Programming Techniques and Skills for Advisory Leaders

1
Programming Techniques and Skills for Advisory
Leaders
Ralph Prince and Roger Rennekamp,
Ph.D. University of Kentucky Cooperative
Extension Service
2
Common Elements

• Developing Linkages with the Public
• Planningassessing, prioritizing, and designing
• Implementation of plans
• Evaluationmeasuring program results

3
Developing Linkages with the Public

• Formal
• advisory councils, boards,
• committees, commodity groups
• task forces
• Informal
• day to day visits
• intentional visits

4
Planning

• Situation Analysis
• Identifying Program Opportunities
• Priority Setting
• Program Design

5
Situation Analysis
Planning

• Existing Data
• Internet sites, other organizations
• Resident Perspectives
• community forums, focus groups,
• key informant interviews, surveys,
• media scans
• Current Research Knowledge
• bottom upclients, communities
• top downspecialists, base programs,
• issues

6
Questions to Ask to Gain Residents Perspectives
Planning

• What are the positive and negative
  characteristics of the community?
• What are the most pressing issues and problems
  confronting residents?
• What strengths and resources reside within the
  community for addressing these issues and
  problems?
• What barriers prevent residents from addressing
  these issues and problems?
• How can Extension help address the issues and
  problems through educational programming?

7
Situation Analysis cont.
Planning

• Existing Data
• Internet sites, other organizations
• Resident Perspectives
• community forums, focus groups,
• key informant interviews, surveys,
• media scans
• Current Research Knowledge
• bottom upclients, communities
• top downspecialists, base programs,
  issues

8
Some Questions to Ask about the Situation
Planning

• Why is this issue a problem?
• How severe is the problem?
• What are the costs associated with the problem?
• Do we have the resources to fix the problem?
• Who else is (has been) working on the problem?
  Our mission?
• What are implications for not addressing the
  problem?
• What are the benefits for solving the problem?
• Who are the primary and secondary audiences to
  address?
• What is the total number in the target audience?
• What is the total number that could be reached?

9
Identifying Program Opportunities Baseline
Data ?Needs Identification ?Intended Outcomes
Planning

10
Priority Setting
Planning

• Present data
• Move to a list of program opportunities
• Setting priorities techniques
• simple voting
• multi-voting
• 100 votes
• nominal group technique

11
Possible Priority Setting Criteria Questions
Planning

• The relative importance of the issue.
• The number of people affected.
• Political environment.
• History, i.e., Has this been addressed in the
  past? Are there implications from other programs?
• Ability of Extension to respond.
• Interests of County Extension Council members.
• Culture of the county and communities.
• Efforts of other organizations and agencies.

12
Program Design
Planning

• Program plan
• Design teams
• Program Logic models
• inputs ? outputs ? outcomes
• Questions to ask
• Putting it all together

13
Program Design Questions
Planning

• What changes in social, economic, or
  environmental conditions will the program
  produce? That is, what are the long-term outcomes
  of our program?
• If such changes in conditions are to be realized,
  what must people do differently in terms of
  practices or behaviors?
• If people are to change their behaviors or
  practices, what must they know? What skills must
  they possess? How must their attitudes or
  opinions change? What must they aspire to?

14
Program Design Questions Cont

• Who is the audience that the program is intending
  to reach? What are the characteristics of the
  intended audience? (There may be more than one
  target audience.)
• What activities or learning experiences will be
  most effective in producing the outcomes desired
  for each target audience?
• What resources are required to implement the
  learning experiences planned?

15
Program Implementation

• Four Elements
• Resource Management
• Program Management humans, tasks, fiscal
  matters, risks
• Marketingmail, media, community postings
• Collaboration

16
Program Evaluation

• Establishing criteria, collecting evidence,
  making judgments and communicating findings
• Evaluationvalue or worth of the program
• Interpretationwhat does it mean
• Communicationwho needs to know

17
Process Evaluation(how was the
implementation)vs.Outcome Evaluation(what were
the results)
Program Evaluation
18
The Evaluation Plan
Program Evaluation

• Begins in program design
• Evaluation questions
• Indicators
• Methods
• Timeline

19
Evaluation Methods
Program Evaluation

• Tests
• Questionnaires
• Surveys
• Observations
• Record reviews, activity logs
• Physical evidence
• Focus groups
• Case studies

20
Questions to Ask about Your Evaluation Plan
Program Evaluation

• What do we want to know about the process?
• What do we want to know about the results?
• What were/are our intended outcomes?
• What will we measure?
• How will we measure it?
• Who needs to know the findings?

21
The Evaluation Plan, cont.
Program Evaluation

• Begins in program design
• Evaluation Questions
• Indicators
• Methods
• Timeline

22
Communicating Evaluation Results
Program Evaluation

• Interpretation
• Marketing

23
IN CONCLUSION

• Common Elements
• Developing Linkages with the Public
• Planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation