Poster: Making  Extension  content  more  discoverable (download for full res)

Making Extension content more discoverable: Evalua7ng examples from a forestry websiteEli Sagor 1 and Philip Potyondy2.  1University of Minnesota Extension and 2Department of Forest ResourcesIntroduc7on Oak wilt status widget Flickr photos Social media tools Monthly email update Online content, discoverability, and behaviorOne of Extension’s most important roles is to make complex, research‐ What:  A graphic “widget” showing the  What:  Flickr is a free third‐party photo  What:  A suite of communication tools  What:  An HTML‐formatted email sent to  Transformative learning requires many things.  Information of the type based information more accessible to individuals who can use that  current risk status for oak wilt, a serious  sharing service. including Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook. subscribers monthly. found on MyMinnesotaWoods and its derivative channels (e.g. Twitter, information to better their lives.  Increasingly, our audiences are using  disease of Minnesota oaks.  The widget  How it works:  We upload photos to  How it works:  When we publish new  How it works:  We pay about $250/yr to  Facebook, and RSS feeds) is but one.   can be added to any website. When we  Flickr. Search engine users @ind them and,  content, it’s automatically shared via  Constant Contact.  Constant Contact digital media to @ind and exchange information.   update the risk status, the widget  by reading descriptions, learn to  Twitter. We manually share content via  manages our 1600‐recipient email  While social psychologists would point out that information alone is The recent  proliferation of new digital communication tools creates  instantly updates, wherever it’s  interpret them.  Facebook. database and provides a relatively simple  unlikely to foster behavior change, the site can nonetheless play a key new opportunities for Extension professionals to make our content  deployed.   Why: We take a lot of photos.  Flickr  Why:  Automation means that after the  interface in which to enter content.  role in landowner learning.  more discoverable to people who need it, when they need it. How it works:  We provide HTML code  allows the public to see, and learn from,  initial setup, this takes very little time or  Why:  Email remains a preferred mode of  to call a linked image on our server. The  The site may promote positive land stewardship outcomes in two The purpose of this poster is to offer insights from one Extension  what we see. effort. The bene@it is that it makes content  communication for many members of our  code is installed on partners’ sites.  important ways: Evaluation:  However, Sagor’s Minnesota  visible through more networks and  target audience.  Sending the email program that has made heavy use of digital communication  Clicking the image (“widget”) takes the  forestry photos have been viewed about  channels. reminds interested readers that our site  1)  By making information more easily discovered, when it’s needed, by technologies to increase content discoverability.  The poster is designed  user to the detailed oak wilt status page  is there, delivering content rather than  200,000 times.  Uploading the photos to  Evaluation:  These channels account for  those already motivated to take action.  to illustrate some techniques to increase content discoverability online,  on MyMinnesotaWoods.  making them come to us. Flickr and adding tags required little  only a few percent of referrals to and provide insight on returns, for one Extension project.  Why:  The widget helps our partners  2)  By raising awareness of Extension as a valuable, credible resource  extra work (photos need to be organized  MyMinnesotaWoods.  Because so few of  Evaluation:  Each update is opened  make research‐based risk status data  anyway).  Allowing the public to see  our target audience use social media to  about 1300 times by 1000 or so different  for times when land stewardship decisions need to be made.  By While we do not have impact evaluation data at this point, the data  available.  It also draws new users to  them makes them far more discoverable.  obtain forestry information, it’s become a  people.  In the week following  delivering content to interested users on a regular basis, we’re able to presented here do offer useful insight into returns on investments  Extension content. One possible goal would be to increase  low priority for us. distribution of the monthly email update,  remind people that we exist, increasing the likelihood that when they made to deploy a variety of online communication tools. Evaluation: The widget accounts for  the referral rate from Flickr to our site.  35‐50% of site visits are referrals from  need information or assistance, they will come back to Extension.  61% of all views of the oak wilt status  the email.  On the day the email is sent,  3)  By promoting Extension forestry offerings like face‐to‐face  page.  Of these viewers, 45% go on to  the percentage is much higher (Figure 1).Why “discoverability?” view other content, suggesting that the  workshops that offer opportunities for high‐touch learning,  In addition, Constant Contact analytics  relationship building, and deeper learning to occur. While not necessarily an end in itself, making content more  widget promotes content site‐wide. tell us what content our email recipients discoverable makes it more likely that the content will @ind its way into  actually read. We can use this data to plan  future content online as well as in other the hands of a focused, interested learner.  This, in turn, increases the  Costschance that research‐based information will be applied, and will make  Discussion board delivery formats.  This provides  What:  An open forum to post questions  invaluable, near‐continuous content‐a difference in real peoples’ lives. All of the tools described here are free with the exception of Constant  and share experiences. related feedback from our subscribers. Contact.  We pay $252/yr for a Constant Contact subscription with up  How it works:  After a simple  to 2500 subscribers.  About MyMinnesotaWoods registration process, users can post text,  photos, and links to the discussion board. The far greater cost is the time required to maintain these tools and the Http://www.MyMinnesotaWoods.umn.edu (MyMinnesotaWoods) is a  content behind them.  We estimate that site and content management  Why:  Replying to a question on the website developed and maintained by the University of Minnesota  discussion board takes about as long as  take 15‐25% of one Extension educator’s time.  An undergraduate Extension Forestry team, which is part of Extension’s Center for Food,  replying to a question by email. But an  student puts in an additional 5 hours per week, primarily organizing Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences.   email is read by one person, while  and formatting content in preparation for publication.   content on the discussion board is viewed  Initial development of the MyMinnesotaWoods site cost about $8,000.The site’s purpose is to make research‐based information on the care  by hundreds or thousands.  While we can and management of Minnesota’s trees and woodlands accessible to the  always choose to reply privately to owners and managers of those resources.  The site is a hub, or an index,  questions, the discussion board gives us a to the many offerings of our Extension forestry team.   popular platform to exchange  SummaryAmong other things, MyMinnesotaWoods is a sandbox in which to try  information with interested members of  Fig. 1: MyMinnesotaWoods daily pageview data,  The recent proliferation of digital communication tools has given new approaches to online outreach.  The site is designed to add value to  our audience in a public setting. March‐July 2010.  Monthly spikes correspond with  Extension professionals a much larger toolkit.  Many of these low‐cost our many other content offerings: workshops, publications, community  Discussions add value to the site by  email update send dates. tools have potential to make Extension content more accessible to building processes, and more. helping users apply the content to their  situations. The registration process  target audiences.  This, in turn, increases the chance that research‐ builds connections with motivated users. based information will be applied, and will make a difference. News headlines Evaluation:  The discussion board is the  MyMinnesotaWoods is, in many ways, a sandbox in which innovative  third most popular page on  What:  A listing of relevant news articles  from a variety of media sources. communication tools are tested.  Returns on the time invested have  MyMinnesotaWoods, surpassed only by  Slideshare Events calendar been variable, but generally positive.  Differences in target audience,  the home page and our property tax  What:  A free platform to share  How: We @ind news items using various  What:  A Google calendar that’s public  aggregators. We then use Delicious.com  educational objectives, program structures, and technical pro@iciency  content. slideshows with or without audio. and easily embedded on any website. to “tag” selected items with a unique  will affect the value of any communication tool to a given Extension  How it works:  We upload content to  How it works: We add events and allow  code. Tagged items then automatically  team. Slideshare, then embed it on our site. select partners to add and manage theirs.  appear on our site.  They are also  RSS feeds Why: Slideshare has two important  The calendar can be embedded on any  automatically published via our Twitter  What:  Subscribers are noti@ied every  bene@its over Adobe Presenter: Detailed  site, adding visibility to our (and their)  stream. time new content is published. analytics and the ability to embed  events.   For more informa7on Why:  Though we focus on Extension  How it works:  We use Feedburner,  content rather than taking users away  Why:  Google calendar is a simple system,  content, this feature allows us to easily  from the site to view it. Eli Sagor3, esagor@umn.edu or (612) 624‐6948 which allows subscription via email or  making it easy to manage permissions and  “curate” content from other sources.  Our  RSS reader.  Feeds also allow partners to  content sharing. University of Minnesota Extension, St Paul Evaluation:  Top Slideshare content is  vision is for MyMinnesotaWoods to be  publish our headlines on their sites. viewed over 1,000 times per year. A high  Philip Potyondy, potyondy@umn.edu Evaluation:  The calendar is one of the  the primary source for Minnesota  Why:  Feeds allow subscribers to choose  percentage of those views happen on  most popular features on the site.  We  University of Minnesota Department of Forest Resources, St Paul forestry information.  Adding news from  their preferred format rather than forcing  Slideshare.com, suggesting that users are  know events account for about 15% of  a variety of sources helps position us to  MyMinnesotaWoods: http://www.MyMinnesotaWoods.umn.edu.   them to conform to ours. discovering the content independent of  clicks in our monthly email updates.   do that. Links to all tools described in this poster are available from the site. Evaluation: Feeds currently account for  MyMinnesotaWoods.  On several  However, we’re unable to track calendar  Evaluation:  Over two years beginning in  a small volume of traf@ic: about 1% over  occasions, Slideshare content has been  views, links followed, or most other  Download this poster:  http://z.umn.edu/MMWposter Spring 2007, news links accounted for  the past year.  We see feeds as a tool with  requested by high school and university  metrics. fully 20% of the clicks in our monthly  great growth potential.  instructors for use in their classes. email updates. Our readers like news. 3 Corresponding author

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Poster: Making  Extension  content  more  discoverable (download for full res)

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