The 4-H Volunteer Continuing Education Academy was developed to provide 4-H club leaders a continuing education opportunity, to assist them in developing and enhancing the skills and knowledge necessary for their volunteer role, and to provide a means for 4-H livestock and horse club leaders to recertify. All participants reported satisfaction…

As the U.S. population becomes more diverse, Extension is called upon to modify its programming to meet the needs of its changing constituency. Georgia Extension created a professional development curriculum to assist Extension professionals in crafting effective programming for the rapidly growing Latino population. The study reported here…

Audience response devices (ARDs), or "clickers," have traditionally been used in the classroom to take attendance, provide testing of current knowledge and knowledge gain, and assist with review of course topics. The ARDs were used at a recent Extension conference, which provided an opportunity to test how well this tool worked. Though…

The American Community Survey provides detailed demographic data on local communities and populations. While the American Community Survey provides data useful for Extension, the data are more complicated, users must understand data reliability, and many resources are designed to help the regular, not the occasional, user. The Kentucky: By The…

Rural small businesses struggling against the current of competition from "big box" retailers, weak consumer demand, and on-line shopping options must find strategies that work. Many are finding that adoption of e-commerce strategies is a key to survival, even prosperity. This article highlights the lessons learned from a recent case study…

The study expands reported here Extension education's knowledge regarding characteristics of potential change agents. Graduate students learning to become agricultural Extension educators were studied to determine their definition of a change agent. Participants' cognitive styles were assessed using Kirton's Adaptation-Innovation Inventory to…

A focus group of Somali immigrants was conducted as part of a larger study of underserved communities in Minnesota. The goal was to capture Somali women's personal experiences and views on nutrition. This understanding assists Health and Nutrition educators in assessing the quality and effectiveness of current programming efforts and making…

Educational commodity marketing clubs have been an effective tool for producers to develop their grain and livestock marketing skills. These groups are further enhanced when the participants engage in "actual trading" versus "paper trading" techniques. When a club chooses to try actual trading, it becomes more complicated than pooling monies…

Master Gardeners are very important in helping Extension deliver horticultural information to local citizens. The theoretical framework of the study reported here was based on Houle's Typology. The purpose was to develop an understanding of adult motivations to participate in the Florida Master Gardener program. The sampled population was 613…