Sharpen Your Webinar Facilitation Skills

This presentation is designed for participants to sharpen their skills in facilitating and teaching in web-based environments. The presenters will use an interactive format by presenting with a web-based tool (WebEx) to demonstrate how engagement strategies can be applied. Participants will learn about best practices and apply advanced teaching techniques to their work. Resources will be shared with participants, including a rubric for evaluating participant engagement in webinars. Note: Participants do not need to be familiar with WebEx but should have experience with teaching and/or facilitating with a web-based tool. Multiple Audiences

Development Strategies for Online Volunteer Training Modules: A Team Approach

Volunteers are central to the delivery of 4-H programs, and providing quality, relevant training is key to volunteer success. Online, asynchronous modules are an enhancement to a training delivery menu for adult volunteers, providing consistent, accessible options traditionally delivered primarily face to face. This article describes how Minnesota 4-H focuses on a team approach to the intentional instructional design process used to develop interactive and engaging asynchronous training modules for adult volunteers. The roles and responsibilities of the team members are described along with how this method expedites module development, increases quality, and minimizes costs

Using Webinars to Teach Extension Audiences: A Rubric to Evaluate and Improve

Cooperative Extension professionals are using webinar technologies to accommodate time constraints, travel distances, and limited budgets as well as to reach a broader audience. Although checklists and planning worksheets are readily available, there is a lack of resources to intentionally utilize reflective teaching practice and measure high-quality standards that go beyond general webinar set-up, participant experience, and content learning. This article describes the Webinar Evaluation Rubric for Extension Teaching that facilitates reflective practice and sets webinar teaching standards. The rubric provides a standard for professional development taught through webinars that strengthens the participant experience and enables high-quality learning across Cooperative Extension program areas

Business Plan Development for Online Learning

This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu.This is a project planning guide for teams developing online learning environments. All of the components relate to each other and are organized in a way that encourages teams to discuss and determine which of the aspects fit with their online project. This planning guide is most helpful when considered prior to engaging in a design and development process

A Civilian-Military Relationship: VVAF Support to HDTC

The Humanitarian Demining Training Center (HDTC) at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation\u27s (VVAF\u27s) Information Management and Mine Action Programs (iMMAP) are pleased to announce the establishment of a non-governmental organization (NGO) chair on the HDTC faculty. This effort is the culmination of several years of planning that began in 1999 with faculty-training exchanges between the two organizations. These initial training exchanges were begun with the intent of establishing shared mechanisms between the military and humanitarian mine action (HMA) communities so that interoperability could be improved and lessons learned by either community might benefit the other

The U.S. Department of Defense Humanitarian Demining Training Center: A Center of Excellence

Humanitarian mine action (HMA) is a field known for its paradigm shifts. Just as technological advances create more efficient and less expensive alternatives to old products and methodologies, emerging technologies offer newer and safer ways to detect landmines. Integrating these advances into the HMA community and thereby the training curriculum, is one challenge faced by the staff of the U.S. Department of Defense Humanitarian Demining Training Center (HDTC)

Online Learning Preferences: 4‐H Volunteer Survey & Focus Group Findings

This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu.An online survey was distributed by email to a sample of Minnesota 4-H adult volunteers who attended one or more trainings, online and/or in-person, within 18 months. Following the survey, two focus groups were conducted through a web-based seminar to provide further insight into the survey findings. This report outlines the findings from the survey and the focus group, followed by implications for training 4-H volunteers in online settings

Effects of Insecticide Treated Green Peach (M. Persicae) Aphids on the Survival and Development of Coccinellidae

Annual canola yield losses have been significant in Oklahoma due to high insect pressure, and insecticide treatments are required multiple times throughout the growing season to produce a profitable crop. Synthetic pyrethroids are the most commonly used foliar insecticides for management of insect pests in canola, but they have been shown to have negative effect on both natural enemies and pollinators. Aphids in crop systems are a primary source of prey for lady beetles, making them beneficial in fields with frequent aphid outbreaks (Kring et al. 1985, Rice and Wilde 1988, Elliott et al. 1996, Jones 2001). This study will explore the effects of insecticide (flonicamid and sulfoxaflor)-treated aphids on ladybeetle development and survival.Larval development time, adult body size, and male:female ratios from my trials indicate that flonicamid could be a valuable tool in fields where Coccinellids provide some level of biological control of aphids. Flonicamid allows for the possibility of longer-term lady beetle survivorship, where other pesticides such as synthetic pyrethroids do not. Conversely, these studies also indicates that sulfoxaflor treated aphids have a toxic effect on Coccinellids and may be a poor choice for use in similar fields. Consumption of sulfoxaflor treated aphids resulted in longer development times, which expose lady beetle larvae to other mortality effects, such as predation and further pesticide sprays. Sulfoxaflor treatments also resulted in reduced body size in adult lady beetles, which would likely decrease fecundity and ultimately reduce population size in the agricultural landscape. The fact that there were no surviving female C. septempunctata feeding on sulfoxaflor-treated aphids, and that male H. convergens were of smaller body sizes, indicates that sulfoxaflor-treated fields could be an ecological sink for these predator species.Entomology (PhD

Youth Work Matters: Online Professional Development for Youth Workers

As the field of youth development becomes more recognized as a profession, it is imperative that youth workers are trained in foundational youth development research and practice. However, accessibility and cost can limit participation in face-to-face workshops and conferences. Online, cohort-based courses are a viable method to offer professional development for youth workers. This program article provides an overview of the online course, Youth Work Matters, which has provided training to youth workers for over 10 years. The authors demonstrate that professional development for youth workers in an online setting will increase access to learning opportunities. This article also describes key components for an online, non-credit course for participants to gain knowledge, apply new concepts and participate in learning communities

Webinar Evaluation Rubric for Extension Teaching

This archival publication may not reflect current scientific knowledge or recommendations. Current information available from the University of Minnesota Extension: https://www.extension.umn.edu.This is an evaluation tool that will assess the effectiveness and quality of extension staff teaching. This evaluation tool will be used by practicing webinar facilitators who want a way to evaluate their work and demonstrate teaching excellence. This rubric may be used as a reflective practice tool for the teacher, and/or as a peer review by a colleague