Progress report for WPDP22-006
Project Information
This project is a rebirth of a popular island Professional Development Program grant, the Portable Extension Office for Program Literature Exchange (PEOPLE). It will represent be a web-based library that supports the most recent iteration of the Guam SARE New Farmer curriculum for our island's subsistence and small limited resource commercial producers. Its design addresses issues and needs identified in surveys of small farmers under the Chamorro Land Trust agricultural lease program who face difficulties in compliance with the minimum agriculture production requirements. Information used in this curriculum comes from; local, regional and national sources. At the moment there is no single curated archive or website to direct tropical island farmers wishing to explore the concepts in more depth.
In 2000, the PEOPLE project provided island agricultural professionals a CD containing a curated collection of digital publications from USDA websites and nonprofits, selected for their relevance and appropriateness for tropical island communities. It identified many out of print publications from the Pacific Islands on tropical production, digitized them for the collection. This project’s website will update the original PEOPLE collection, maintaining grey literature digitized on the project site, while linking to source sites for online publications. It will expand the collection with new relevant materials and websites developed since PEOPLE including webinars and videos. Island agriculture professionals now have web access, however many of their clients still do not, so this project will also provide the project sites with printers and printing supplies to expand the agriculture professionals’ sustainable agriculture information dissemination efforts. The project will focus on two key areas through several objectives: expanding the informational resources and include new media developed in the past 20 years. But it will also train agriculture professionals though zoom trainings on the use and dissemination of this information.
1. Increase Pacific island producer and agriculture professionals access to needed information resources from the PEOPLE collection, and relevant print and other media (project and youtube videos) that addresses information needs identified by farmers in these grants through a curated web page based on an easily updatable publication/media database. Also to add to the digital text media with webinars and youtube videos relevant to the island context. We plan a complete update and expansion of the original PEOPLE publication dataset. We hope to continue that projects' effort to identify relevant "grey" literature.
2. Enable INSPIRE project site staff to effectively implement print and media dissemination by providing each of nine sites, a "print on demand" and video streaming computer and printer system with supplies.
3. Increase staff knowledge on use of the computer system, website, and the breath of information resources available through the website database and how they might be used in outreach programs.
4. Determine the extent to which publications, videos, webinars, and other forms of instructional media distributed through the website are used by or impact producers and agricultural professional in our Pacific island region and survey for topical areas needing further development.
Objective 1. Set up data structures: identify updated versions, and links to resources from "PEOPLE" and input into the "INSPIRE" project database Quarters 1&2.
Collaborate Dr. Moore and CNAS media to website and data structures and web-analytics. Quarters 1&2
Survey Pacific Island State PDP Coordinators, partner agencies, and island WSARE grant recipients (of past 20 years) on websites, publications and other media, that should be included. Input these or links to these into the database. Quarter 2&7.
Project PI and Cooperators will search eXtension, state Extension, SARE and USDA, partner, and project websites for relevant materials to include videos (youtube) and webinars and, with farmers, evaluate their appropriateness for tropical islands. Team will also work with regional partners to identify out of print publications, older VHS and DVD videos, and grey literature appropriate for digitizing and inclusion in the project database. Quarters 1-8.
Survey past WSARE island grantees for information resources to include in this curated web page. Quarters 2-3
Objective 2. Purchase computers, printers, toner, and paper for sites. Conduct zoom training of site staff on project goals, roles, equipment setup and use and identification of local information resources. Send equipment to sites and set up "INSPIRE" outreach stations at each site and at UOG Agriculture and Natural Resource office. Quarters 1&2
Objective 3. Once version of the website is up, PI will conduct quarterly zoom trainings for all project site staff (and ag professionals) on information resources included and newly added to the web site. These trainings will also be used to collect program evaluation and progress data and suggestions for improvement and additional topics to include. Quarters 2-8
Project site staff will hold ag professional and producer workshops on the "INSPIRE" site and disseminate informational flyers on the site and site access. Quarters 4,5,&6
Objective 4. Product use will be measured through web-analytics that are built into the website to document downloads from the website. Quarters 2&3
Each site will maintain a log to record information products that are accessed by clients on site. Quarters 3-8
Quarterly zoom workshops will also solicit anecdotal information on both ag professional use and impact of the website and topical areas needing expansion. Quarters 2-8
Conduct surveys of agricultural professionals/producers using the website on ease of use, desired topics not included, and suggestions for improvements. Quarters 4&6
Conduct program evaluation with project team and site staff. Quarter 7&8
Cooperators
- (Educator)
- (Educator)
- (Researcher)
Education
Proposed:
This project aims to more broadly disseminate the information curated then and to collect new publications developed in the past 2 decades and other media like Cooperative Extension and other YouTube videos on sustainable agriculture practices and concepts. Now it will be web based to provide a one-stop information access for sustainable agriculture and island sustainability information for Extension and other agricultural professionals and farmer groups. Again at key farmer outreach sites print on demand capability and training of agricultural professionals will be key to the
program effort. Currently there is no single curated archive or website for tropical island farmers wishing to explore the concepts in more depth.
The INSPIRE project will build a curated website of sustainable agriculture information resources for grassroots dissemination by agricultural professionals and farmer nonprofits. It will include materials collected or developed for the many island WSARE projects as well as the PEOPLE collection, and seek out and include print and other media (project webinars and youtube videos) to address information needs identified in past WSARE and other island Research and Education grants. Hundreds of WSARE grants in the Pacific islands produced educational materials not widely disseminated, past WSARE island grantees will be surveyed for information resource needs. Analog videos from past island WSARE grants will be digitized or linked to be included in the website.
Nine "Inspire" sustainable agriculture information dissemination sites will be developed throughout the region to increase outreach efforts. The four "Inspire" sites on Guam will be in the offices UOG CE&O Agriculture and Natural Resources office, the Guam Department of Agriculture, Farmer's Cooperative Association of Guam, and the Chamorro Land Trust Commission. The other six sites will be developed throughout the College of Micronesia offices in Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, Marshall Islands, Yap, and Palau. In all cases the project equipment and materials will be in a publicly accessible
area that maximizes visibility. Quarterly zoom meetings and trainings will be conducted for the 9 island site staff.
February 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024 update:
In the beginning of the year, a large effort was placed in working with and learning how to use Zotero and started inputting the resources into the database. This has been halted as a result of losing two of our key project team members, one who had expertise in Zotero and online databases and the other in media. We will now be working with the University of Guam’s Library and their on-line archives and our current UOG-CNAS Media Communications Lead. The current plan to ensure sustainability of this website and publications will become a UOG-CNAS-WSARE sustainable agriculture program archive for agricultural professionals, producers, and students. Super Typhoon Mawar stopped project activities for about 3 months, upon return we identified cooperators that can fill the role and settled for a far more sustainable solution than what was originally proposed.
September 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023 update:
Key to success of the project is to develop the INSPIRE website through a collaborative effort with regional partners in identifying resource needs merged with the previously funded WSARE PEOPLE project's resources to be uploaded. The project team has used existing survey data from regional projects and the local advisory committee to collect appropriate sustainable agriculture resources from local, regional, and national sites. Resources from the PEOPLE project are being verified from their respective sites and continues to be uploaded into a database. The team has identified and uses Zotero as a free resource management software which allows us to collect, store, organize, and cite appropriate resources. This activity will carry over into the next quarters of the grant.
Education & Outreach Initiatives
Increase Pacific island producer and agriculture professionals access to needed information resources from the PEOPLE collection and relevant print and other media that addresses information needs.
Proposed:
Set up data structures: identify updated versions, and links to resources from "PEOPLE" and input into the "INSPIRE" project database. (Quarters 1 & 2)
Collaborate Dr. Moore and CNAS media to website and data structures and web-analytics. (Quarters 1 & 2)
Survey Pacific Island State PDP Coordinators, partner agencies, and island WSARE grant recipients (of past 20 years) on websites, publications and other media, that should be included. Input these or links to these into the database. (Quarters 2 & 7)
Project PI and Cooperators will search eXtension, state Extension, SARE and USDA, partner, and project websites for relevant materials to include videos (youtube) and webinars and, with farmers, evaluate
their appropriateness for tropical islands. The project team will also work with regional partners to identify out of print publications, older VHS and DVD videos, and grey literature appropriate for digitizing and inclusion in the project database. (Quarters 1 & 8)
Survey past WSARE island grantees for information resources to include in this curated web page. (Quarters 2 & 3)
February 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024 update:
Continued to review the former WSARE funded Portable Extension Office for Program Literature Exchange “PEOPLE” CD. Currently have staff looking for the most current versions of those publications and to get the PDF files from the PEOPLE CD for inclusion into website.
Work with the WSARE coordinator to identify recent years SARE projects that have generated publications and to obtain current New and Veteran Farmer workshop series publications to support the lectures and external recommended resources used.
Reached out to several project managers and extension and extension faculty to get recent publications and to identify those that are under review.
September 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023 update:
During the first quarter of the project, several meetings with project team were held to discuss to set up the data structures and website analytics. The team identified Zotero as the database used in the grant. Zotero is a free web-based application that will aid in the collection, organization, annotation, and citation of research and extension publications. Zotero helps organize publications and sorts them into collections and tags them with keywords. The project team is able to sync data across other devices, which will keep files, notes, and bibliographic records up to date and build a collaborative bibliography. To date, the team continues to verify and upload past resources from PEOPLE as well as collect current resources from other local, regional, and national sites, based on existing survey data from WSARE regional projects and the Guam WSARE local advisory committee.
In December 2022, the Guam WSARE PDP hosted a 64-hour Master Food Preservers Certification training in collaboration with the Hawaii Master Food Preservers Program. Resources collected for the INSPIRE project were utilized in the training by 6 particpants and 2 trainers.
Needs identified by producers and agricultural professionals will be incorporated into this grant through a curated website based on an easily updated publication/media database.
Enable INSPIRE project site staff to effectively implement, print, and disseminate media by providing each of nine sites, a "print on demand" video streaming computer with a printer system and supplies.
Proposed:
Purchase computers, printers, toner, and paper for sites. Conduct zoom training of site staff on project goals, roles, equipment setup and use and identification of local information resources. Send equipment to sites and set up "INSPIRE" outreach stations at each site and at UOG Agriculture and Natural Resource office. (Quarters 1 & 2)
February 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024 update:
As project team and plan has been modified for the INSPIRE website, work on this objective will continue once website is close to completion.
September 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023 update:
Price quotes have been obtained for the purchasing of computers, printers, toner, and paper for the INSPIRE sites. These items will be purchased during quarter 2 of the grant.
Nine "Inspire" sustainable agriculture information dissemination sites will be developed throughout the region to increase outreach efforts. The four "Inspire" sites on Guam will be in the offices UOG CE&O Agriculture and Natural Resources office, the Guam Department of Agriculture, Farmer's Cooperative Association of Guam, and the Chamorro Land Trust Commission. The other six sites will be developed throughout the College of Micronesia offices in Pohnpei, Chuuk, Kosrae, Marshall Islands, Yap, and Palau. In all cases the project equipment and materials will be in a publicly accessible area that maximizes visibility.
Increase staff knowledge on use of the computer system, website, and the breath of information resources available through the website database and how they might be used in outreach programs.
Proposed:
Once version of the website is up, PI will conduct quarterly zoom trainings for all project site staff (and ag professionals) on information resources included and newly added to the web site. These trainings will also be used to collect program evaluation and progress data and suggestions for improvement and additional topics to include. (Quarters 2-8)
Project site staff will hold ag professional and producer workshops on the "INSPIRE" site and disseminate informational flyers on the site and site access. (Quarters 4,5,&6)
February 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024 update:
Trainings will commence once website is close to completion. Meetings have taken place with regional partners to plan upcoming trainings.
September 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023 update:
Quarterly trainings for agricultural professionals at project sites will commence during quarter 2 of the project.
Agricultural professionals at each site will increase their capacity of serving their clients with updated sustainable agriculture resources through project trainings.
Determine the extent to which publications, videos, webinars, and other forms of instructional media distributed through the website are used by or impact producers and agricultural professional in our Pacific island region and survey for topical areas needing further development.
Survey assessment data will be collected from Pacific Island State PDP Coordinators, partner agencies, island WSARE grant recipients, and island producers on website links, publications, and other media to be incorporated into project website. (Quarters 4,5,&6)
Product use will be measured through web-analytics that are built into the website to document downloads from the website. (Quarters 2 & 3)
Each site will maintain a log to record information products that are accessed by clients on site. (Quarters 3-8)
Quarterly zoom workshops will also solicit anecdotal information on both ag professional use and impact of the website and topical areas needing expansion. (Quarters 2-8)
Conduct surveys of agricultural professionals/producers using the website on ease of use, desired topics not included, and suggestions for improvements. (Quarters 4 & 6)
Conduct program evaluation with project team and site staff. (Quarters 7 & 8)
February 1, 2023 - January 31, 2024 update:
As the program was delayed, the team will continue to conduct evaluations during the upcoming quarters.
September 1, 2022 - January 31, 2023 update:
Website evaluation and zoom meetings will begin after the website is launched in upcoming quarters.
The project team will include a summarized evaluation using information gained from evaluations, survey assessments, site logs, and web analytics for the final report. The summarized data from the evaluations will be used as a tool for improving future projects and outreach delivery strategies.
Educational & Outreach Activities
Participation Summary:
Learning Outcomes
Project Outcomes
The project aims to create a one-stop website of curated sustainable agriculture information specifically relevant to and much of it from topical island contexts, and anticipate that this will increase adoption of sustainable practices.
We believe that many information resources that have to be sought in separate locations will see broader exposure by producers and agriculture professionals due to this ease of locating.
One outcome that the past PEOPLE project found was that resources on the CD were used extensively by both K-12 educators as well as University classes. We anticipate that that will be even more true with this website.
In the islands under the College of Micronesia jurisdiction, we believe that the resources will provide source materials that the island agricultural professionals can use in preparation of publications or workshops in the language of the island. Access to these publications will be a very powerful tool in enabling isolated island agricultural professionals to address a wide variety of topics.