Ingrid Christiansen (1,2), Dallas Gibb (1,3), Bruce Pyke (1,4) and Geoff McIntyre (1,2)

Preferred presentation format: Unrefereed Paper

Affiliation(s): (1) Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre
(2) Queensland Department of Primary Industries

(3) NSW Agriculture

(4) Cotton Research and Development Corporation

Title: Ingrid Christiansen Position: National Cotton Extension Coordinator Organisation: Australian Cotton Cooperative Research Centre, Qld DPI Contact email: Ingrid.Christiansen@dpi.qld.gov.au Contact phone: 07 4688 1398

Keywords: Evaluation, Participation, IPM, Cotton, Improvement, Extension Skills

From its inception, the National Cotton Extension Network has had close links with industry stakeholders, providing mechanisms for continual feedback and priority setting for extension and education programs. A culture of evaluation, planning and continual improvement is being further developed within the extension network to ensure extension and education programs are “hitting the mark” for stakeholders and to provide accountability to funding agencies.

Skills and motivation for extension evaluation have been introduced to the network through complementary approaches including training, encouragement and practical experience in local, focus team and industry wide evaluations. Members of the extension network participated with an external evaluator in 1997 and 2001 studies of Industry Attitudes towards Integrated Pest Management, a major focus of extension activities. Extension team members were able to gain a greater understanding and learning from facilitating focus groups rather than simply receiving a report. Team members will again partner with an external evaluator to gather an understanding of knowledge management systems of the industry sectors, with a particular focus on water management. Individuals have evaluated selected extension activities and shared both the results and their experiences of the evaluation methods with their colleagues.

Frameworks combining the logic model and Bennett’s Hierarchy are being used assist extension team members to move from activity level evaluations to contributing to outcome evaluations. Extension focus teams are using these frameworks in planning both extension programs and the evaluation of the outcomes of these programs.

Key learning points:

• Participation of the cotton extension network in evaluation is building skills and a culture of on-going improvement.
• Over the years 1997-2001 cotton industry attitudes have changed to embrace Integrated Pest Management systems, and valued the role of extension in this process.
• Evaluation frameworks provide a mechanism for all members of the national extension network to understand and contribute to triple bottom line outcomes.