Implementing
Educational Programs

Most major events are planned before the year starts. For such early planning to be carried into an action program, agents should work with committee leaders and members to:

• Make additional plans before each event about specific jobs to be done and delegate responsibilities to committee members.
• Obtain assistance of needed resource people and involve other groups, as appropriate.
• Assist with evaluation and interpretation.
• Follow through with plans.

AGENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Committee activities will be successful with a spirit of commitment, cooperation and coordination between members and agents. Certain tasks for arranging events can be performed effectively by members [see list below], while agents can best perform other tasks. For example, agents can mail meeting notices and provide agendas, printed materials and equipment.

COUNCIL MEMBER ROLES

Because a number of important tasks will be required to handle every aspect of program arrangements, selecting the right person for the job will ensure success. Effective programs are realized when agents help committee members to understand and accept the principle of involvement in every aspect of program implementation.

MARKETING THE PROGRAM

Marketing is the analysis, planning, implementation, and control of carefully formulated programs designed to bring about voluntary exchanges of values with target markets to achieve institutional objectives. Marketing involves designing the institution's offerings to meet the target markets' needs and desires, and in using effective pricing, communication, and distribution to inform, motivate, and service the markets.[22]

The marketing process is designed to produce four principal benefits: 1) greater success in fulfilling the Extension mission, 2) improved satisfaction among the users, 3) improved attraction of Extension resources, and 4) improved efficiency in the marketing activities.[23]

Using good marketing principles means to offer program benefits to a specific audience while collaborating with representatives of the audience in actual program design and conduct. Program promotion must go through communication channels used by the audience, and participants must feel that the cost of participation is affordable in time, effort or money.

Marketing is not just publicity, promotion and selling. It is the process in which Extension educators (collaborating with the Council's committees and networking throughout the community) examine who we are, what our publics need and want, what our programs offer, how we solicit support and interest, and how we evaluate program results.

PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING

• Learning and Practice - The education must be experience centered; that is, it must focus on what the learner, not the educator, does. Likewise, learners must be able to make use of the experiences and practice or put into action the behavior suggested by the experience.
• Feedback - Learners should get reinforcement (feedback) to help them evaluate their own success in reaching the goal. Success in reaching goals is motivational.
• Need to Learn - A problem-centered situation helps motivate participants to seek solutions or better understand a need to learn. The goals of the educational opportunity must be consistent with participants' goals.
• Learners Involved - "Learners should be involved in planning and implementing learning experiences. If the goals of the learning opportunity are to relate to the needs and problems of the learners, then the search for solutions will be undertaken with the learners. In the process, the learner will be able to influence the goals and learn the process of problem solving." [24]24
• Previous Experiences - The learning experience must relate to previous experiences of participants. When new information is related to what participants already know and are aware of, they can build on those experiences. Participants must also be capable of taking part and having the necessary resources to build on the experiences.
• Environment for Learning - Physical comfort, mutual trust, freedom of expression and acceptance of differences are all critical in creating a setting where learning is free to occur.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES

Learning experiences and events are sequential; each builds upon the previous one and, in turn, leads to the next. The learning experiences are planned to accommodate the various stages of awareness, readiness, knowledge levels and learning styles of clientele, and preferred methods. [25]

Having opportunity to learn and acquire new information/experience means that the activity is presented in various ways [hearing, seeing, doing, and repeated for feedback and practice]. Considering an appropriate sequence, the learners and learning styles increases the effectiveness of the activity.

LEARNING STYLES

1. Print - People who are print-oriented often learn best through reading and writing - they love to read magazines or books and find that they easily retain information they read.
2. Aural - Aurally-oriented people generally learn best through listening. They usually do not talk much and feel they learn best when information is presented verbally; they may enjoy learning from audiotapes and lectures because they remember what is said.
3. Interactive - People who learn best through talking and discussing ideas with other people are interactive. Small group discussions and debates are ways through which interactive individuals learn best.
4. Visual - People who are visually-oriented learn best through observation. They like visual stimuli, such as pictures, slides, charts and posters, and demonstrations.
5. Haptic - Individuals who learn best through the sense of touch are generally haptic learners, who have to feel or touch as many things as possible. Haptic persons assimilate information through a "hands-on" learning approach.
6. Kinesthetic - People who generally have to move around or move some part of the body while processing information are kinesthetic learners. They are in constant motion while reading or listening or doing some physical activity during a meeting.
7. Olfactory - People who learn best through the senses of smell and taste are olfactory learners. They may vividly associate some information with a particular smell or taste.

HOW ADULTS LEARN

• Adults cannot be forced to learn. They seek out structured learning experiences to cope with specific life-changing events. The more life-change events encountered, the more likely one is to seek out learning opportunities.
• For most adults, learning is a means to an end, not an end in itself. They seek learning because they have a use for the knowledge or skill.
• Expectations for practical application are primary motivators; increasing or maintaining one's sense of self-esteem and pleasure are secondary motivators. Educators must take advantage of the "teachable moment."
• Adults tend to prefer single-concept, single-theory courses that focus heavily on applying a concept to a relevant problem. Comprehensive and survey courses are of less interest.
• Adults need to be able to integrate new ideas with what they already know if they are to retain and use the new information. Information that does not connect with what is already known is acquired more slowly.
• Adults tend to take errors personally and let them affect self-esteem. Fast-paced, complex or unusual learning tasks interfere with learning concepts. Psychomotor learning tasks may be handled more slowly, but adults compensate by being more accurate and taking fewer risks.
• Programs should be designed to accept viewpoints from people in different life stages and with different value-orientations. A concept will be better understood when explained from more than one value-orientation and appeal to more than one developmental life stage.
• Adults prefer self-directed and self-designed learning projects over group experiences led by professionals. Self-direction is not isolation - face-to-face, one-to-one access to expertise is highly valued.
• The adult learner often selects more than one way to learn - the desire to control the pace and starting/stopping time strongly affect the preference.
• Nonhuman media [books, television, programmed instruction] are very influential in how adults plan self-directed learning.
• Classroom environments are frequently threatening to adults. Self-esteem and ego are at risk, physical discomfort and the lack of practice opportunities are irritating.
• Regardless of the methods used, adults prefer the content as straight-forward how-to.
• Adults bring life experience into the educational setting - they can learn well from discussion with repected peers. New knowledge can be integrated by connecting with how it fits or fails to fit with what adults already know; they can participate in making this connection.