Growing Agricultural Service Providers’ Program Outcomes with Producer Co-Educators

View the project final report

Commodities

Practices

• Animal Production: meat processing, meat processing facilities, meat product quality/safety, range improvement, rangeland/pasture management
• Education and Training: extension, farmer to farmer, mentoring, workshop
• Farm Business Management: budgets/cost and returns
• Sustainable Communities: local and regional food systems, partnerships, values-based supply chains

This project equipped agricultural educators with the experiences and support needed to develop successful learner-centered educational programs through an outcome-based design approach that involves producers as co-educators. Using a cohort model, the project supported seven educators across Oregon to work with producers throughout the educational planning, design, and teaching process, ensuring that the programs met the needs of farmers and ranchers. To explore their teaching philosophies, the educators participated in a Real Colors® temperament workshop and completed a personal learning styles assessment. They also examined the core principles of adult education and how to apply effective teaching and learning strategies. To develop relevant programs, cohort members received instructional design and planning tools, guidance on engaging producers as co-educators, and guidance on developing teaching and learning plans. Throughout the project, cohort members received mentorship from experienced farmer-educators and other members of the leadership team. Cohort members had ample opportunities to interact, share information, practice new skills, and give peer feedback to enhance learning. At the final cohort retreat, participants shared insights from their experiences working with a producer co-educator, reflected on their learning journey, and contributed to a ripple effect map. This project resulted in a cohort-based process and resources that can be transferred to promote effective, sustainable farming and ranching practices. Project outcomes include cohort members applying their knowledge of OBE and partnering with producer co-educators to implement 21 educational programs for farmers, ranchers, and agricultural service providers, reaching 173 participants. Event surveys showed that 118 producers gained new skills or changed their attitudes, while 22 agricultural professionals plan to use the new knowledge and skills they acquired.

To enhance agricultural educators' knowledge and skills in developing instructional designs that enable producers to achieve relevant, authentic learning outcomes.

To expand agricultural educators' skills to more effectively facilitate adult learning experiences through having them teach in project meetings using the practices outlined in Sustainable Agriculture Through Sustainable Learning (Bell and McAllister, 2021).

To enhance agricultural educators' ability to engage with producers as co-educators throughout the educational planning and design process to ensure the resulting programs will meet the needs of the participating farmers and ranchers.

To support agricultural educators in exploring how personality tendencies and perspectives on learning influence their approaches to program design and teaching with producer co-educators.

To enhance agricultural educators' program evaluation skills, specifically in creating instruments to gather valuable feedback from producers, thereby improving future programs and documenting behavior change.

To enable agricultural educators to gain the skills to conduct cost recovery, including funds to compensate producers as experts and educators.

To empower farmers and ranchers to see themselves as co-educators and value their time by being paid as consultants.

To enable agricultural educators to identify the community-level impacts of outcome-based educational programming co-developed and co-taught with producers -co-educators using Ripple Effect Mapping.

To articulate a cohort-based professional development process and create transferable resources that can be used by others working with agricultural educators to further promote the implementation of effective, sustainable farming and ranching practices.