Satellite Videoconferences for Training

Providing cost efficient and accessible inservice training for county home economists is an increasing concern for Extension. In addition, many county home economists are struggling to find ways to obtain continuing education for graduate credit within the constraints of full-time employment and distance from university settings.

Oklahoma Home Economics Cooperative Extension Service provided a summer inservice training/graduate credit course via satellite entitled "Diet and Health." The program was eight, two- hour satellite sessions focusing on diet and health. It covered: diet and heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, drug/nutrient interactions, and nutrition quackery. Two, five-minute "For Your Information" spots were included in each two-hour session. These spots focused on common questions county home economists are asked concerning the session topic. There was also a five-minute "Exercise Spotlight" at the end of each session.

Twenty-six Oklahoma county home economists participated in the program series with 12 enrolling for graduate credit. Twenty- two of the 26 said they'd like to participate in another inservice training series via satellite. The home economists also evaluated the program using a five-point Likert scale, with 1 being very poor and 5 being very good. Here are the evaluation mean scores:

The advantage of using satellite for this type of training was the ability of county home economists to receive the training within their county. In addition, if work conflicted with class time, the sessions could be taped and viewed later. Also, training tapes on each diet and health topic are now being produced from class session tapes, and the exercise spotlights are being combined into an exercise training tape. These tapes will be available for review from the state video library by new and current county home economists.

1. J. Stewart and L. Soliah, "Creating Educational Excellence," Journal of Extension, XXV (Fall 1987), 34-36.

This article is online at http://www.joe.org/joe/1991winter/rb4.html.

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