With today's technology, Extension professionals have a variety of tools available for program evaluation. This article describes an innovative platform called VoiceThread that has been used in many classrooms but also is useful for conducting virtual focus group research. I explain how this tool can be used to collect qualitative participant…

High-quality 4-H programming requires effective professional development of educators. Through a mixed methods study, we explored professional development offered through state 4-H programs. Survey results revealed that both in-person and online delivery modes were used commonly for 4-H staff and adult volunteers; for teen volunteers, in-person…

The research reported here explored the perceived barriers to social media use by Extension educators. Using a sequential mixed method approach, the research was composed of two parts. The qualitative study used interview data (n = 27) from Wisconsin and New York Extension educators. The quantitative study gathered data from surveying Extension…

As our world becomes more interconnected on international, domestic, and personal levels, our need to be more culturally competent increases (Samovar, Porter, & McDaniel, 2007; Ting-Toomey, 1999). Recognizing this need, Washington State University Extension sought to increase skills of its personnel by developing a set of cultural competencies…

Transformative learning can lead to great awareness of one's own and others' personal perspectives and result in changes in how participants understand important social issues and how they choose to take action or not. Three examples of Extension teaching that embrace transformative learning are presented: a phenomenological approach to…

Performance appraisal is necessary for summative decisions about employees, such as merit pay and promotion. The research reported here describes Extension agent perceptions of their performance appraisal system. The population studied consisted of all Tennessee Extension agents (N = 312). Surveys were completed by 218 respondents, for a completed…

The study reported here involved Cooperative Extension as a key research partner and was guided by a community-based participatory research approach and a feasibility study framework. The research objective was to assess four indicators of feasibility (i.e., acceptability, demand, implementation, and limited-effectiveness) of a gardening and…

The purpose of the study reported here was to explore and describe how Extension agents selected teaching strategies for adult audiences. Andragogy is hypotheses concerning the attributes of adult learners (Knowles, Swanson, & Holton III, 2005). Extension agents responsible for teaching the Master Beef Producer (MBP) program were purposively…

Few studies have examined the types of educational delivery methods preferred by farmers (Eckert & Bell, 2005; Eckert & Bell, 2006). The research project reported here explored the preferred learning methods of farmers in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Virginia. Data on learning methods collected directly from farmers were compared with…

This article presents a strategy for incorporating experiential learning into university coursework through the use of Extension fieldwork projects. In this case, undergraduate agribusiness management students construct business plans for primary agricultural industries and proposed new industries, such as food processing. Results of the study…