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Programming plays a critical role in Extension.
It represents how we move information from
the university into the hands of the people.
At the heart of each program is the intent
to improve some aspect of life for another
person or groups of people.
Knowing that others will be directly impacted
by our programming brings into focus the importance
of periodically reviewing and reconsidering
how we develop programs.
With this in mind, a group of our colleagues
were asked to review program development practices
at MU Extension and contrast them with best-practices
from other land-grant institutions.
During the review, it became apparent that
a set of common practices were put into play
in most states.
Now, each state may use different terms for
these common practices and some may have a
unique twist on them, but for all practical
purposes, sound Extension program development
embraces a similar set of best-practices.
One of the hallmarks of these best-practices
is working from a defined framework.
A framework uses an agreed upon set of terms
and stages so that all within the organization
have similar expectations and are able to
work in a collaborative manner
with a common understanding.
I am pleased to introduce a Missouri-specific
program development framework
that's been crafted by our colleagues.
The framework’s terms and stages have been
reviewed and approved by the Vice Chancellor
for Extension and Engagement as part of the
MU Extension Way.
Let’s take a quick look at the framework.
Program development via the MU Extension Way
has five distinct stages.
The first stage is to analyze the situation.
In this stage, the program development process
uses exploration and conceptualization to
identify the economic, environmental and societal
issues that extension programs can and should address.
This process also uses a variety of tools
and techniques,that include:
a needs assessments,
a situational analysis, environmental scanning
as well as pulling secondary state and national
databases
and literature reviews into that analysis.
We’ll utilize our marketing folks to help
us do a market analysis
and we’ll also be looking at a resource analysis.
In the second stage, we’re looking at actually
designing the curriculum.
This includes:
Engaging stakeholders and audience in the
design process, clearly defining learner objectives,
identifying evaluation strategies.
We’ll also include looking at the delivery
methods to ensure that delivery methods engage
our target audiences.
Along the way we’ll also be working with
marketing to design a marketing plan that
help us reach that identified audience, and
creating a financial plan to be used during
the development of this curriculum.
The third stage of this process is the development
of the content, educator and learner resources
that will be the foundation for this program.
These resources provide the details for the
components
that were identified during the design stage.
During the implementation stage, we’ll actually
bring the program into being.
We’ll begin with training and support that
will result in the final program to be delivered.
Implementation may include a wide variety
of educational strategies that were designed
and developed in the previous stages.
All stages in the program development process
should continually be monitored and evaluated
to improve the program’s effectiveness and
efficiency.
Over the next two months, you will receive
links to short videos that will feature our
MU Extension colleagues providing greater
detail
for each stage of the program development framework.
Thank you.
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