Tag: Matt Benge

Conducting the Needs Assessment #3: Educator Motivations, Barriers, and Objections

Videoconference in progress. Image by Jagrit Parajuli from Pixabay

This third publication in the Conducting the Needs Assessment series outlines a range of motivations, barriers, and common objections Extension educators and other service providers may have pertaining to needs assessments. It is not an easy task to conduct a needs assessment, yet there are many motives for implementing one. This new 4-page publication of the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication discusses strategies for increasing educator motivation and removing barriers and objections to conducting a needs assessment. Written by Matt Benge.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc386

Fundamentals of Volunteer Orientation

Members of Alpha Zeta volunteering to pick up trash along their stretch of adopt a street in Gainesville, Florida. Summer 2011 Impact magazine image. Image was taken prior to national guidelines of face coverings and social distancing. UF/IFAS Photo by Tyler Jones.

This new 4-page fact sheet is intended to assist volunteer managers when creating volunteer orientations for their new volunteers. Volunteer training and orientation is a critical component which should promote volunteers’ understanding of the role they hold within organizations. Leaders of volunteer organizations must ensure their organizations have adequately prepared volunteers to carry out the organization’s mission. Last, volunteer leaders should incorporate the cause, system, and social orientation components to effectively create an orientation focused on providing the appropriate onboarding of their most valuable asset: volunteers. Written by Olivia Caillouet, Jessica Williams, Shelby Atwood, and Matt Benge, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc382

Conducting the Needs Assessment #4: Audience Motivations, Barriers, and Objections

Duval County Extension Agent Anita McKinney teaches a "Smart Money" course at the Jacksonville City Rescue Mission in Jacksonville, Florida.

A successful needs assessment is contingent on participation from the right people, so understanding potential motivations, barriers, and objections specific to your participants is critical. This new 5-page publication, the fourth in the Conducting the Needs Assessment series, provides Extension educators and other service providers with an overview of motivations, barriers, and objections specific to participants in needs assessments. Written by Laura Warner and Matt Benge and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication.
https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc342

Tailoring Recognition to Fit Your Employees' Needs

Employee recognition plays a key role in the success and continuity of productivity, efficiency, and organizational change. This 2-page document discusses employee recognition practices that you can implement in your workplace. Written by Matt Benge and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, February 2018.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/wc298

AEC-393/WC074 Creating Interest in Learners

Figure 1. Children with extension agent learning about planting gardens.
AEC-393, a 3-page illustrated fact sheet by Matt Benge and Amy Harder, describes the “Interest Approach” to classroom instruction, methods for creating interest, and natural impulses that may be appealed to in teaching to help create interest. Includes references. Published by the UF Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, September 2008.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/WC074