Extension Skills

Each second Thursday of the month, the Impact Collaborative's Extension Skills series will provide an opportunity for Cooperative Extension professionals to build capacity with tools, processes and tech skills training. This series is available to Extension Foundation Members Only. Your institution must be a member of the Extension Foundation to participate. Find out if your institution is an Extension Foundation member at extension.org/members.

Find past Extension Skill workshops on our Video Resource Library. Past topics include intro to podcasting, creating strong surveys, using twitter for media relations, growing social media audience, community forums, virtual engagement tools, evaluation tips and more!

Each month, we will update the information below for what the Extension Skills Session for the month will be!

Extension Skills October: Creating a New
Webinar Experience with Live Demonstrations

During the home food preservation season, Penn State Extension Food Safety educators offer in-person workshops that include lectures, demonstrations
and hands-on activities related to canning, freezing or drying food. COVID-19 changed that routine. In making the adjustment to remote/online learning the team wanted to maintain the structure of the in-person workshop as much as possible. Adult learners generally have a problem centered approach to learning, wanting to immediately apply what they learn to their situation. As a result, the team decided it was important to include live demonstrations as a key part of the remote/online presentation to show application of theory.

Participants will learn about capabilities within a Zoom webinar conference to engage the audience and enhance educational delivery. Specifically, participants will learn how to: set up and use multiple cameras for live demonstrations, optimize Zoom settings for the best participant viewing experience, manage the chat and Q&A pod, set up an automatic survey link, direct participants to a specific website following the webinar, and other best practice tips.

At the Extension Foundation, we are committed to providing high-quality professional development events to the Cooperative Extension Service. To ensure accessibility, our meetings are typically recorded and posted on our EXCITE platform with automated closed captions provided. For detailed information about our recording policy, accessibility accommodations, and guidelines regarding the use of AI technology during our events including tools like Otter.ai, please visit our Video Conferencing and Virtual Events Policy webpage.

Extension Skills