Next Steps

More information about Ask Extension and the planned transition to this new system is available at https://askhelp.extension.org. But we specifically invite you to apply to be a pilot group by completing the form at https://askhelp.extension.org/become-a-pilot-group/. After you’ve submitted your information we will follow up to discuss the next steps for your group prior to going live in the new system. We look forward to working with you on this transition.

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New eFieldbook Available! Bridging the GAPs: Approaches to Treating Water On Farms

As part of eXtension’s New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Year 1 Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA, the eXtension Foundation selected a multi-state initiative including North Carolina State University, University of Florida, University of Tennessee, and Virginia Tech to participate in our program accelerator, receiving several wrap-around services from the eXtension Foundation to help with faster implementation and impact. One component of eXtension’s wrap-around services is the creation of a peer-reviewed eFieldbook about this project and a model to provide to Cooperative Extension. Dr. Chris Gunter, North Carolina State University, served as the Fellow for this project.

About this eFieldbook:

Preventing foodborne illness and the protection of public health is objective 7.1 of the US Department of Agriculture 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. Sanitary irrigation water for produce is mandated by the USDA, including monitoring, treating and verifying compliance. Proper food sanitation is imperative to prevent situations like the Yuma, AZ E. coli outbreak in the spring of 2018 that ultimately resulted in 210 reported illnesses from 36 states, 96 hospitalizations, 27 cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) and five deaths. The outbreak was linked to romaine lettuce grown in the Yuma region.

This curriculum, Bridging the GAPs – Approaches for treating water on-farm, is a four-module curriculum designed for a producer audience. This eFieldbook covers:

  1. FSMA Definition and Requirements of Agricultural Water
  2. Agricultural Water Treatment Tools
  3. Developing On-Farm Agricultural Water Treatment Programs
  4. Implementing Agricultural Water Treatments

This eFieldbook, along with others, can be found at efieldbooks.extension.org. Additionally, eFieldbooks can be found in the main navigation on Connect Extension.

Publication authors:

  • Dr. John Buchanan, Associate Professor, Biosystems Engineering & Soil Science, University of Tennessee
  • Dr. Barbara Chamberlin, Extension Instructional Design & Education Media Specialist, New Mexico State University
  • Travis Chapin, Former State Specialized Extension Agent, University of Florida Citrus Research and Education Center. (Currently with FDA)
  • Dr. Faith Critzer, Associate Professor and Produce Safety Extension Specialist, Washington State University
  • Dr. Michelle Danyluk, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist of Food Safety and Microbiology, University of Florida
  • Dr. Laurel Dunn, Assistant Professor, Food Science and Technology, University of Georgia
  • Dr. Chris Gunter, Director of Graduate Programs – Extension, Vegetable Production Specialist and Professor, North Carolina State University
  • Alexis Hamilton, Ph.D Student, Washington State University, Department of Food Science
  • Dr. Lynette Johnston, Extension Associate, North Carolina State University
  • Dr. Troy Peters, Professor, Washington State University Department of Biological Systems Engineering
  • Dr. Channah Rock, Professor & Extension Specialist, University of Arizona
  • Dr. Laura Strawn, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist of Produce Safety, Virginia Tech
  • Dr. Annette Wszelaki, Professor & Commercial Vegetable Extension Specialist, University of Tennessee

Coordinators of this eFieldbook:

  • Dr. Chris Gunter, Director of Graduate Programs – Extension, Vegetable Production Specialist and Professor, North Carolina State University
  • Dr. Lynette Johnston, Extension Associate, North Carolina State University

LinkedIn login is required to access the eFieldbooks. This is similar to using Google or Facebook to log in instead of setting up an account via email. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, you can register one for free here. The purpose of the LinkedIn login is to provide an encrypted ID to the eFieldbook so users can securely interact with that eFieldbook, take notes, and make contributions. The eXtension Foundation is not collecting your personal information. In order to receive notice updates from eXtension, we invite you to opt-in the first time you login to an eFieldbook by providing your desired email address.

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New eFieldbook Available! Resilient Agriculture: Weather Ready Farms

As part of eXtension’s New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) Year 1 Cooperative Agreement with USDA-NIFA, the eXtension Foundation selected a Nebraska Extension program called Weather Ready Farms to participate in our program accelerator, receiving several wrap-around services from the eXtension Foundation to help with faster implementation and impact. One component of eXtension’s wrap-around services is the creation of a peer-reviewed eFieldbook about this project and a model to provide to Cooperative Extension. 

The Resilient Agriculture: Weather Ready Farms eFieldbook is an online, interactive guide created to help the agricultural industry become more resilient to weather extremes, climate variability and climate change. It is based on the Weather Ready Farms model developed by Nebraska Extension. The focus is primarily on field crop farms and producers in the Great Plains and Midwest regions of the United States. Many of the concepts and discussions within this fieldbook can be utilized and adapted for other regions and agricultural operations.

This eFieldbook, along with others, can be found at efieldbooks.extension.org. Additionally, eFieldbooks can be found in the main navigation on Connect Extension.

Publication authors:

  • Martha Shulski, Applied Climatologist, State Climatologist, Director, Nebraska State Climate Office, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Hans Schmitz, County Extension Director, Purdue University
  • Tyler Williams, Production Research Scientist, Bayer Crop Science. Former Extension Educator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Contributors:

  • Ashley Mueller, Disaster Education Coordinator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
  • Dannele Peck, Director, USDA Northern Plains Climate Hub
  • Dennis Todey, Director, Midwest Climate Hub
  • Natalie Umphlett, Regional Climatologist, High Plains Regional Climate Center

LinkedIn login is required to access the eFieldbooks. This is similar to using Google or Facebook to log in instead of setting up an account via email. If you do not have a LinkedIn account, you can register one for free here. The purpose of the LinkedIn login is to provide an encrypted ID to the eFieldbook so users can securely interact with that eFieldbook, take notes, and make contributions. The eXtension Foundation is not collecting your personal information. In order to receive notice updates from eXtension, we invite you to opt-in the first time you login to an eFieldbook by providing your desired email address.

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What’s It Like to Work with the eXtension Foundation as an NTAE Project? – Using Mass Media for Extension Messaging

eXtension recently announced the opportunity for nominations for the New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) for Year 2 projects. The nomination form will be available on June 15th until July 20th, 2020. Selected projects will receive wrap around services from the eXtension Foundation to support, accelerate, and amplify the project/program outcomes. Wrap around services include:

  • Project/Program advisory support from a Catalyst (current or past senior program or administrative Cooperative Extension Service (CES) personnel).
  • Support to compose a formal peer-reviewed publication of resources and processes used by the project which might be an eFieldbook or ePub publication.
  • Evaluation support
  • Digital engagement support for digital learning and instructing
  • Leadership support and training for adaptation to a digital environment
  • Professional engagement and development by encouraging all projects to share their processes and products via connect.extension.org.
  • Optional Wrap Around Services for selected project(s)
    • Marketing efforts with an outside firm
    • Partnership development assistance

What’s it like to work with eXtension Foundation as an NTAE project? We caught up with one of our Fellows that is leading one of our Year 1 projects.

@Tom Smith is the Executive Director for the National Pesticide Safety Education Center (NPSEC). NPSEC supports and serves Extension Pesticide Safety Education Programs (PSEPs) to be the premier national source of high quality research-based pesticide safety education.

Increasing the level of awareness about pesticides and their impact on pollinators by the general public can help to sustain pollinators around homes, farms and businesses. This project led by NPSEC is targeting messaging about pollinators and using mass media (radio, digital, social) to reach a larger audience than is typical with most Extension messaging. The project directs the audience to additional Extension resources and has developed a methodology to measure audience engagement, including change in behavior and implementation of practices benefiting both native and managed pollinators. The pilot is in a select group of Texas communities and the content resources available through the Cooperative Extension program at Prairie View A&M University.

Nathan Hermond, Extension Associate with Prairie View A&M University Cooperative Extension is working to help curate the content and resources available through the university and working hand-in-hand with the NPSEC team, including @Kara Maddox – Creative Director – to drive the public to those resources through the mass media initiative.

According to Dr. Carolyn Williams, Associate Administrator for the Cooperative Extension Program at Prairie View A&M University, “we are excited about this great opportunity to expand our program outreach to target the millennial population in an urban county.  This partnership with eXtension and NPSEC has been an exceptional process working together to promote the Cooperative Extension Program at Prairie View A&M University and the Pollinator Pilot Campaign in an amazing mass media approach like never before.”

According to Tom Smith, “eXtension’s wrap around services have been very helpful. The eFieldbook provides an opportunity to create a unique and robust complementary resource. The NTAE catalyst team has provided us validation, support, and advice. The encouragement to design professional development webinars has allowed us to focus more purposely on the key components of our project.”

Thinking back to right before this team started working with the eXtension Foundation, Tom stated “eXtension has allowed us to accelerate our project and will hopefully provide proof of concept. During the course of the project, we had to make a pivot with one of our partners. The NTAE Catalyst team and others were supportive in really helping us convert a challenge into a real opportunity.”

Reflecting upon the value that the eXtension Foundation has brought to the project, Tom shared “one added value is the funding that has allowed us to take an idea and implement it as a pilot project. Additionally, the organizational support for scheduling meetings and professional feedback from the eXtension staff has been valuable. Connect Extension has also allowed us to have a great promotional and collaboration platform to engage with a broad group of Extension Educators and others interested in this project.”

Do you have an early stage, high potential project that you would like to nominate? Requirements of projects/programs are as follows:

  • Projects must be in early stages of maturity and have a high potential for making a significant local impact and providing a model for adoption by other Extension professionals regionally or nationwide. This means the project is likely to have objectives completed, audiences identified, outcomes identified and has had some early stage of implementation.
  • Each nomination should identify a lead (a Fellow) for the project that will serve as the primary contact.
  • All nominations must have the support of the Extension Director/Administrator.

Learn more about the application and nomination process here.

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What’s it Like to Work with the eXtension Foundation as an NTAE Project? – Bridging the GAPs

eXtension recently announced the opportunity for nominations for the New Technologies for Agricultural Extension (NTAE) for Year 2 projects. The nomination form will be available on June 15th until July 20th, 2020. Selected projects will receive wrap around services from the eXtension Foundation to support and amplify the project/program outcomes. Wrap around services include:

    • Project/Program advisory support from a Catalyst (current or past senior program or administrative Cooperative Extension Service (CES) personnel).
    • Support to compose a formal peer-reviewed publication of resources and processes used by the project which might be an eFieldbook or ePub publication.
    • Evaluation support
    • Digital engagement support for digital learning and instructing
    • Leadership support and training for adaptation to a digital environment 
    • Professional engagement and development by encouraging all projects to share their processes and products via connect.extension.org.
    • Optional Wrap Around Services for selected projects:
      • Marketing efforts with an outside firm 
      • Partnership development assistance 

What’s it like to work with eXtension Foundation as an NTAE project? We caught up with one of our Fellows that is leading one of our Year 1 projects.

Dr. Chris Gunter, Director of Graduate Programs & Extension Vegetable Production Specialist and Professor, at North Carolina State University, is leading a NTAE supported project called Bridging the GAPs. This project is a multi-state team with Virginia Tech, the University of Tennessee, Washington State University, and the University of Florida. Bridging the GAPs is implementing a free curriculum to help produce growers address on-farm water treatment pertaining to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). This curriculum, Bridging the GAPS – Approaches for treating water on-farm, is a four-module curriculum designed for a producer audience. This curriculum has been piloted on a limited basis to make initial improvements to improve its effectiveness. This curriculum is ready for a broader implementation.

According to Dr. Gunter, “we have been able to access eXtension’s services including the development of the web based eFieldbook.  I’ve also been accessing the marketing capability of the eXtension team. Though we have only started on this piece, the professional development team has been very communicative for the training development for Extension professionals.” The Bridging the GAPs team is taking advantage of optional marketing support from a third-party marketing firm provided by eXtension. This firm is both conducting market research of produce growers in the target region, and putting together a marketing/communication plan for the Bridging the GAPs program. 

Reflecting upon the value that the eXtension Foundation has brought to this project, Dr. Gunter shared “working with the eXtension team has brought another level of skill sets to the work that I am doing.  I would not readily have the capability to develop the online portion of the curriculum I have been working with.  I would have to hire someone with that capability and spend time explaining the target audience and extension mission.  With the eXtension team, they already get the Extension mission.” 

Reflecting back to right before he started working with the eXtension Foundation, Dr. Gunter stated “our development team did not have the intention to develop a comprehensive electronic tool for the curriculum.  Without eXtension’s help, we likely would not have this material online in this highly interactive format.”

When asked about his overall experience working as an NTAE project with eXtension, Dr. Gunter shared “like everyone, this project is one of many that are going on simultaneously in my professional Extension work. Having the support of the eXtension team to reach out to reviewers and keep that process moving has been amazingly helpful. Just to have their team as a backup to keep things moving forward is a great help.”

Do you have an early stage, high potential project that you would like to nominate? Requirements of projects/programs to receive incubation are as follows:

  • Projects must be in early stages of maturity and have a high potential for making a significant local impact and providing a model for adoption by other Extension professionals regionally or nationwide. This means the project is likely to have objectives completed, audiences identified, outcomes identified and has had some early stage of implementation. 
  • Each nomination should identify a lead (a Fellow) for the project that will serve as the primary contact.
  • All nominations must have the support of the Extension Director/Administrator.

Learn more about the application and nomination process here.