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As interest in local food development and urban agriculture increases, the Cooperative Extension Service is challenged to serve local and urban food communities in Arkansas. Urban farmers in Arkansas have differing motivations for operation than those in production agriculture, so understanding agricultural county agents' perceptions of urban farmers is critical for program development and implementation in this sector and to bridge any gaps between Extension and urban producers. This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of, awareness of, ability to assist with, and barriers to working with urban farmers in Arkansas. An emailed instrument was sent to Arkansas staff chairs and agricultural county agents and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 57 agents participated in the survey. Responses from agents in more populous regions of Arkansas were comparatively analyzed to those from less populous regions. Results indicated agents infrequently interacted with urban farmers in their counties, yet believed Extension was a valuable resource for urban farmers and that more resources should be allocated to developing urban farming programming. Respondents also self-identified as having low levels of personal knowledge relating to urban agriculture, with 72% of respondents indicating they were not knowledgeable or slightly knowledgeable about urban agriculture. There was a significant difference between the responses of agents in more populous counties and those in less populous counties. Future research aims to conduct a similar survey relating to local food in Arkansas, not just urban agriculture.

Background: Case study is widely used in teaching and learning literature; however, the extant literature contains few examples of student-developed case studies. This study used the situated perspective of experiential education (EE) to highlight context and legitimate peripheral participation encouraging enculturation into research communities of practice. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the implementation of a mini-ethnographic case study (MECS) during an international service-learning (ISL) experience to transform ISL and EE pedagogy through the inquiry-as-EL approach. The MECS design is a research method that uses an ethnographic approach bounded within case study methodology. Methodology/Approach: Working collaboratively, four students designed and implemented an MECS research project during an ISL. Using the crafted profile technique, data were analyzed to evaluate the impact of the MECS design on the students' experience and research skill development while in country. Findings/Conclusions: The MECS approach helped students develop their own exploratory research framework and have real-world experiences with data collection, analysis, and dissemination as emerging researchers. Implications: This study describes how the MECS design can be used as a tool to enhance service-learning experiences for students, especially during graduate education.

The University of Arkansas developed and integrated visual communications curriculum related to agricultural communications into secondary agricultural programs throughout the state. The curriculum was developed, pilot tested, revised, and implemented by selected secondary agriculture teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate students' knowledge prior to the program, after the curriculum was taught, and after participation in a day-long experiential learning activity utilizing skills and competencies taught in the curriculum. This study also assessed students' perceptions of the program and application of skills and competencies learned in the curriculum through a content analysis of short promotional videos created in the program. Eleven schools participated in the study with 106 students represented. Analysis of student test scores noted a significant effect between pre-, post-, and/or delayed-post scores for each curriculum unit (photography, writing, and videography). Overall, students had positive perceptions of the curriculum and the experiential (mobile classroom) learning activity. The content analysis noted that students were able to apply skills and competencies taught in the curriculum through short promotional videos about agriculture. This study found that the curriculum was successful in increasing student knowledge of visual communications as it relates to agricultural communications, and recommendations are made for curriculum revisions and improvements. [This research was presented previously at the 2014 Southern Association of Agricultural Scientists--Agricultural Education Section and the 2014 American Association for Agricultural Education Annual Meeting.]

Educational technology continues to expand with multi-user virtual environments (e.g., Second Life™) being the latest technology. Understanding a virtual environment's usability can enhance educational planning and effective use. Usability includes the interaction quality between an individual and the item being assessed. The purpose was to assess the usability of "AgriCulture Island" in Second Life™ to identify possible issues, understand of the severity of these issues, and how they could be effectively addressed in order to use Second Life™ as a teaching tool. The framework allowed the identification of constructs that further defined usability related to assessing a virtual environment. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed including pre/post questionnaires, observations, and a focus group session. The study engaged 12 participants during summer 2012 from a college of agriculture. Findings revealed that participants accepted Second Life™ more after initial exposure. Additionally, participants indicated the experience felt "real" and they could sense others in the environment. Observation data provided a picture of participant interaction with the virtual environment. Elements documented were assistance needs, satisfaction, confusion, and deviation from task. The importance of understanding educational technology usability cannot be underestimated. This study adds to the educational technology literature and provides recommendations for use.

The notion of entitlement has been a topic of recent debate among academicians in the past decade. The struggle between student needs and faculty expectations has also come under scrutiny. Many factors attribute to behaviors and further understanding from each of the entities involved should be explored. This study explored entitlement from students and faculty at a land grant university in the southern United States. An instrument was utilized to gather data from a target student population (n = 1,002) and modified to be delivered to stratified sample of faculty (n = 164). A Qualtrics survey was developed and delivered to participants and data was analyzed. When analyzing results, difference between academic and personal entitlement were found among the student population. Further, gender was found significant among groups. Faculty most often with statements such as having a responsibility towards meeting student needs and lending course notes to students but mostly agreed with the statement that they felt poorly when not responding the same day to an email. The differences between these groups may be apparent based on values and beliefs and therefore further investigation should be conducted to further determine practices to bridge the apparent gap(s)., Introduction Faculty are increasingly asked to accommodate student needs and preferences related to the growing occurrence of academic entitlement behaviors of college age students (Baer & Cheryomukhin, 2011; Lippmann, Bulanda, [...]

Students and faculty in a land-grant college of agriculture were surveyed to determine their perceptions of current and future Information and Communication Technology (ICT) use in undergraduate agriculture courses. There was a large, positive relationship (r = 0.83) between student and faculty perceptions of the extent to which 40 specific ICT tasks were required in undergraduate courses. Students and faculty ranked the same five ICT tasks (receive email, send email, search the Internet, submit assignments as email attachments, and use Blackboard© to acquire course information) as being the most frequently required. Students and faculty agreed that all database tasks and many of the intermediate to advanced spreadsheet, word processing, graphics, Internet, and miscellaneous tasks were seldom required in undergraduate agriculture courses. While a majority of students and faculty indicated that future ICT use should be maintained at the current level in each of seven broad ICT areas, there were significant (p < 0.05) differences between faculty plans and student recommendations for future use of the Internet, databases, computer graphics, and specialized applications. Students were undecided to moderately positive about their course-related ICT experiences. These results indicate a need to better integrate intermediate and advanced ICT tasks into undergraduate courses.

As 4-H evolves to include a wide breadth of youths' modern interests, innovative educational opportunities and evaluation practices become necessary. Horsemanship and safety-based horse camps were created in response to a statewide challenge to develop competitive 4-H members and retain those members as they approach adolescence. This article addresses the development, implementation, and review of Arkansas's horse 4-H camps. The article content includes a practical example of Kirkpatrick's evaluation model and a description of how a goal-based evaluation led to planned program modifications.

Data from the 2013 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were analyzed to determine the relationship between the 10 NSSE engagement indicators and student satisfaction for seniors (n = 1200) attending a mid-south land grant university. Seniors reported engaging in 7 of 10 indicators often or quite a bit and rated an eighth indicator, Quality of Interactions, as good. Seniors reported only sometimes engaging in Quantitative Reasoning and Student-Faculty Interactions. Each of the 10 engagement indicators had a significant positive correlation with student satisfaction, with correlations ranging from 0.12 (Discussions with Diverse Others) to 0.53 (Quality of Interactions). Robust multiple regression revealed a linear combination of three engagement indicators: 1) Quality of Interactions, 2) Supportive Environment, and 3) Effective Teaching Practices; these indicators explained a significant portion of the variance (R[superscript 2] = 0.334) in student satisfaction. Squared semipartial correlations indicated Quality of Interactions (8.4%) explained the largest percentage of unique variance in student satisfaction, followed by Supportive Environment (4.5%), and Effective Teaching Practices (1.1%). These results confirmed the importance of positive student-staff-faculty relationships, quality student support services, and good teaching practices in promoting student satisfaction.

In fall 2005, the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas authorized the optional use of a plus/minus grading system. Since 2005, approximately one-half of courses have been graded using plus/minus and one-half using the straight letter grade system. This study examined student (n = 338) and faculty (n = 82) perceptions of the plus/minus grading system and evaluated its effect on course GPAs by analyzing 12 years of grade data. Student perceptions of the plus/minus system were negative; a majority of students felt plus/minus grading was unfair, resulted in lower student GPAs, and preferred straight letter grades. The faculty was more divided; a slight majority felt plus/minus grading was fair to students while pluralities felt it helped average and low achieving students, resulted in lower student GPAs, and preferred straight letter grades. Students were significantly more negative about plus/minus grading than were faculty. Analyses of same-course same-instructor grade data indicated no significant change in post-2005 GPAs for courses where instructors continued to use straight letter grades; however, a significant decrease (-0.12) occurred in courses where instructors switched to plus/minus grading. In plus/minus graded courses, more minus than plus grades were assigned, primarily because no A+ grade was available.

Data from the 2013 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) were analyzed to determine the relationship between the 10 NSSE engagement indicators and student satisfaction for seniors [...]

This study sought to assess required information and communication technology (ICT) tasks in selected undergraduate agriculture courses in a land-grant university during a 10-year period. Selected agriculture faculty members in the fall 1999 (n = 63), 2004 (n = 55), and 2009 (n = 64) semesters were surveyed to determine the ICT tasks they required of students. There were significant (p less than 0.05) increases in the number of required Internet and electronic mail tasks between 1999 and 2009; but no significant changes in the number of word processing, computer graphics, spreadsheet, database, or miscellaneous ICT tasks required over the period. In 1999, three specific tasks (receive electronic mail, search the Internet, and type a lab or project report) were required in more than 50% of courses; in 2009, these three tasks plus three additional tasks (send electronic mail, submit assignments as attached electronic mail files, and use Blackboard[C] to acquire course information) were required in a majority of courses. Faculty with higher levels of self-perceived ICT skills and those teaching higher-level courses tended to require larger and more diverse sets of ICT tasks than other faculty. Course level explained the largest proportion of unique variance in the number of required spreadsheet, word processing, computer graphics, and miscellaneous ICT tasks. Self-perceived ICT skills and course level explained approximately equal amounts of the unique variance in total ICT tasks required. Both the quantity and complexity of ICT in undergraduate agriculture courses should be increased. (Contains 5 tables and 1 figure.)

Technology has the potential to improve education but only if it is applied with purpose and consideration of the audience. Understanding technology's role in education goes beyond the comparison of tools; there is a need to better understand student acceptance of technology so appropriate educational scaffolding and support can be provided. The absence of technology acceptance can become a barrier to the adoption, successful implementation, and use of new technologies. Therefore, the theoretical framework was based on technology acceptance. Described in this study is agricultural students' acceptance and readiness to use specific technologies (i.e., Second Life[TM], social networking, Twitter[TM], and content management systems) as educational tools. The population was all students enrolled in eight courses at Texas A&M University during the Fall 2010 semester. A total of 716 completed surveys were analyzed. Findings revealed that students perceive each of the technologies studied (i.e., Second Life[TM], social networking, Twitter, and content management systems) as unique entities that vary in regard to acceptance. Students overwhelmingly accept content management systems as a useful educational technology while Second Life[TM], Twitter[TM], and social networking are familiar but not as accepted. Findings reinforce the importance of instructors finding specific methods to successfully implement technology-specific educational tools. (Contains 1 figure and 9 tables.)

The "Journal of Leadership Education (JOLE)" has been a primary outlet of leadership education publishing and research dissemination since 2002. The purpose of this study was to assess the first five years of literature cited in "JOLE". The study used a quantitative content analysis design. Analyzed in the study were 45 articles with research methodologies published in "JOLE" from 2002 through 2006. Seven hundred eighty-one cited literature works were identified in the journal. The average number of citations per article was approximately 17. The most frequently cited journal sources were from leadership, management, and psychology. Additional cited works are defined. Citation analysis indicates that "JOLE" relies heavily on books, journals, conference proceedings, and other literacy works outside leadership education. "JOLE" does not exhibit compactness, indicating that it reaches past its citation boundaries and into interrelated areas of other disciplines. However, it does exhibit extremely weak self-identity meaning it does little to build upon research previously cited in "JOLE". Future research in "JOLE" should strive to cite articles from within its journal and determine what drives citations in leadership education.

According to a survey of professionals in agricultural education, "The Journal of Leadership Education" ("JOLE") is a new and primary outlet of leadership education research and professional scholarship. The purpose of this study was to assess five years of JOLE's primary and secondary research theme areas, frequent primary and secondary research themes by year, prolific authorship, and research methods and types using a mixed-methods design. A compilation of the research results is reported. Research themes appear cyclic and add little to improving an apparent lack of research continuity. Research must continue to determine cycle depth and the influence on research in leadership education as an integrated specialization area of agricultural education. This research may be used comparatively with the National Research Agenda to determine where future research should be focused.

In fall 2005, the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences at the University of Arkansas authorized the optional use of a plus/minus grading system. Since 2005, approximately [...]

Study abroad experiences provide students opportunities to explore various cultures, ideals, and lifestyles around the world. However, those who may desire to participate have varying levels of motivation. Using the expectancy-value theory as a context, we sought to validate an adapted instrument to assess undergraduate students' perceived cost of participating in short-term, study abroad courses or experiences (less than 14 days). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using R-type programming to confirm the factor structures. Findings revealed 12 items loaded onto four distinct factors: emotional cost, outside effort cost, loss of valued alternatives cost, and task effort cost--explaining 84% of the variance in college students' motivation to study abroad. Students were most motivated to study abroad based on the outside effort cost factor. Due to the rigorous psychometric properties used to validate the instrument, researchers can have confidence in including perceived costs when assessing motivation using the expectancy-value theory as a framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban farming is a phenomenon rising in popularity across the United States. Investigating the needs of urban farmers in a predominately rural state is important in informing future programming and technical assistance for these clients. This qualitative study used semi-structured, in-depth interviews that investigated the perceptions, needs, and experiences of Arkansas urban farmers and their interactions with the University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. Interviews were conducted with 16 urban farmers in Northwest and Central Arkansas. The interview data revealed highly individualized needs based on the operation size, years in operation, and mission of each urban farmer interviewed. While needs varied, some were consistent, such as market pricing, co-ops, and access to appropriate equipment. Participants also revealed a positive perception of Extension, though they cited that the organization did not always have resources specific to small-scale, sustainable farming. Building from the Community Food System Development Framework for Change and informed by the AgroEcological-Educator theory, this study provides urban farmers' insights and contextualizes urban farming in a predominately rural, southern state. Potential remains for increased collaboration and communication between Arkansas urban farmers and Extension. This article demonstrates the diverse needs of Arkansas urban farmers, which can be used by Extension and sustainable agriculture experts to inform research about urban and sustainable farmers in their respective states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As interest in local food development and urban agriculture increases, the Cooperative Extension Service is challenged to serve local and urban food communities in Arkansas. Urban farmers in Arkansas have differing motivations for operation than those in production agriculture, so understanding agricultural county agents' perceptions of urban farmers is critical for program development and implementation in this sector and to bridge any gaps between Extension and urban producers. This study was conducted to determine the perceptions of, awareness of, ability to assist with, and barriers to working with urban farmers in Arkansas. An emailed instrument was sent to Arkansas staff chairs and agricultural county agents and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. A total of 57 agents participated in the survey. Responses from agents in more populous regions of Arkansas were comparatively analyzed to those from less populous regions. Results indicated agents infrequently interacted with urban farmers in their counties, yet believed Extension was a valuable resource for urban farmers and that more resources should be allocated to developing urban farming programming. Respondents also self-identified as having low levels of personal knowledge relating to urban agriculture, with 72% of respondents indicating they were not knowledgeable or slightly knowledgeable about urban agriculture. There was a significant difference between the responses of agents in more populous counties and those in less populous counties. Future research aims to conduct a similar survey relating to local food in Arkansas, not just urban agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]