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 - 16 October 2018
By Gavin Beever

Key Professional Development Opportunity for Extension Practitioners

Building Future Extension Leaders is a great professional development, training and support opportunity for those working in Agricultural Extension.
The program runs for 10 months, from December 2018 to August 2019. It offers three face to face workshops, two webinars and one to one coaching. The first workshop will be in …
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Professional development, Training

Home, Resources

published - 28 September 2018
By Gavin Beever

Online Tools for Helping in Extension Project Management

Project management in extension often involves a team of people working together to achieve extension goals. There are some great online tools that can assist with communication, extension planning, document sharing, monitoring, review and archiving amongst team members.
Here is an overview of three key ones:

This is a free service provided …
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Collaboration, Communication, Extension planning, Online tools, Storing

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 16 September 2018
By Gavin Beever

The Importance of Networks in Extension

Building and maintaining professional and social relationships and networks is a critical element of successful extension programs and the professional development of farmers and agricultural professionals alike. This post will explore what makes for successful networks and some tips on building and maintaining them.
“Relationship building is under-recognised as a fundamental …
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Extension planning, Network, Networking, Professional development, Relationships, Social

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 31 August 2018
By Gavin Beever

Negotiation – Achieving Consensus, Collaboration and Outcomes

Negotiating for agreed outcomes is a skill that can be learnt. Technical expertise or hard skills, are often what the clients of extension professionals are looking for. However, in modern day extension programs, it is now critical that soft skills, such as being able to effectively negotiate, enable collaboration and …
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Collaborative action, Consensus, Extension planning, Negotiation

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

published - 15 August 2018
By Gavin Beever

Active Listening and Extension

Active listening is an important technique, some would say a fundamental skill, that can help extension professionals ensure effective communication.
It is used to make certain they fully understand what their “client” is communicating. It is also important as a tool to help validate what their clients understanding of the matter …
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Active listening, Effective communication, Group Facilitation, Understanding, Working with groups

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 30 July 2018
By Gavin Beever

Diffusion of Innovations Theory: Case Studies and Discussion

The Diffusion of Innovations theory was the leading theory in agricultural extension post World War II until the 1970s and there is still considerable interest in it today in agricultural extension, as these case studies demonstrate. It is particularly relevant when extension is concerned with adoption of a particular technology …
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Diffusion of Innovation, Extension planning, Extension Principles, Innovation

Home, Theory

published - 15 July 2018
By Gavin Beever

Monitoring your Extension Focussed Website

In this Internet driven information age, Google Analytics is a powerful tool for monitoring, analysing and reporting how users find and then use a website.
Given websites are now an integral component of many extension programs. Google Analytics is a very important tool, as it can be used to show:

Where website …
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Evaluation, Google Analytics, Monitoring, Online tools

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources

published - 25 June 2018
By Gavin Beever

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

The priority of this project has been to identify practical proposals to stimulate private sector extension services, particularly to fill current gaps. This webinar provides a great opportunity to hear about the projects key findings, the impacts and economics of the project, the potential options going forward and what the …
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Extension, Extension planning, New extension approaches, Private sector role

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

published - 22 June 2018
By Dr James Turner, Gavin Beever

Co-innovation, a Way to Accelerate the Pace of Practice Change and Innovation

Co-innovation is a systemic approach used to facilitate and accelerate the pace of practice change and innovation. It has been used to tackle the more complex challenges and opportunities that agriculture is facing.
In this approach the problem or opportunity is put at the centre of the whole process, rather than …
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Action learning, Co-innovation, Innovation, Practice Change

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

published - 27 April 2018
By Gavin Beever

Program Logic for Extension Project Planning

This model can be used to help plan an extension program and provide the basis for evaluating it. Using the model, the relationships between the desired outcomes and the activities and inputs required to achieve them, can be worked out and illustrated in a Program Logic graphic.
It can be used …
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Extension planning, Program Logic

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources, Theory

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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Extension planning, Performance indicators, Professional development, Skills audit, Strategic planning

Home, Methods & Tools, Resources