The Rural Online Initiative: Short-term Outcomes of USU Extension Master Remote Work Leader Course

Many people migrate out of rural communities in Utah in search of job opportunities. Meanwhile, businesses in urban areas struggle to find workers. The Master Remote Work Leader (MRWL) certificate course was developed to provide specialized training for Utah’s organizational leaders in managing hybrid-remote and fully distributed employees

The Rural Online Initiative: Remote Work and COVID-19

Rural Utahns experience high levels of unemployment. Under the Rural Online Initiative, USU Extension created the Master Remote Work Professional certificate course, a specialized training that equips rural residents with skills needed for remote employment. Although legislatively funded pre-pandemic, remote work employment opportunities further benefit rural communities impacted by COVID-19

Evaluating the “What’s Up Down South” Economic Summit: A Platform for Business Leaders to Share Ideas

The What’s Up Down South economic summit is southern Utah’s largest business gathering. The event provides the business community with economic insights to assist them in making informed decisions. USU Extension evaluated the 27th annual What\u27s Up Down South economic summit. Results showed the event was an effective platform for disseminating information and advancing knowledge on economic and business topics. Participants felt the summit provided a valuable experience to the business community. These findings support the continuation of the summit\u27s information dissemination activities in the future

The Remote Online Initiative: A Legislative Strategy for Rural Workforce Development in Utah

The Remote Online Initiative (ROI) was a legislative response to growing unemployment and limited job opportunities in rural Utah. The ROI program seeks to reduce unemployment in rural Utah communities via remote job placements. Since 2018, the ROI program has expanded to include three flagship certificate courses – Certified Remote Work Professional (CRWP), Certified Remote Work Leader (CRWL), and Certified Tech Sales Professional (CTSP). To date, evaluation results show that 411 Utah graduates found remote jobs after completing the CRWP course, 55% of participants said their department created a remote work environment and hired, on average, 19 remote employees upon completing the CRWL course, and MarketStar hired two CRWP graduates after they completed the CTSP course

Assessing Priority Competencies for Evaluation Capacity Building in Extension

Program planning and evaluation activities play a critical role in the quality of Extension programs. The literature consistently identifies program planning and evaluation as core Extension competencies. With an increased focus on accountability in Extension, there is a need to ensure Extension professionals are equipped with the most relevant competencies to show program impact. Guided by a competency model, this study sought to assess priority competencies for inclusion in an Evaluation Capacity Building (ECB) program at Utah State University (USU) Extension. Data were gathered from a sample of Extension professionals at USU Extension (n = 87) and analyzed using descriptive statistics, principal component analysis, paired t-tests, and Cohen’s d. While results indicated a need for professional development in most competency items of program planning and evaluation, the principal component analysis revealed two professional development themes for program planning, and three for program evaluation. Extracted professional development themes were Program Ideas and Schedules, Program Design, Evaluation Plans, Evaluation Data and Results, and Monitoring and Impact. This study recommends the development of professional development themes to organize and prioritize efforts for ECB in Extension. It also highlighted a need to continuously assess professional capacity for accountability in Extension

Characteristics of Home Irrigation Users: Implications for Encouraging Landscape Water Conservation in the United States

Home irrigation users are a relatively under-researched target audience for Extension, yet they are major consumers of water. To promote water conservation practices, Extension professionals need to understand key aspects of this group. For example, the home irrigation user participants in the study described here perceive water to be extremely important. They engage in water conservation by following water restrictions, are interested in irrigation technologies that save water, desire home and garden landscaping ideas, and prefer to get water conservation information from websites. However, their interaction with Extension is somewhat limited. To more effectively engage with this audience, Extension should provide relevant water conservation information on well-branded websites

Assessing Rural and Urban Community Assets and Needs to Inform Extension Program Planning

A needs assessment is a useful tool for prioritizing community needs and allocating resources. Prioritizing community needs helps ensure Extension programs are relevant and targeted towards specific audiences. This study prioritized normative needs of urban and rural Utah residents using a needs assessment framework. Convenience data were gathered from 1,043 adult Utah residents, and the raking method was used to weigh the sample by selected population characteristics. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and nonparametric statistics) were used for data analysis. A calculated Point-Score represented the difference between residents’ perceived importance and satisfaction of various community assets. Results showed affordable housing, affordable medical clinics, well-paying jobs, quality public schools, and affordable internet were the top five needs in urban areas. Utah rural residents ranked well-paying jobs, quality public schools, steady jobs, emergency healthcare, and affordable housing as high priority needs in their communities. Utah State University Extension should tailor existing programs to address urban and rural community needs, allocate resources to create new programs aligned to those needs, facilitate collaborations with local organizations, and conduct timely needs assessments to monitor changing community needs

Application of a Three-Phase Needs Assessment Framework to Identify Priority Issue Areas for Extension Programming

Cooperative Extension strives to deliver relevant programming to residents. However, problems facing communities are increasingly complex. We used a three-phase needs assessment to describe Utah residents\u27 perceptions of issue areas for Extension programming. We gathered data from 1,043 Utah residents. Results highlighted four priority issue areas for Extension programming. These were environmental quality, conservation capacity, community development, and agriculture and food safety. On the basis of our work, we recommend that Extension allocate resources to addressing priority issue areas and implement a formal needs assessment framework for monitoring issue areas to inform relevant and quality programming in response to emerging needs

Evaluating Utah\u27s Rural Online Initiative: Empowering Rural Communities Through Remote Work

Utah\u27s rural counties have experienced high levels of unemployment compared to the state\u27s urban counties. Utah State University Extension developed a remote work educational program intended to reduce rural unemployment. We conducted a descriptive study to gather data from May–August 2019 participants (N = 1,025). Our results indicate that short-term outcomes from the course were realized. On average, participants experienced increases in knowledge, improved skills, and positive intentions toward seeking remote employment. We recommended formative evaluation for continuous course improvement and follow-up procedures to measure participants\u27 success in securing remote employment. Extension professionals can plan and evaluate their programs using the framework presented in this article

A Descriptive Analysis of Remote Work Adoption in the United States

Advances in information and communications technology have enabled organizations to shift traditional work functions away from place or where work is accomplished to how work is accomplished (i.e., task facilitation). With the rise in remote work, there was a need to describe the adoption process by organizations in the United States. Given that the practice of remote work is considered an innovation, this quantitative study was guided by the theory of Diffusion of Innovations and followed a nonexperimental design with a correlational analysis, collecting cross-sectional data from a sample of organizational leaders in the United States (N = 1,259). Results describe where organizations range in the innovation-decision process of remote work adoption and categorize organizations based on innovativeness. This research demonstrates the role of COVID-19 in precipitating organizations’ rapid implementation of remote work during a pandemic. Findings hold implications for leaders deciding whether to adopt remote work as a formal workplace practice and can assist them in making informed operational decisions. Findings also provide Extension professionals with insights into responding to the social and economic consequences of the widespread adoption of remote work with relevant, research-based educational programming in their local communities