Extension Practice

What is Extension?

A history in Australia

Performance Indicators and Benchmarking in Extension

Pareto's Law

To assist extension planning

Diffusion of Innovations Theory

Founded by Everett Rogers

Peter Honey and Alan Mumford

Learning Styles

Bennett's Hierarchy

Extension Program Evaluation Model

published - 15 April 2018
By Gavin Beever

Skills Auditing

People and the decisions they make, can drive the success or otherwise of farm businesses. Yes, farming is capital intensive, dynamic and subject to key risks; such as extreme weather events, weed, pest and disease outbreaks and commodity price fluctuations; but it is still the skills of farm managers that …
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Performance indicators, Skills audit, Strategic planning

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 30 March 2018
By Gavin Beever

A Good Example of Mentoring Success for Farmers

Good mentors can help accelerate the professional development of farmers and provide them with greater confidence and ability in assessing and setting business direction, identifying issues and opportunities, tackling key operational tasks and monitoring business performance. Giving them a greater likelihood of success.
The experience of the Meat and Livestock Australia …
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Benchmarking, Mentor, Mentoring

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 20 March 2018
By Gavin Beever

Demonstration Sites in Extension

Demonstration sites are a great way for farmers to assess new technology under circumstances they are familiar with, on their own soil types and rainfall.
Using the approach, farmers can come together in a district and better understand new technology or practices and and how they behave under their conditions. This …
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Demonstration farms, Demonstration sites

Home, Methods & Tools

published - 28 February 2018
By Gavin Beever

Mentoring for Extension Professionals

Mentoring is an excellent process for the career development of Extension Professionals. It is the process in which a more experienced and knowledgeable person provides support, feedback and guidance to a person who is less experienced or knowledgeable. Good mentors can help accelerate the professional development of the mentee and …
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Mentor, Mentoring, Professional development

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 13 February 2018
By Gavin Beever

Design Thinking and Innovation

Design thinking is a five step method for innovating to solve complex (“wicked”) problems and is being used successfully in agricultural extension. It approaches challenges by understanding the needs of users and then developing insights to meet those needs. It proposes that only by contact, observation and empathy with end …
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Design thinking, Extension planning

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

published - 31 January 2018
By Gavin Beever

Conference Opportunities for Extension Professionals

Conferences are an excellent professional development and networking opportunity. They represent a key opportunity to focus on the discipline of extension and learn and network with peers in areas of common interest or concern. Extension professionals can also use them as an opportunity to share and promote their own work …
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Conference, Professional development

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 19 January 2018
By Ruth Nettle, Ian Linley, Gavin Beever

Stimulating Private Sector Extension in Australian Agriculture to Increase Returns from Research and Development

This ground-breaking project is providing valuable research information and professional development modules to inform and build the capacity of the extension sector in Australia. A key output is the development of eight professional development modules for early and mid-career advisors and extension professionals:

Social media in agriculture innovation
Targeting farmers? Segmentation and …
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Professional development, Research

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

published - 19 December 2017
By Gavin Beever

Using Benchmarking and Performance Indicators in Extension

The use of benchmarking and performance indicators in extension helps users better understand and question their situation and generates useful quantitative and qualitative information and data for consideration against any goals or objectives.
For farm businesses, the benchmarks and performance indicators typically cover financial and physical indicators of farm performance and …
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Benchmarking, Comparative analysis, Performance indicators

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 2 December 2017
By Gavin Beever

Needs Analysis

Needs analysis is an important component and often the first step for the planning, implementation and evaluating of extension programs. By identifying the stakeholders and their needs, outcomes and activities can be tailored to suit.
Evaluation can occur against stakeholder needs and an extension program can continuously improve overtime to ensure that …
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Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 16 November 2017
By Gavin Beever

Bennett’s Hierarchy Extension Program Evaluation Model

The model is based on seven categories for planning and evaluating extension programs. The categories are linked in a logical “chain of events”. It starts with inputs and goes through to the last two categories of practice change and end results. The model has been tried and tested for over …
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Bennett's Hierarchy, Evaluation, Program Development

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 30 October 2017
By Julie White, Gavin Beever

Using Short Videos in Extension

Using short video clips (2 to 4 minutes), is a great way for Extension Professionals to get key messages across. With modern smartphones, video clips of suitable quality are simple and easy to produce. This post and accompanying video provides key steps on how to do so.
Why use video?

Through video, people …
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Dealing with complexity, Extension, New extension approaches, video making

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources