188-10 eOrganic: Organic Agriculture for eXtension. What It Is, Evaluation Data, and How to Get Involved.



Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Henry Gonzalez Convention Center, Hall C, Street Level

Alexandra Stone, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, Michelle M. Wander, Dept of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, Heather Darby, Extension, University of Vermont, St. Albans, VT and Alice Formiga, Oregon State University - Horticulture, Corvallis, OR
eOrganic is the organic agriculture Community of Practice for eXtension, the national web initiative for Cooperative Extension and the Land Grant University system. eOrganic has published more than 225 articles, 40 webinars, and 105 videos and will publish short courses at eXtension.org for farmers, agricultural professionals, certifiers, researchers, students, and others needing credible science-, experience- and regulation-based organic agriculture information.

eOrganic’s content at http://eXtension.org/organic_production has seen more than 500,000 unique views and its videos at http://www.YouTube.com/eOrganic have been viewed more than 420,000 times.

Experienced farmers, researchers and extension professionals evaluated eOrganic's articles and videos in winter 2009-10; overall, 92% agreed that the article or video was “very relevant to important farming problems or issues” and 84% that it was “useful and practical and could be applied in real farming practice.” Webinar participants evaluated eOrganic's webinars for quality, utility and impact. In surveys sent immediately after the 2010-11 webinars, 76% said the webinar “moderately” or “significantly” improved their understanding of the topic and that they intended to apply the knowledge gained “somewhat” or “a lot.” In surveys sent to participants in select 2009-10 webinars 6-9 months later, 53 to 93% affirmed that their webinar experience had contributed to changes in their 2010 farming practices.

Interested in getting involved in eOrganic? Become an eOrganic author, reviewer, or webinar presenter, and write eOrganic into your next grant proposal. Find out more about eOrganic at http://eOrganic.info and http://eXtension.org/organic_production.

See more from this Division: ASA Section: Agronomic Production Systems
See more from this Session: Organic Management Systems Community: II (Includes Graduate Student Competition)