Who Answers Consumer Horticulture Questions submitted to eXtension?

Rick Durham and Candace Harker University of Kentucky

Consumer Horticulture CoP

2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

20000

eXtensionHorticulture

AaE Answered Questions

History• eXtension work by CoPs began in 2005• Consumer Horticulture was one of 8 pioneer CoPs • Project Leaders: – Rick Durham, UK with Candace Harker – FAQs– Mary Meyer, UMN with Karen Jeannette – Basic

content• Public launch of eXtension Gardens Lawns and

Landscapes was February 2008 • Prior use of AaE beginning in 2007 by Mn Master

Gardeners

Even before public launch, Consumer Hort AaE became active

• Ask a Minnesota Master Gardener redirected to the site in 2007

• Horticulture questions asked by users visiting other content areas

Gardens, Lawns and Landscapes

• Very popular content• ~50% of requests for information to county

Extension offices related to consumer horticulture

• Extension Master Gardeners were already heavy users and advocates of on-line Extension information

• Our vision was to use MG as Experts to answer AaE questions

Extension Master Gardeners

• Nationwide network of trained, certified and motivated Extension volunteers

• Diverse interests and expertise

• Well connected to county Extension offices

• Already answering public questions

Early data from GLL/Consumer Horticulture

eXtension FAQ/AAE ActivityMarch 30, 2006 – July 20, 2008

CoP Users FAQ (published) Resolved ?

Consumer Hort 118 22,284 (1423) 2115

Entrepreneurship 11 1124 (258) 74

EDEN 9 568 (71) 11

Financial Security 19 3897 (1143) 163

HorseQuest 39 2521 (709) 727

Imported Fire Ants 38 731 (200) 85

JIT Parenting 4 1269 (797) 76

Wildlife Damage Mgt. 7 ? 189

eXtension total 2869 34,429 (5587) 4370

Hort as % of total 4.1% ??? 64.7% (25.5%) 48.4%

Who answers our questions?July 2008 data• States with >/= 1 responder = 28*• Responder demographics:– State specialists = 32– County agent/educator = 42– EMG volunteers = 35– Other = 7– Total = 116

*Some responders cover more than one state

Questions keep coming, and coming, and coming….

AaE Questions

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2006 2007 2008 2009 2010?

Hort

eXtension

2006 – 17

2007 – 551

2008 – 2637

2009 (Aug) - 4029

Who answers questions-2009?• 275 “Experts” historically for Hort (200 current

representing 40 states)• MGs, county staff, state specialists, part-time

eXtension project employee• 34% answered 1 question• 48% answered 2-25 questions• 8.5% answered 26-50 questions• 5% answered 51-100 questions• 2% answered 101-250 questions• 1.5% answered 251-500 questions• 1 person has answered 1890 questions

Dilemma-sustainability

• Minnesota MGs – 25% of questions• Candace Harker – 25% of questions• What do we do in 2010 when we have 10,000

questions?• What do we do in 2011 when we have 20,000

questions?• When will we be unable to answer all these

question?

Problems and Solutions• Scalability – Reassigning questions was a problem– Question wranglers have been a big help

• Buy-in by state/county staff– Slow in the beginning - “Coalition of the willing”– Institutionalization of eXtension and widgets

• Engagement of Extension Master Gardener Coordinators with social media and on-line discussions

blogs.exetnsion.org/mastergardener

Trends in Ask an Expert activity for eXtension Consumer Horticulture

Hypotheses:

• Institutionalization of eXtension should result in more AaE activity at the county level.

• As more activity become localized, the number of questions answered by “local” experts should increase.

Procedure:• Answered AaE in category Horticulture• 8 data sets from public site– April 1-8 in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011– September 20-27 in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010

• 4 data sets from widgets– April 1-8 in 2010 and 2011– September 20-27 in 2009 and 2010

• Experts categorized by Master Gardener, Specialist, or County staff

• Geographical origin of question and expert

Number of Questions analyzed

• April – Public Site– 2008 – 62– 2009 – 76– 2010 – 164– 2011 – 129

• April – Widget– 2010 – 95– 2011 – 67

• September – Public Site– 2007 – 22– 2008 – 54– 2009 – 78– 2010 – 88

• September – Widget– 2009 – 50– 2010 - 66

Total of 960 answered questions analyzed

Results

91%

9%

2007

MGSpecCounty 56%

20%

24%

2008

MGSpecCounty

44%

38%

18%

2009

MGSpecCounty

43%

20%

36%

2010

MGSpecCounty

Who answers AaE Questions for September - Public?

63%19%

18%

2008

MGSpecCounty

30%

49%

21%

2009

MGSpecCounty

15%

56%

29%

2010

MGSpecCounty

32%

30%

38%

2011

MGSpecCounty

Who answers AaE Questions for April - Public?

2%

40%58%

2009 - Sept

MGSpecCounty

29%

29%

43%

2010 - Sept

MGSpecCounty

57%31%

13%

2010 - April

MGSpecCounty

40%

40%

19%

2011 - April

MGSpecCounty

Who answers AaE Questions - Widget?

Totals – Percentage by sub-group

2007 2008 2009 2010 20110

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

MGSpecCounty

2007 2008 2009 20100

20

40

60

80

100

AaESame State

2008 2009 2010 20110

20406080

100120140160180

AaESame State

Geographic origin of question and expert answer

April 1-8

September 20-27

Discussion

• Currently have 405 Experts with horticulture preference representing 47 states.

• Master Gardeners remain a very important component of Consumer Hort AaE.

• Question answering by county staff appears to be increasing.

• For most recent data, ~90% of the questions were answered by an expert from the question’s state of origin.

Questions?