In a recent in-service-training, Scholarship in Extension 2.0 Virtual Workshop, the Central District Regional Specialized Agents (RSAs) and Associate District Extension Director (DED) reviewed program development implementation and evaluation, as well as the need for a “diversified scholarship portfolio” (Adams, et al, 2005). In this series, Scholarly Nuggets, the team will be providing bi-monthly tips and resources to support scholarly works.
Last Scholarly Nuggets, the Family and Consumer Sciences Regional Specialized Agent, Wendy Lynch, gave an overview of EDIS – Electronic Data Information Source. If you missed that piece of the scholarly nuggets, please click here.
Can you believe it is already November? Fall might be the pumpkin spice season for some people, but for Extension Agents, fall means Report of Accomplishments and Plan of Work, aka ROA/POW.
What is A Report of Accomplishments and Plan of Work?
In Florida, Extension program planning includes documenting planned activities and communicating results through an annual Report of Accomplishments (ROA) and a Plan of Work (POW). These two documents are combined to create “the only official report that encompasses your complete annual body of work for UF IFAS Extension” (University of Florida, 2021).
Therefore, thoughtful consideration on the report’s content is essential. The Extension ROA/POW includes several sections that are organized in the following order: Situation, Program Objectives, Educational Methods and Activities, Outcomes and Impacts, and Success Stories.
Objectives can be set and reevaluated regularly to meet the program’s needs. Your educational methods and activities can be planned and conducted individually or collectively. When it is a collective effort, how should we report the outcomes and impacts. This month Scholarly Nuggets will focus on reporting team efforts. Program Development & Evaluation Center (PDEC) has listed some frequently asked questions about how to report team efforts? These questions are primarily focused on Workload Reporting, but the concepts are applicable to team effort reporting.
Should I report the clientele contacts made by my program assistant, volunteers, or other support personnel?
Yes, you should report the clientele contacts made by others on behalf of your program or research. This includes program assistants, support personnel, interns, and volunteers that you supervise.
As the team leader of a project, how should I and my team members report in workload to avoid duplication?
Each team member will count their “share” of the training or outreach even if they are the same participants. The team leader should not count the work of others if he/she did not teach in the actual training or outreach. Instead, they should describe this work as a team leader in their annual ROA/POW.
The team has developed virtual educational materials. How should I and my team members report this effort?
For virtual educational materials, such as videos, podcasts, and recorded trainings, that are developed and managed by multiple people, it is best if either a single faculty member reports these data or estimate a portion of the social media contacts per faculty member in the workload. Everyone who substantively contributed to the creation of the website, podcasts, videos, factsheets, and/or presentations, should count the creation of these as educational materials. As a team leader, you may write an overall impact statement showing the team’s overall numbers and evaluation data.
For more Workload FAQ, please visit PDEC at https://pdec.ifas.ufl.edu/workload/faq.shtml.
Teamwork and Collaboration Toolkit
Last but not the least, teamwork is becoming more and more important for the success of not only in business, but also in Extension. It is a core skill that everyone needs to have in the workplace. I found an excellent tool – Teamwork and Collaboration Toolkit. It outlines the skills, knowledge, and behaviors essential for teams to be high performing and effective at the University of Florida and to provide the necessary resources to cultivate these competencies. You can find this resource on University of Florida Human Resources website.
Hope you all have a happy reporting season!
The author of this blog article is Dr. Yilin Zhuang. She is the Regional Specialized Agent in Water Resources in UF/IFAS Extension Central District. Yilin Zhuang, Ph.D. Regional Specialized Extension Agent II Water Resources UF/IFAS Extension Central District Mid-Florida Research and Education Center Email: yilinz@ufl.edu Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Blog
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