Deepening Extension educator expertise with a distance Community Economics Discussion Course

Skill Building

Some states have committed to narrowing the breadth and increasing the depth of Extension educator positions. For example, the University of Minnesota Extension Service has realigned its programming into an area of expertise (AoE) model. Regional Extension educators (REEs) specialize within an AoE and become members of that team. Minnesota's Community Economics AoE created a book discussion in 2005 in order to boost the competency of its educators and create ties to campus faculty (Extension and nonExtension). The Community Economics Discussion Course featured the 2004 book by the same name, Community Economics, by Deller, Shaffer and Marcouiller. For each chapter an appropriate faculty specialist was invited to be the content expert.

Distance education is a much talked about yet still somewhat mistrusted approach. However, in the current funding environment for Extension it offers the benefits of lower expenses as well as time savings. The Community Economics Discussion Course offered the opportunity to take advantage of distance benefits while role modeling to both campus faculty and REEs the value of distance education in appropriate situations.

The proposed presentation will describe the curriculum, the methods, and the outcomes of the discussion course. The presenters will suggest ways that teams in other states might be able to use this model.