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- Author or Editor: Denny S. Schrock x
A two-way interactive home horticulture course was developed for undergraduate and graduate students and for Master Gardener training. The three-credit course was offered at the broadcast site, as well as four other remote locations. Three-hour sessions were presented by state and regional Extension Specialists each week over a 15-week period. In addition to live broadcasts over the fiber optic network, each session was video-taped and sent to each location. Takehome exams and special student projects were required. Evaluations indicated that comprehension of subject matter was not impeded by the mode of delivery. This course was a cost-effective means of delivering Master Gardener programming and teaching nontraditional students simultaneously at remote locations. Moreover, travel time and expenses were reduced, allowing faculty to devote their time, usually spent traveling, on other endeavors.
Current and former Missouri Master Gardeners were asked to respond to each of 30 reasons (an adaptation of the Volunteer Functions Inventory [VFI]) for doing volunteer work. Principal factor analysis confirmed the presence of six principal components of volunteer motivation. Master Gardener functions related to new learning experiences (understanding) were equally as important as functions related to altruism (values). Satisfactions related to self-esteem (enhancement) ranked next in motivational importance. Motivations concerning relationships with others (social), protecting the ego (protective) and functions related to preparation for a new career (career), concluded the list. In addition, respondents were asked to indicate whether they were presently volunteering as a Master Gardener, how many years they had been active in the program, and level of volunteer time commitment to the program in the past year. In most cases, no correlations or statistical differences were found among respondents belonging to different demographic categories, making demographic information a poor predictor of motivation for volunteering. However, those who volunteered more time during the past year were more likely to highly rate certain motivational factors.