Massive open online courses (MOOCs) offer a unique platform through which Extension can provide valuable education. We explored The Meat We Eat, a MOOC designed to create a more informed meat consumer and increase perceptions of transparency surrounding meat production. Compared to pretest respondents (n = 490), students who completed the posttest…

Extension educators need intercultural competence to communicate with international audiences and facilitate dialogue in diverse domestic communities. Although many Extension professionals have traveled abroad, experience abroad does not necessarily lead to intercultural competence without intentional intercultural development support. We describe…

We leveraged collaboration by a county Extension office, apparel design undergraduate students, and university faculty to develop an innovative educational product to capture the attention of new audiences for invasive plant education programming. Nationwide press highlighted the project--titled Know the Land, Save the Land--generating national…

Entities that seek to provide quality community-based health education need sustainable funding to maintain their efforts. With dwindling funding sources, it has become important to have diverse financial support for program stability. A promising new practice for expanding funding involves partnering with third-party payers. Michigan State…

With an adult obesity rate of 35.6%, Alabama is the second most obese state in the United States. Alabama Extension and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) joined in the first collaboration between the CDC and land-grant institutions to prevent further incidence and reduce the prevalence of obesity. The objective of our study was…

We conducted a nonexperimental, descriptive study to better understand Oklahoma State University students' perceptions of water issues and relevant learning preferences using a 56-item survey instrument we based on the 2008 Water Issues in Oklahoma survey. In total, 103 agriculture students participated in our survey. Clean drinking water was…

In 2010, University of Tennessee Extension conducted a strategic planning effort focused on the subsequent 10 years. The process involved approximately 3,000 Tennesseans in online surveys, area meetings, opinion polling, and focus group sessions. This article describes the process, tools, and outcomes--which included a comprehensive strategic…

Many Extension precollege programs seek to increase young people's interest in and aspirations toward college by fostering the development of skills that support a successful college transition. By pairing existing data with participant enrollment records, Extension professionals can more easily capture the impact of precollege programs on college…

Higher education resources are increasingly limited due to declining budget revenue and other challenges. Thus, it is vital for Cooperative Extension to synergize efforts of disseminating education to the public. Promoting public scholarship in and beyond Extension is a promising initiative that can foster collaborations by leveraging existing…

Scientific literacy is essential for success of youth and adults in the 21st century. In 2017, Oklahoma 4-H Youth Development initiated a fellowship program to address scientific literacy throughout Oklahoma: the STEMist program. Through this program, college students with a background or interest in science are recruited, trained, and sent to…

A statewide need for Latino cultural competency training for Utah State University (USU) Extension personnel was identified. The solution involved the collaborative efforts of our team of two USU Extension faculty members and one Washington State University (WSU) Extension faculty member on adaption and customization of a needs assessment tool and…

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, Mississippi State University (MSU) Extension, and the Mississippi Forestry Commission partnered on the Southern Pine Beetle Prevention Project, a collaboration on forest health. MSU Extension provided educational outreach to a wide audience of forest landowners and screened applications for the…

Elected officials, an audience essential to the relevance and funding of Extension, may lack knowledge of Extension's capacity to engage with them in solving local problems, building consensus, and improving strategic planning or governance. They may not consider that by collaborating with locally knowledgeable Extension professionals, they also…

A new method for evaluating the influence of Extension programming involves exploring whether Extension clientele differ from others in knowledge and behavior related to a particular topic. Analysis of South Dakota farm survey data allowed for the assessment of potential impacts of Extension through comparison of knowledge and adoption regarding…

Within Extension, certain personnel, facilitators, and volunteers expected to conduct research in the form of program evaluation may have little or no training in effective research design and practices. This circumstance can lead to difficulties in the implementation of evaluation procedures, particularly with regard to program evaluation…