2009 CSREES National Water Conference; St. Louis, MO Assessing Our Skills and Confidence in Changing Public Behavior

This session will describe Extension educator readiness to implement behavior change techniques in their outreach programs based on pre- and post-workshop assessments for the Changing Public Behavior National Facilitation Project. The Changing Public Behavior Project traveled from coast to coast this year to pilot workshops that are testing innovative techniques and resources for building educator skills. We created workshop activities and a related online Self-Study Module to help Extension natural resource professionals and educators increase their skills in using and collecting audience information for designing an outreach strategy. Workshop participants completed pre- and post- workshop questionnaires assessing their levels of skills and confidence in using education techniques and social assessment tools when designing outreach efforts. Participants also evaluated workshop presentations and resources. Evaluation data has been used to fine-tune workshop materials and activities, as well as the online Self-Study Module, http://wateroutreach.uwex.edu/SSModuleIntro.cfm