"The Evidence"

    While given the task to design a syllabus seemed easy, since I've seen dozens of syllabi through my years of education, it was not as simple as I originally imagined. I deeply appreciate the commitment to "practical and useful" work that is requested from this class. As an Extension Educator, I value useful material that I can apply to my career. With this being said, in my 6 years in Extension, I have never seen a Extension Program Syllabus. I believe this is the mythical creature of PSU Programming that I was on a hunt to find, or even just get a peek at.

   Consulting with co-workers and the instructors of this class, I thought of what might be helpful to clients who use Extension Programming services and how it would be a helpful document to them.
This seemed to flow nice with keeping main concepts, such as course overview, content, contacts and schedule in line with a syllabus. I did face some challenges though, how do I evaluate a non-exam program? How do I have an attendance policy for an optional, free program? How do I motivate the learners without grades?

        Peer review to get ideas accomplished!                 Image: Lynda.com

   During the "Snap Shot" phase of speed peer review, I received a lot of great feedback from my colleagues. While some aspects of the syllabus followed a typical layout, I had areas that were unique to the Extension Program area. All five of my classmates gave insightful feedback on areas to clarify or build upon based on their brief overview of my draft. I was partnered up with Shelby for the "Deep Drive" in which she spent thoughtful amount of time reviewing and making helpful suggestions. Shelby advised on areas from a different perspective, which helped me carefully revise the syllabus draft. It was very helpful, since Shelby was in 4-H while she lived in Texas, so her comments were very constructive and helped me clearly design an Extension Program Short Course syllabus.

   Working through the revisions and getting outside perspective was extremely helpful while creating the final draft of the syllabus. There were was plenty of feedback from six classmates that helped drive my creative thinking process for what to include in an Extension Syllabus. While working within Extension, not all feedback was completely applicable, but with some creative rationale it become worked into some sections of the syllabus.