Contents
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Purpose and design of the study
In the spring of 2001, with about six years’ experience in implementing
these innovations, Extension’s administrative leaders commissioned
this study of the impact of the initiatives. This assessment is understood
by Extension’s leaders to be consistent with the type of reflective
practice and scholarship that should be undertaken in the interest of
self-improvement and communication with other interested organizations.
This study focused primarily on the intended results listed in the preceding
table. The core questions to be addressed by the study were these:
- Since 1995, has there been progress in the various categories of
capacity building and with respect to the ultimate goals which the innovations
were intended to achieve?
- What remains to be done, and how might it be achieved?
Intended audiences
This report has several intended audiences:
- OSU Extension people and others who want to understand the net result
of the initiatives
- OSU leaders and others who have the potential to pursue full implementation
of the change initiative and to help Extension and the University achieve
the maximum benefit from this relatively new operating context
- People at other institutions who wish to understand OSU’s innovations
and, perhaps, to emulate them
Methodology
Three basic methods were used in this study
- Review of historical documents and factual information
- Interviews with individuals and groups of Extension faculty, program
leaders, deans and department heads with Extension responsibility, the
University president and provost, and others (conducted in April and
July 2001)
- A questionnaire administered by e-mail to Extension field- and campus-based
faculty, staff chairs, program leaders, and deans with Extension responsibilities
This report emphasizes questionnaire findings, but salient observations
from the two other methods of information gathering are also reported
under each theme.
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