We interviewed early adopter no-till farmers in the New England region to assess why they changed tillage practices and what the perceived advantages and disadvantages of doing so were. We then generated word clouds from answers to key interview questions to convey the farmers' experiences. Most of these innovators were influenced to convert to…

Former Missouri 4-H Dairy Judging Team members responded to a survey about life skills development and the value of the judging team experience. Results of the survey indicate that judging team experience was highly influential in the development of communication, public speaking, and presentation skills. Respondents also indicated that judging…

Washington's 4-H program is transitioning from a predominately single-county faculty model to a regional system. This article highlights survey results regarding the level of awareness and buy-in that Extension administration, faculty, and staff have concerning the regional model and how communication about the model took place. While most…

Extension and 4-H youth development programs are addressing a shortage of scientists, engineers, and other related professionals by promoting science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). This case study illustrates how the Oklahoma 4-H Youth Development program trained youth-adult teams to design and implement STEM projects. The STEM…

Participant perceptions of program effectiveness and impact are undoubtedly a popular focus of Extension program evaluations. However, the effects of participants' characteristics and contextual variables on program perceptions and how the resulting data can be used for program improvement are less explored in evaluation studies. Using data from…

Hispanics are the country's fastest growing minority group. The study reported here surveyed and assessed Extension agents from two demographically different regions in Florida on perceptions and attitudes about the need, quality, and dissemination of Spanish Extension materials. Results showed Extension programs are important sources of…

Perceptions of 4-H youth development personnel regarding interorganizational cooperation were studied between the perceived and desired levels of cooperative activities between 4-H youth development personnel and secondary agriculture teachers. Results indicated that 4-H youth development personnel wanted higher levels of coordinated efforts…

Extension educators are expected to conduct program evaluation. An Internet survey was sent to county 4-H educators in Ohio to examine their evaluation attitudes and practices, as well as barriers to conducting evaluation. Respondents indicated a range of attitudes about evaluation and limited use of different designs and methods. Having enough…

eXtension was publicly launched in 2008 as an online resource; however, adoption rates have been disappointing. The research reported here measured adoption of eXtension, willingness to participate in a Community of Practice, and adoption barriers among Oklahoma Extension employees. The adoption rate was 49%, and 43% of employees were willing to…

The use of technology to deliver programming across Extension has been addressed widely; however, little research has been conducted concerning the use of Moodle[TM] as a course management system for Extension. The purpose of the study reported here was to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associated with the use of…

Culturally Responsive Youth Work: The Journey Matters is based on the theory that when knowledge and skills are found within the lived experiences and cultural contexts of youth, they are more meaningful and more engaging and are learned more easily (Gay, 2000). The program was evaluated using a retrospective pre-then-post test evaluation and…

Public expectations are rising, and budgets are falling for many public services, including the Cooperative Extension System (CES). Economists suggest specialization of CES educators is one means of handling this dilemma. This article examines changes in the opportunities perceived by Minnesota educators of moving from a cluster-county form of…

4-H livestock projects present disease transmission risks that can be reduced by the use of bio-security practices. The responsibility of teaching bio-security to youth belongs primarily to volunteer leaders, who may not be aware of the importance of these practices. A needs assessment for an online educational module about bio-security revealed…

On the assumption that agricultural extension professionals can do a better job when they know how people feel about their programs, an attitude scale with statements selected to represent degrees of attitude from favorable to unfavorable was administered to 60 farmers in Clinton County, Missouri. Findings indicated an overall positive image…

The article describes the evaluation of the home economics specialized adviser program in Illinois Extension regions, including specific recommendations for program revisions. The evaluation was based on the Provus Discrepancy Evaluation Model, which provides an alternative to traditional evaluation techniques by considering descriptions of…