Managing internet EMG communication with the public, volunteers, and supporters.

Cooperative Extension is a bottom-up system. Each county offers unique programs and organizes their web sites and local information differently. As a result, when the public seeks information about the EMG program, calls often come to the state coordinator, rather than the particular county extension office that will provide service. Statewide EMG web sites often provide an overview of the entire program with little information about county resources, activities, and programs. A potential EMG volunteer or someone seeking services may have little information about options available in their area.

The ideal web site would provide statewide as well as county-specific information, essentially one-stop shopping for people who want to volunteer, get help from volunteers, or support volunteers. It would also display county and statewide information on EMG activities and impacts, sharing this information with the public and dynamically demonstrating the value of the program.

The North Carolina EMG program has addressed these challenges by integrating their existing online VMS with widely available web tools. The statewide EMG web page displays real-time numbers of volunteers, hours volunteered, and in-kind donations, in addition to last year’s totals (North Carolina Cooperative Extension, 2014). Success stories are pulled from impacts submitted online to the annual faculty evaluation report system. A rich site summary (RSS feed) searches for and delivers news articles that feature the terms “Master Gardener” and “North Carolina.” It includes a live feed from the North Carolina EMG Facebook page (Facebook, Menlo Park, CA). A widget (small application executed on the web page) for viewing the eXtension National EMG blog (eXtension, 2014) is also included. These features ensure a constantly updating and interesting statewide page.

County-specific public EMG web sites can be edited through the VMS and can be managed by county agents. Agents can also designate volunteers or staff to manage the site, easily delegating these web tasks. Real-time numbers for county volunteers, including hours volunteered and in-kind donations are displayed on each county site. County administrators can add county-specific information on becoming, supporting, or getting help from EMG volunteers. County blogs, Facebook pages, hours of operation, emails, agent information, and any relevant content can be included.

A shared, public, searchable Google calendar (Google, Mountain View, CA) has the capability to display local events by location, topic, or date. Both state and county web sites display a prominent “Support the Volunteers” option, which reflects state program needs on the state page and local needs on the county pages.

Though some of what is discussed herein is unique to the North Carolina EMG web site, three components have broad applicability. This integrated, statewide EMG portal relies heavily on widely available widgets and reduces the need for constant updating. Agents can delegate maintenance and updating of web sites to volunteers or staff, reducing their workload. Finally, the system makes full use of volunteer statistics gathered by the VMS, creating an impressive display of the value of the EMG program to the state and county.

Continuing education for extension master gardeners.

Colorado State University requires that EMG volunteers complete 24 h of volunteer time and 12 h of CE, 6 h of which must be provided by Colorado State University. Providing educational opportunities for ≈1800 volunteers in 29 Colorado counties is a substantial task. An internal survey of agents initiated in 2011 (D. Whiting, personal communication) identified three counties that did not provide any CE opportunities for volunteers. Five other counties offered only a few hours. Even so, agents estimated they spent a total of 242 d per year statewide providing training opportunities. In addition, many EMG volunteers expressed concerns that CE offerings were not convenient to their schedules or home/work places, topics were often repeated, and CE classes with fees for supplies or speakers were costly.

One solution to these challenges is to provide CE in an asynchronous, online format, thus making CE training available to all EMG volunteers 24 h per day and 7 d per week. At Colorado State University, agents created video training and presentations by screen capture. Software is available, which allows a live presentation to be recorded, capturing the enthusiasm generated by the audience and speaker interaction. The speaker’s PowerPoint (MicroSoft Corp., Redmond, WA) presentation is easily captured and the vocals are recorded with a microphone using software such as Camtasia Studio (TechSmith Corp., Okemos, MI). The recorded presentation can be edited, modifying both audio and video tracks. Sound effects, pictures, music, video, and voice overlay can be added to emphasize or explain content.

The CE trainings are offered via the VMS used by the Colorado State University EMG program. Fourteen topics are currently available with over 35 h of instruction and over 20 CE training sessions are in the editing process. Most of the classes are broken up into short learning segments (10 to 20 min) that are conducive for most adult learners (Vai and Sosulski, 2011). Training sessions can be paused and stopped as necessary to accommodate the needs of the learner. Most training sessions include a laboratory that the learner can do with simple household products or by observing things in their own landscape and gardens. The VMS is password protected, providing exclusivity to the volunteers. Some volunteers see access to these videos as yet another benefit of the EMG program.

In 2013, 135 volunteers received 476 h of online CE in the pilot of this program. Volunteers report that they miss the social interaction of a group class. However, in some counties, volunteers gathered together to watch the CE training videos. This technique has been used successfully with other distance learning technologies (Bauske et al., 2009).

Pin it!

The Internet has become an integral part of extension outreach and offers both opportunities and challenges to reaching target audiences. The social media site Pinterest (Pinterest, San Francisco, CA) has gained momentum as a way to share content and is growing faster than any other social media service (Hof, 2014). In 2013, Pinterest growth (58%) outpaced Facebook’s (57%) and Twitter’s (Twitter, San Francisco, CA) growth (15%).

Pinterest is an online service that allows users to create “pin boards” (themed picture collections) that visually bookmark web sites and manage these bookmarks. Most often Pinterest “pins” are pictures taken from the web site they bookmark. Users can retrieve or share boards with others. Users can browse other pin boards and “re-pin” images to their own pin boards or “like” photos. Gardens, vegetables, landscape design, container ideas, and ornamental plants are visually appealing, making ideal pins for Pinterest boards.

Pinterest has features that can make it a strong tool for gathering focused programming resources together. Each pin or picture links to the original source and therefore maintains the credibility of that source. In addition, the pin can be customized with descriptions and comments, adding context. Pinterest allows the selection of an appropriate embedded image from the web site to present the content. The result can be an attractive, easy-to-use collection of research-based information for clients to discover and use.

Boards can be made for any number of topics for specific target audiences. University of Illinois Extension (n.d.) has created a Pinterest board on gardening that boasts 18,296 followers. Other boards are more focused. Northwest Illinois Extension (Miller, n.d.) has created a series of boards on topics ranging from fall gardening to gardening with pallets.

The impact of program or theme boards can be tracked by noting the number of followers, re-pins, and likes. It is also possible to use Google analytics to measure Pinterest referral traffic on existing web pages.

Pinterest offers interesting opportunities for professional collaboration. Board owners can give others permission to share and pin to their board. For example, on a shared community garden board, a poultry scientist could pin a web site about backyard chickens and a food scientist could pin a web site on food safety when harvesting vegetables. No intermediary (web master) is necessary to create a meaningful collaborative product.

Simplifying gardening with subirrigated containers.

Specialists, agents, and EMG volunteers seek to present simple, successful solutions to the challenges beginning gardeners face, encouraging them to garden. Professionals and volunteers are well aware of the complexities and idiosyncrasies of local conditions, pest problems, soil fertility, plant varieties, and other factors that impact a garden. This is reflected in the dizzying array of comprehensive university web sites and extension publications. These sites, publications, and recommendations can be overwhelming to beginning gardeners and may not address their real concerns.

Non-gardeners often identify time, space, and knowledge constraints to gardening. (Beytes, 2013). Many work outside the home and are intimidated by perceived labor and time requirements. They may live in urban settings and require gardens with a small footprint. Some live in condominiums or apartments and would like to garden, but have a porch or balcony as the only viable available space. Renters may be unwilling to invest in soil improvement.

Suggesting the use of a subirrigated container gardening system, (e.g., EarthBox, Scranton, PA) addresses their time and space concerns. Compact subirrigated gardening systems that use peat-based potting mix work well in small urban environments.

Initially developed for commercial vegetable production (Geraldson and Whisenant, 1995) subirrigated container systems often included plastic mulch, a wicking chamber, and an overflow. These systems ameliorate watering challenges inexperienced gardeners encounter. Many systems are portable and can be moved inside in cold events.

Simplifying gardening by using subirrigated gardening systems reduces the communication needed for a new gardener to be successful. These systems reduce the need for soil testing, interpretation of soil test results, and addition of soil amendments beyond normal fertilization. Subirrigated systems can reduce the occurrence of soil-borne diseases and provide a more consistent root zone environment, which many inexperienced gardeners do not understand and frequently neglect.

Subirrigated systems provide the educator with many opportunities, particularly as their users expand food output by growing as many as three, sequential, seasonal crops. This gives extension educators the opportunity to introduce additional topics such as cultivar selection, soil fertility, pH, and integrated pest management.