New Jersey farmers are continuously challenged to produce commodities while maintaining productive open space in the most densely populated state in the nation. The state is a mix of urban, suburban, and rural communities, with a total population of 8.1 million people. Approximately 18% of the total land area is farmland, 50% of which is in field and forage crop production (USDA, 1999). However, field and forage crops net a lower dollar per acre return than most crops in New Jersey. Low profit margins combined with high land and production costs greatly affect the present and future viability of the industry. In order to remain in operation, field and forage crop producers must be proficient in both crop production and business management.

New Jersey has over 120,000 acres of farmland dedicated to hay production with a market value in excess of 33 million dollars (New Jersey Agricultural Statistics Service, 1998). A substantial portion of the hay and straw produced is used to support small livestock producers and the equine population. The state currently estimates a horse population in excess of 49,000, of which approximately 35% are classified as pleasure horses (NJASS, 1996).

The small livestock producers and pleasure horse owners provide a steady hay and straw market for many producers. Producers are continually seeking to more fully develop the market potential for their hay and straw crops. However, the sale of hay and straw often represents the only form of direct retail sales practiced by many field and forage crop producers. The sale of hay and straw is most often by referral. As a result, many of these producers do not have significant experience in market promotion and development.

Use of the Internet

The use of the Internet continues to expand. It has been reported that Internet usage doubles every 100 days, with an estimated 62 million Americans now using the Internet (Bridis, 1998). New Jersey is estimated to have over 1.5 million Internet users. According to a July 1999 report from the USDA Economics and Statistics System, New Jersey has the highest farm Internet access rate, with 53% of farms reporting Internet access.

The Internet has provided a means of delivering a vast array of information for education, research, entertainment, and business. The medium also offers a means by which farm producers can relay information about their agricultural operation to the non-agricultural community.

Programming Efforts

Given the farm-marketing needs of producers and the potential of the Internet to help meet those needs, an Internet database of hay and straw producers was developed. Also, classes on the use of the Internet and Web page design were conducted for agricultural producers.

A survey was sent to hay and straw producers requesting information about the types and seasonal availability of hay and straw products produced. From the responses, an informational brochure and World Wide Web Page were developed. The brochure has been distributed to numerous individuals, and the Web site has been accessed several hundred times. The Web site has also been linked to drought-related Web pages in the region as a resource for locating forage. Producers listed on the Web page have reported being contacted and selling hay and straw to out-of-state buyers. The directory has proven to be so successful that producers in surrounding counties requested that it be expanded to a regional directory. In response, the directory was recently updated to include the southern region of the state.

To further provide information about the potential benefits and applications of the Internet to agriculture, a 3-hour class was developed for producers to discuss Web sites, search engines, and the development of Web pages. The objective of the class is to inform producers of the informational resources and potential marketing benefits of the Internet. The class is taught using a desktop computer, LCD projector, and PowerPoint slide presentations.

The class is designed to be informal, with live Internet demonstrations. In order to incorporate the use of live demonstrations, it is necessary to schedule the class during the day. This avoids connection problems and the "Net Congestion" that can be encountered during the evening hours. The class provides a basic introduction to computers and Internet service providers. Program participants are provided with an overview of search engines and ways to effectively conduct a search on the Internet. Live demonstrations are conducted featuring specific Web sites, and searches are conducted using audience-provided topics. The remainder of the class is focused on developing a Web page and discussing the potential uses of the Web for farm marketing. A Web page is constructed using commercially available Web-page-development software.

The class has been presented several times. Follow-up evaluations have indicated that the class was very useful to participants. Many reported feeling more comfortable with the use of computers and the Internet following the class.

Conclusion

The Internet has become an informational resource for many individuals. The growth rate of Internet use continues at a phenomenal pace. The presence of World Wide Web addresses on product labels, advertisements, and stationary provides evidence that many businesses have recognized the value of the internet as an informational resource and marketing tool. Therefore, it is important that Extension professionals teach agricultural producers to become familiar with this resource and take advantage of its use in market development and promotion.

References

Brides, T. (1998). Cyberspace is driving America's economy. Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Vol. 71, No. 259.

New Jersey Agricultural Statistics Service. (1996). 1996 equine survey. New Jersey Department of Agriculture: Trenton, NJ.

New Jersey Agricultural Statistics Service. (1998). Annual Report Agricultural Statistics. New Jersey Department of Agriculture: Trenton, NJ.

USDA, Economic Research Service. (1999). NJ Fact Sheet [Online]. Available: http://www.econ.ag.gov/epubs/other/usfact/NJ.htm

USDA, Economics and Statistics System. (1999). Farm computer usage and ownership report [Online]. Available: http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cooperative Extension Service (CES) is believed to be the world's largest adult and youth out-of-school, nonformal education organization (Fiske, 1989). Preservice and inservice training programs are critical to the success of educators employed by the CES. Inservice training programs for the Purdue University Cooperative Extension Service and the University of Illinois Extension help educators maintain competency in their specific areas of expertise and provide them with information on how to be more effective educators.

Professional development through internal training opportunities is an ongoing process where each CES educator is allocated up to 15 days per year to participate in training programs developed in response to new and ongoing program initiatives by CES. Development of inservice training programs result from the interactions of county and campus staff in responding to the needs of the clientele groups served. University-based content specialists work with other campus staff to provide a listing of staff development opportunities each year to county educators (Seevers, Graham, Gamon, & Conklin, 1997).

Content specialists utilize a variety of inservice training delivery methods, including face-to-face lectures, satellite video conferencing, videotapes, and the World Wide Web (WWW) (D. Petritz, personal communication, May 7, 1998). More recently, computer-based instruction (CBI) has generated considerable interest among administrators, content specialists, and educators as a supplement or replacement to traditional methods of inservice training. CBI offers the potential to increase learning, increase retention, decrease expenditures, and decrease the time required for training (Kulik, Kulik, &Shwalb, 1986).

Action

In 1994 an aquaculture CBI project was undertaken to create a Getting Started in Freshwater Aquaculture training tutorial. The project team consisted of a content specialist in the Department of Animal Sciences with the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program and a programmer, a graphic artist, an instructional designer, and an editor from the Department of Agricultural Communications Service at Purdue University. The project was completed in 1998 (Swann, 1998). The tutorial was developed using Macromedia Director and consists of CBI delivered on CD-ROM and a 208-page workbook. The CBI is Windows and Macintosh compatible.

The workbook contains the text used in the CBI program and serves as a support document for the computer-based tutorial. The CD-ROM consists of five technical sections, business planning, marketing, water resources, species, and production methods. A sixth section synthesizes each of the sections by allowing the user to navigate through a "day in the life of a fish farmer." The CD-ROM contains 513 photographs, 160 illustrations, 52 animations, 22 digital video clips, and 215 audio files. Calculation tools are provided throughout the program to help educators reinforce difficult concepts. The business planning section provides example of a variety of business planning documents for a variety of species and production systems. The user also has the option to print blank forms for use during the development of business plans.

Experts in the field of aquaculture and CBI evaluated content validity, ease of use, and functionality through a formative evaluation of a Beta product. The production team reviewed the program for reliability and validity. The formative evaluation was not pilot tested; however, questions deemed unreliable and invalid from an earlier formative evaluation of a separate CBI were modified before being incorporated into the evaluation. Where possible, recommendations made by evaluators were incorporated into the final version. One thousand copies of the finished CBI were produced at a cost of $2.19 per CD-ROM, and one CD-ROM is packaged in the back of each workbook.

One thousand copies of the book were printed at a cost of $10 per copy. The Getting Started in Freshwater Aquaculture CD-ROM and book retail for $59.95, with Extension educators receiving a 20% discount.

Result

The primary audience for the aquaculture CBI is Extension educators in Agriculture and Natural Resources. The CBI was provided to every educator in Illinois and Indiana working within agriculture. Educators were receptive to the CBI and have used it for inservice training. As expected during the planning stages, other audiences have purchased the CBI through Purdue University's Media Distribution Center. Records indicate prospective aquaculturists, secondary school educators, and community colleges instructors have purchased copies of the CBI. Three of the primary reasons educators might be receptive to this form of inservice training are the flexibility in scheduling, self-pacing, and the ability to review materials at a later date.

Little information is available on the evaluation of existing CES instructional methods. Fitzpatrick, Duncan, Williamson, and Smith (1997) evaluated the effectiveness of written and audiotaped lessons. The authors suggested that audiotapes were a less effective mode of delivery because agents may not have taken enough time to review the audiotape and the difficulty in relocating sections in a contiguous 70-minute audiotape. In a separate study, Lippert, Plank, Camberato, and Chastain (1998) provided evidence that Extension agents in Georgia and South Carolina were receptive to using the WWW as a means of training a group of professionals who had traditionally depended on more personal face-to-face interactions.

A summative evaluation of the aquaculture CBI provided evidence that achievement, delivery costs, time required for instruction, and educator beliefs regarding CBI for inservice training were favorable when compared with face-to-face lecture instruction (Swann, 1999).

References

Fiske, E.P. (1989). From rolling stones to cornerstones: Anchoring land-grant education in the counties through the Smith-Lever Act of 1914. Rural Sociologist, 9(4), 7-14.

Fitzpatrick, J.N., Duncan, S.F., Williamson, S.A., & Smith, T.A. (1997). An evaluation of two modes of self-paced agent inservice training. Journal of Extension [On-line]. 35(1). Available: http://www.joe.org/joe/1997february/rb5.html.

Kulik, C.-L. C., Kulik, J.A., & Shwalb, B.J. (1986). The effectiveness of computer-based adult education: A meta-analysis. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 2, 235-252.

Lippert, R.M., Plank, O., Camberato, J., & Chastain, J. (1998). Regional Extension in-service training via the Internet. Journal of Extension [On-line]. 36(1). Available: http://www.joe.org/joe/1998february/a3.html.

Seevers, B., Graham, D., Gamon, J., & Conklin, N. (1997). Education through Cooperative Extension. Boston: Delmar.

Swann, L. (1999). Comparison of computer-based instruction with face-to-face lecture as a means of providing in-service training for Cooperative Extension Service educators. Doctoral dissertation, Purdue University, West Lafayette.

Swann, D.L. (1998). Getting started in freshwater aquaculture. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press.

This article is online at http://joe.org/joe/2000april/ent-tt.html.

Copyright © by Extension Journal, Inc. ISSN 1077-5315. Articles appearing in the Journal become the property of the Journal. Single copies of articles may be reproduced in electronic or print form for use in educational or training activities. Inclusion of articles in other publications, electronic sources, or systematic large-scale distribution may be done only with prior electronic or written permission of the Journal Editorial Office, joe-ed@joe.org.