ex louisville 2011
DESCRIPTION
Presentation at eXtension CoP Conference, Louisville, Ky, June 28, 2011. Rick DurhamTRANSCRIPT
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Who Answers Consumer Horticulture Questions submitted to eXtension?
Rick Durham and Candace Harker University of Kentucky
Consumer Horticulture CoP
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2007 2008 2009 2010 20110
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
20000
eXtensionHorticulture
AaE Answered Questions
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History• eXtension work by CoPs began in 2005• Consumer Horticulture was one of 8 pioneer CoPs • Project Leaders: – Rick Durham, UK with Candace Harker – FAQs– Mary Meyer, UMN with Karen Jeannette – Basic
content• Public launch of eXtension Gardens Lawns and
Landscapes was February 2008 • Prior use of AaE beginning in 2007 by Mn Master
Gardeners
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Even before public launch, Consumer Hort AaE became active
• Ask a Minnesota Master Gardener redirected to the site in 2007
• Horticulture questions asked by users visiting other content areas
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Gardens, Lawns and Landscapes
• Very popular content• ~50% of requests for information to county
Extension offices related to consumer horticulture
• Extension Master Gardeners were already heavy users and advocates of on-line Extension information
• Our vision was to use MG as Experts to answer AaE questions
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Extension Master Gardeners
• Nationwide network of trained, certified and motivated Extension volunteers
• Diverse interests and expertise
• Well connected to county Extension offices
• Already answering public questions
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Early data from GLL/Consumer Horticulture
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eXtension FAQ/AAE ActivityMarch 30, 2006 – July 20, 2008
CoP Users FAQ (published) Resolved ?
Consumer Hort 118 22,284 (1423) 2115
Entrepreneurship 11 1124 (258) 74
EDEN 9 568 (71) 11
Financial Security 19 3897 (1143) 163
HorseQuest 39 2521 (709) 727
Imported Fire Ants 38 731 (200) 85
JIT Parenting 4 1269 (797) 76
Wildlife Damage Mgt. 7 ? 189
eXtension total 2869 34,429 (5587) 4370
Hort as % of total 4.1% ??? 64.7% (25.5%) 48.4%
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Who answers our questions?July 2008 data• States with >/= 1 responder = 28*• Responder demographics:– State specialists = 32– County agent/educator = 42– EMG volunteers = 35– Other = 7– Total = 116
*Some responders cover more than one state
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Questions keep coming, and coming, and coming….
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AaE Questions
02000400060008000100001200014000160001800020000
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010?
Hort
eXtension
2006 – 17
2007 – 551
2008 – 2637
2009 (Aug) - 4029
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Who answers questions-2009?• 275 “Experts” historically for Hort (200 current
representing 40 states)• MGs, county staff, state specialists, part-time
eXtension project employee• 34% answered 1 question• 48% answered 2-25 questions• 8.5% answered 26-50 questions• 5% answered 51-100 questions• 2% answered 101-250 questions• 1.5% answered 251-500 questions• 1 person has answered 1890 questions
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Dilemma-sustainability
• Minnesota MGs – 25% of questions• Candace Harker – 25% of questions• What do we do in 2010 when we have 10,000
questions?• What do we do in 2011 when we have 20,000
questions?• When will we be unable to answer all these
question?
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Problems and Solutions• Scalability – Reassigning questions was a problem– Question wranglers have been a big help
• Buy-in by state/county staff– Slow in the beginning - “Coalition of the willing”– Institutionalization of eXtension and widgets
• Engagement of Extension Master Gardener Coordinators with social media and on-line discussions
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blogs.exetnsion.org/mastergardener
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Trends in Ask an Expert activity for eXtension Consumer Horticulture
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Hypotheses:
• Institutionalization of eXtension should result in more AaE activity at the county level.
• As more activity become localized, the number of questions answered by “local” experts should increase.
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Procedure:• Answered AaE in category Horticulture• 8 data sets from public site– April 1-8 in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011– September 20-27 in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010
• 4 data sets from widgets– April 1-8 in 2010 and 2011– September 20-27 in 2009 and 2010
• Experts categorized by Master Gardener, Specialist, or County staff
• Geographical origin of question and expert
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Number of Questions analyzed
• April – Public Site– 2008 – 62– 2009 – 76– 2010 – 164– 2011 – 129
• April – Widget– 2010 – 95– 2011 – 67
• September – Public Site– 2007 – 22– 2008 – 54– 2009 – 78– 2010 – 88
• September – Widget– 2009 – 50– 2010 - 66
Total of 960 answered questions analyzed
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Results
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91%
9%
2007
MGSpecCounty 56%
20%
24%
2008
MGSpecCounty
44%
38%
18%
2009
MGSpecCounty
43%
20%
36%
2010
MGSpecCounty
Who answers AaE Questions for September - Public?
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63%19%
18%
2008
MGSpecCounty
30%
49%
21%
2009
MGSpecCounty
15%
56%
29%
2010
MGSpecCounty
32%
30%
38%
2011
MGSpecCounty
Who answers AaE Questions for April - Public?
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2%
40%58%
2009 - Sept
MGSpecCounty
29%
29%
43%
2010 - Sept
MGSpecCounty
57%31%
13%
2010 - April
MGSpecCounty
40%
40%
19%
2011 - April
MGSpecCounty
Who answers AaE Questions - Widget?
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Totals – Percentage by sub-group
2007 2008 2009 2010 20110
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
MGSpecCounty
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2007 2008 2009 20100
20
40
60
80
100
AaESame State
2008 2009 2010 20110
20406080
100120140160180
AaESame State
Geographic origin of question and expert answer
April 1-8
September 20-27
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Discussion
• Currently have 405 Experts with horticulture preference representing 47 states.
• Master Gardeners remain a very important component of Consumer Hort AaE.
• Question answering by county staff appears to be increasing.
• For most recent data, ~90% of the questions were answered by an expert from the question’s state of origin.
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Questions?