Presentation at eXtension CoP Conference, Louisville, Ky, June 28, 2011. Rick Durham

1. Who Answers Consumer Horticulture Questions submitted to eXtension? Rick Durham and Candace Harker University of Kentucky Consumer Horticulture CoP

2. AaE Answered Questions

3. 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

4. Even before public launch, Consumer HortAaE became active Ask a Minnesota Master Gardener redirected to the site in 2007 Horticulture questions asked by users visiting other content areas

5. 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

6. 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

7. Early data from GLL/Consumer Horticulture

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

9. 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

10. Questions keep coming, and coming, and coming….

11. AaE Questions 2006 – 17 2007 – 551 2008 – 2637 2009 (Aug) - 4029

12. 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

13. 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?

14. 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

15. blogs.exetnsion.org/mastergardener

16. Trends in Ask an Expert activity for eXtension Consumer Horticulture

17. 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.

18. 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

19. 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

20. Results

21. Who answers AaE Questions for September - Public?

22. Who answers AaE Questions for April - Public?

23. Who answers AaE Questions - Widget?

24. Totals – Percentage by sub-group

25. Geographic origin of question and expert answer September 20-27 April 1-8

26. Discussion Currently have 405 Experts with horticulture preference representing 47 states. Master Gardeners remain a very important component of Consumer HortAaE. 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.

27. Questions?