22 pages., via online journal., The community engagement professional (CEP) plays a critical role in engaging faculty, staff, and students with communities. In order to do this in the most effective way, this essay advocates
for CEPs to become familiar with the Cooperative Extension system and develop competency for engaging Extension personnel, even when those personnel are not a part of the CEP’s home institution. The essay extends the work of Dostilio et al. (2017) on preliminary competencies for the community engagement professional by identifying additional competencies, organized as knowledge, skill, and dispositions, that can help CEPs work with the Cooperative Extension system to maximize engagement opportunities for faculty, staff, and students. This essay also includes ideas for implementing competency training for CEPs. Conclusions include thoughts on preparing the community engagement professional to learn and collaborate with Cooperative Extension to enrich the academic experience and benefit the communities they serve.
Waliczek, Tina M. (author), Parsley, Kathryn M. (author), Williamson, Paula S. (author), Oxley, Florence M. (author), and Texas State University
The University of Memphis
Austin Community College
Format:
Journal article
Publication Date:
2018-08
Published:
United States: American Society for Horticultural Science
Location:
Agricultural Communications Documentation Center, Funk Library, University of Illinois Box: 11 Document Number: D10330
9 pages., Via online journal., Negative impacts from invasive species present a global problem. Consequently, invasive species biology has emerged as an important subdiscipline of conservation biology. One of the goals of invasive species biology is to educate the public about impacts and potential control of invasive species. The purpose of this study was to determine if a lecture, a lecture and laboratory learning model, or both influence college student learning gains and whether increase in knowledge results in changes in attitudes about invasive species. A pre- and posttest instrument that measured knowledge and attitudes of invasive species was administered to several different classes of students at a university and community college. One group of students received a lecture and laboratory curriculum between the pre- and posttest (the lecture and laboratory treatment group). A second group of students received a lecture between the pre- and posttest (the lecture-only treatment group) and a third group received no instruction between tests (the control group). The lecture was in the form of an electronic presentation, whereas the laboratory curriculum included a case study, a visual aid, and a scavenger hunt to educate students about examples of invasive plant and animal species. In all classes and groups, there were at least 2 weeks between administering the pre- and posttest. Results showed that the control group scores were not different between the pre- and posttest. However, both the lecture-only and the lecture and laboratory treatment groups had scores that changed after receiving the curricula. In addition, there was an effect of curricula on student learning for the three conditions. The differences between the group that received no curricula vs. the two that did indicated that the curricula were effective teaching interventions to help students become more educated about invasive species.
search through journal, This assessment was requested by AG*SAT, a consortium of land-grant universities created to plan, coordinate, and deliver distance education in the agricultural science. The perspectives of department heads regarding the delivery of credit instruction using AG*SAT and related technologies were assessed. The heads indicated that their departments will subscribe to one-of-a-kind courses and courses taught by nationally recognized faculty. Most of those surveyed support faculty involvement in distance education, but they perceive that faculty need in-service education in order to teach distance courses effectively. Several programming issues were identified that have implications for ag communicators. (original)
Researchers addressed an issue in teaching scientific communication. Surveys and interviews indicated that a disconnect existed between what instructors expected of their students in writing laboratory reports and what the stated learning outcomes were for their horticultural science courses. Researchers developed and tested a grading or analytic scoring rubric, observing positive results.
