Using Technology to Reach Clientele

Darrell A. Dromgoole, Associate Professor and Extension Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Scott Cummings, Associate Department Head and Program Leader; Professor and Extension Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Extension is operating in some extremely chaotic times as we have had to shift from face to face programming to remote program delivery or distance education due to current the public health crisis. In this installment of Next Step to Success we are going to discuss using technology to reach clientele.

The internet has brought the ability to learn material or gain skills in almost any discipline in the palm of clientele’s hands. As technology improves and is now available to more of Extension’s target audiences, it is paramount that Extension focuses on engaging clientele with new and creative methods. According to the 2019 Pew Research Internet/Broadband Fact Sheet, 90% of American adults utilize the internet (Pew Research Center, 2019).  There is an increasing interest in self-directed learning (Freeman, Adams, & Cummins, 2016). Freeman, Adams, and Cummins (2016) identified a number of key trends that have and will accelerate the adoption of technology. Some of these trends are as follows (Freeman et al., 2016):

• Advancing Cultures of Innovation. Many thought leaders have long believed that education can play a major role in the growth of national economies. In order to breed innovation and adapt to economic needs, Extension programs must be structured in ways that allow for flexibility, and spur creativity and entrepreneurial thinking. The Clemson University Extension is fostering entrepreneurship through a new program where participants learn how to build successful businesses on limited resources. Tuskegee University hosts the annual Booker T. Washington Economic Development Summit.
• Emergence of New Audiences. Extension must find ways to identify new audiences and deliver relevant information and programming to them. Increasingly, Extension programs are engaging with audiences where English is a second language and technologies such as real-time translation tools have the potential remove language barriers. At Texas A&M University- Commerce, they are expanding audiences by using Continuous Tone-Coded Squelch System encoders to allow greater outreach to Spanish-speaking farm owners.
• Shift from Learners as Consumers to Creators. A shift is taking place all over the world as learners across a wide variety of disciplines are learning by making and creating rather than from the fundamental consumption of content that has characterized Extension for over 100 years. Creativity, as illustrated by the growth in things like user-generated videos is increasing the methods available for robust, hands-on learning. In the technology realm, Cooperative Extension at Montana State University has worked with 4-H leaders to design a curriculum that trains youth in digital storytelling and media production.
• Redesigning Learning Spaces. New forms of teaching and learning require new spaces. As education continues to move away from traditional lecture-based programming and to more hands-on scenarios, the historic hands-on and real-life-context hallmark of Extension programs is returning in new ways. New learning spaces resemble real-world work and social environments that facilitate organic interactions and cross-disciplinary problem solving. For example, the Ag Studies Academy, part of Cornell Cooperative Extension, is helping to train the next generation of farmers through a dedicated space with office, classroom, laboratory, as well as several outbuildings on tillable land and forest in order to provide a comprehensive introduction to agribusiness careers.
• Abundance of Open Educational Resources. Defined by the Hewlett Foundation in 2002, open educational resources (OER) are “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits their free use and re-purposing by others.” New Mexico State University Extension’s Learning Games Lab develops open source digital games, apps, animations, and learning tools, which have been used to assist youth and adults nationwide learn food safety, lab skills, health, nutrition, mathematics, and science.
• Communities of Practice. The rise of social networks and online learning has spurred the development of communities of practice (COP), defined by the Higher Education Academy as an informal partnership of learning among those with similar intellectual interests. They view learning as a collaborative experience for improving practice through problem-solving, collective thinking, and the exchange of new knowledge and ideas. As technology changes the way Extension educators interact with formal and informal learners, it is important to keep abreast of the latest developments in disseminating credible knowledge. eXtension serves to provide a national digital presence for Cooperative Extension and hosts a variety of services and tools to further COP and learning networks.
• Increasing Cross-Institution Collaboration. Collective action among institutions and programs is growing in importance for the future of learning. More institutions are joining consortia — associations of two or more organizations — to combine resources or to align themselves strategically with learning innovation. Interest in cross-Institution Collaboration is growing in all three missions of the Land Grant Universities: education, research and Extension. ECOP, the representative leadership and governance committee of Cooperative Extension nationwide has a task force to identify methods for working together as a national system. The ECOP National Framework for Health and Wellness is one example of national cross-institution collaboration.
• Increasing Value of the User Experience. User experience (UX) refers to the quality of a person’s interactions with a company’s services and products. The term is commonly applied to assess computer-based exchanges with mobile devices, operating systems, and websites. Superior user experience has been largely attributed to the success of companies. Easy navigation, digestible content, and practical features — among other components — are encompassed in effective website and database designs. Penn State’s Atlas project exemplifies this growing trend in Cooperative Extension.

Moving traditional Extension face-to-face programming to an online format is a method Extension educators can utilize technology to reduce outreach expenses and reach audiences who may not have previously interacted with Extension. In taking this approach, Extension educators must be responsive to the needs and preferences of online learners and offer high quality, relevant content. In order to position Extension to be responsive to clientele’s online needs it is imperative to understand the technology trends that will shape the educational environment of the future.

One area that has influenced the Extension educational landscape is the extensive adoption of smartphones. Advances in telecommunication technology have been significant in recent years. These improvements have led to a level of connectivity never seen before (Statista Survey ^a, 2019). The number of smartphone users in the United States has risen steadily over the last several years (Statista Survey^a, 2019. The United States is one of the leading countries in the world with respect to adoption of smartphone technology (Statista Survey^a, 2019).

The first official smartphones were introduced in the market in the early 1990s (Statista Survey^a, 2019). Initially a smartphone was classified by its ability to offer features like e-mail capability, internet access, QUERTY keyboards, personal digital assistant functions and perhaps a built-in camera (Statista Survey^a, 2019). As of today, smartphones have progressed even more and we typically classify smartphones as having a high definition touchscreen, various apps, navigation tools and high-speed internet on the go (Statista Survey^a, 2019).

Figure 1 shows the number of smartphone users in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. For 2019, the number of smartphone users in the United States is 265.9 million (Statista Survey^a, 2019).

Figure 1.         Number of smartphones users in United States from 2010 to 2019 (Statista Survey^a, 2019).           

Almost 72% of Americans own a smartphone in 2019, more than a threefold increase since 2010 (eMarketer, 2018). Figure 2 reports the smartphone diffusion as share of the population in the United States from 2010 to 2019.  In 2019, 71.4 percent of the U.S. population used a smartphone (eMarketer, 2018).

Figure 2.         Smartphone diffusion rate as share of population in United States from 2010 to 2019 (eMarketer, 2018).

Online learning has presented Extension with the opportunity to utilize various internet-based platforms to interact with clientele. Figure 3 provides the share of learners who indicated they wanted fully self-directed and independent learning in the United States in 2019, by generation (Linkedin, 2019). This Linkendin survey (2019) found that 43 percent of Gen Z and 42 percent of Millennials indicated they wanted self-directed and independent learning (Linkedin, 2019).

Figure 3.         Share of learners who want fully self-directed & independent learning in U.S. in 2019 by generation (Linkedin, 2019).

An emerging trend that could have implications for Extension education is the adoption rate of smartwatches and the utilization of fitness apps in the United States. Figure 4 illustrates the rate of adoption of smartwatches in the United States from 2013 to 2018 (Statista Survey^b, 2019).

Figure 4.         Rate of adoption of smartwatches in the United States from 2013 to 2018 (Statista Survey^b, 2019).

Figure 5 illustrates smartwatch owners daily use functions in the United States in 2017 (Statista Survey^b, 2019).

Figure 5.         Owner’s daily use of smartwatch function in the United States.in 2017 (Statista Survey^b, 2019)

Figure 6 provides the share of Americans who used fitness apps in 2018, by income level (Statista Survey^b, 2019).

Figure 6.         Share of Americans who used fitness apps in 2019, by income level (Statista Survey^b, 2019).

Take Home Points

As smartphones and tablets become more capable and user interfaces more instinctive, traditional methods of learning are less restrictive in terms of all clientele needing to be assembled in a classroom or brick and mortar fixed structure (Freeman et al., 2016). Clientele increasingly expect to be connected to the internet wherever they go, and the majority of them use a mobile device to do so (Freeman et al., 2016). According to Pew Research Center, 71.4% of Americans own smartphones, and are increasingly using them as their primary venue to online learning (Freeman et al., 2016). Extension programs across the US are adopting apps and modifying websites, educational materials, resources, and tools so they are optimized for mobile use (Freeman et al., 2016). These devices have the potential to facilitate almost any educational experience wherever there is internet access, even outdoors during field days or tours, allowing clientele to organize video meetings with peers, use specialized software and tools, and collaborate on shared documents or projects in the cloud (Freeman et al., 2016). A study conducted by the Harvard Business School reported that access to mobile apps and resources assisted agriculture and professionals in related fields to make more informed choices about equipment and processes (Freeman et al., 2016).

With more Americans embracing the concept of independent, self-directed learning it is imperative that Extension educators have online learning in their portfolio of educational methods.  Online learning refers to both formal and informal educational opportunities that take place through the web. Today, it is uncommon for learning institutions and programs to not have a web presence, and increasingly people expect for that to include learning modules and resources so that new knowledge and skills can be acquired on the go (Freeman et al., 2016). The advent of online learning is enabling Extension programs reach more people than ever before (Freeman et al., 2016). Extension educators are becoming more comfortable assessing various levels of integration of online material in their existing programs, and many believe that online learning can be an effective catalyst for thoughtful discussion on all pedagogical practices (Freeman et al., 2016).  For example, online learning, when coupled with immersive technologies like virtual reality, has potential to facilitate simulations that help participants better understand and respond appropriately to real life environments and situations (Freeman et al., 2016). Recently, Nicholas Free, an animal science senior at Texas A&M University created a cattle handling simulation that could potential assist others build and expand their cattle-working skills. Free created an interactive simulation game to focus on the best techniques to handle cattle.

References

AudienceProject. (October 3, 2019). Frequency of Facebook use in the United States as of 3rd quarter 2019 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/199266/frequency-of-use-among-facebook-users-in-the-united-states/

Facebook. (July 24, 2019). Number of monthly active Facebook users worldwide as of 2nd quarter 2019 (in millions) [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/

Freeman, A., Adams S., & Cummins, M. (2016). NMC Technology Outlook for Cooperative Extension 2016-2021: A Horizon Project Sector Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media Consortium.

LinkedIn. (February 27, 2019). Share of learners who want fully self-directed and independent learning in the United States in 2019, by generation [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/988933/workplace-learning-independent-learning-united-states-generation/

eMarketer. (May 29, 2018). Smartphone penetration rate as share of the population in the United States from 2010 to 2021 [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/201183/forecast-of-smartphone-penetration-in-the-us/

Pew Research Center. (April 10, 2019). Percentage of U.S. adults who use Facebook as of February 2019, by age group [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/246221/share-of-us-internet-users-who-use-facebook-by-age-group/

Statista Survey^a. (February 19, 2019). Number of smartphone users in the United States from 2010 to 2023 (in millions)* [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 14, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/201182/forecast-of-smartphone-users-in-the-us/

Statista Survey ^b (Global Consumer Survey). (June 30, 2018). Share of internet users who regularly visit Instagram in the United States in 2018, by age [Graph]. In Statista. Retrieved October 11, 2019, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/477696/page-visits-of-instagram-within-the-last-month-usa/