CASE STUDY, EXTENSION, NATURAL RESOURCES



Take about 10 minutes to read the case study below individually. When you are all finished, go to page two.

PROGRAM PLANNING AND EVALUATION:

A CASE OF COMMUNICATION IN NATURAL RESOURCES INSTRUCTION

Sam Johnson teaches the Associate of Science Natural Resources Management Program at a Tribal College, and has done for the last 10 years. He is the only full-time instructor in the program, although two adjunct instructors teach selected courses. There are also two English instructors, neither of whom has interest in or experience with scientific literature.

The students enter his program with considerable experience in hunting, camping and working in the out-of-doors as well as a strong personal and cultural commitment to preserving their tribes’ resources. However, they continue to struggle with writing and reading. They balk at reading assignments, and continue to make the same writing mistakes (particularly in organizing ideas and citing sources), despite Sam’s efforts.

According to the Natural Resources Advisory Committee, both employers and university professors expect A.S. graduates to be able to write a simple technical report using professional literature with appropriate citation styles. More than any other content knowledge or technical skill, Sam believes that it is the lack of professional communication skills that inhibits his students’ ability to progress toward their career goals.

Sam’s frustration is exaspterated because he does not have training in communications education and carries a heavy teaching load with technical courses. Yet he knows that there must be a way to incorporate effective reading and writing in a more engaging way than he is doing now.

Sam wants to use the Tribal Colleges Equity Grant to address the communication issues in his program as part of a 5-year proposal focusing on enhancing the transferability and employability of the College’s Natural Resources graduates.

Using what you know of the case study and the diagram below, discuss as a group and list the resources/inputs, activities, outputs, outcomes, and impacts that Dusty might consider in his plan. Refer to Chapter 2, pp. 15-25. Take about 20 minutes and have one person record your answers. Then move on to page three.

|RESOURCES |ACTIVITIES |OUTPUTS |SHORT- & LONG-TERM OUTCOMES |IMPACT |

|In order to accomplish our set of |In order to address our problem or |We expect the once accomplished these |We expect that if accom-plished these |We expect that if accom-plished these |

|activities we will need the following:|asset we will accomplish the following|activities will produce the following |activities will lead to the following |activities will lead to the following |

| |activities: |evidence or service delivery: |changes in 1-3 then 4-6 years: |changes in 7-10 years: |

|Have: instructors |Training for English Instructors |Functional benchmarks for general |Better general writing skills (general|Students can be successful as |

| | |reading/writing courses. |vocabulary, spelling, grammar, |natural resource technician employees |

|Model (e.g. Northwest model) | | |organization) |and/or |

| |Collaborative workshop for | | |transfer students at 4 year colleges |

|Science Writing Lab (needed) |communications and resources |Improved continuity of assignments and| |or universities. |

| |instructors in which expectations and |expectations among courses. |Better technical writing skills | |

|$60K Equity funding |examples are analyzed. | |(technical terms, style, summarization| |

| | |Students show improvement on “pre” and|of ideas) | |

| |Technical writing course designed with|“post” writing assignments | | |

| |English Composition as a prerequisite | |Better research skills (sources, | |

| | | |analysis of papers) | |

| |Increased writing requirements in all | | | |

| |resources courses. | | | |

| | | | | |

| |Examples prepared for students’ use. | | | |

Using the logic model that you have developed, now use the flowchart below to develop your evaluation questions. Refer to Chapter 4, pp. 35-44. Take about 20 minutes as a group and have one person record your answers.

|EVALUATION FOCUS AREA |AUDIENCE |QUESTION |USE |

|What is going to be evaluated? List those |What key audience will have questions about your|What questions will your key audience have about|If you answer a given question, what will that |

|components from your logic model that you think |focus area? For each focus area you have |your program? For each focus area and audience |information be used for? For each audience and |

|are the most important aspects of your program. |identified, list the audiences that are likely |that you have identified, list the questions |question you have identified, list the ways and |

|These areas will become the focus of your |to be the most interested in that area. |they might have about your program. |extent to which you plan to make use of the |

|evaluation. | | |evaluation information. |

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