Assumptions

• The ability for people to ask questions of the Extension system and receive timely, scientifically accurate responses is an important component of eXtension.
• The Extension system is willing to provide the necessary resources (staff and funding) to enable this functionality.
• Communities (Extension or otherwise) that are not responsive are not the kind of communities people choose to join.
• Taking days, rather than hours, to respond to questions from clients is contrary to Extension culture.

Membership

Kevin Gamble (chair), Terry Meisenbach, Craig Wood, Beth Raney, Mike Lambur, Larry Lippke, Ben MacNeill, Rick Durham. Additional members and subgroups to be added as needed.

Timeframe

• Report on plans and subcommittee work at February Governing Committee meeting. - completed
• Discussion at March Governing Committee meeting on progress and plans. More details description of work in progress.

* All research and data collected April-May.

• Data analysis and report writing May.
• Final report and recommendations for further action by June Governing Committee meeting.

Objectives

• Assess the system's ability to operate an AaE system.
• Assessment will determine what the system thinks are acceptable levels of performance: time to respond, etc.
• Assess the system's performance (human) to date: timeliness, capacity, correctness, coherence, completeness...
• Assess the response time of AaE functions of other (non-Extension) communities.
• Assess the use by other (non-Extension) communities of different methods of answering questions, e.g., anyone in the CoP or CoI can answer - essentially an open discussion system.
• Determine the people's (which people - customers or providers?) expectations for an AaE system: timeliness, capacity, correctness, coherence, completeness... (potential research paper)
• System usability - do people abandon before asking their questions...
• Determine the level of staffing and resources required to operate the system (based on estimates of how this might eventually scale)
• Prepare report/recommendations to the Governing Committee for action
  • Ask an Expert Task Force: Finding and Recommendations

Subgroups

Ask an Expert Task Force: Extension administrators

• Is the system willing to commit the resources to operate and expanded AaE system across all content domains?
• Are partners willing to allow staff to work across geographic boundaries?
• Reward/expectations of faculty/educators? Valued activity?
• What can be learned from BGC P2 to inform about the system's willingness to commit resources? Conversations with pilot state administrators.

Ask an Expert Task Force: Public

• What are peoples expectations of an Ask an Expert system?
  • Reasonable time for a response?
  • Expertise of people asking?
  • Science-based answers?
  • Path to finding an answer?
  • Path to asking questions?
  • Bring back search results?
  • Immediacy of finding answer or submitting a question?
  • People's perceptions of the quality of the service.

Ask an Expert Task Force: Faculty/Educators

• What professional credit accrues to those actively participating in answering questions?
• Time commitment to answering questions?
• Seen as scholarly and rewarded? Valued activity?
• Willingness to answer questions-- number per week?
• Willingness to answer questions at night, weekends, etc?
• What motivates you to answer questions coming in through Ask an Expert?
• What are the barriers to participating in Ask an Expert?
• What factors affect the willingness of volunteers to assist in answering questions?

Ask an Expert Task Force: Metrics

• What does it cost to answer a question? Total costs to run a the system: programming, sys admin, expert's time, question wrangling, etc.
  
• What is the current volume of questions? What is the anticipated volume of questions?
• How long does it take to answer a question?
• What's the value of answering a question by an individual, the value to their specific programmatic effort?
• How many people find their answer and don't submit a question. (self service rate)
• How many people abandon before asking their question (registration and forced search impact)?
• Content analysis - are questions coming from widgets answerable with FAQs? Comparison to questions coming from pubsite AAE where search is required before asking.

Meeting Agendas and Notes:

AaE Task Force Meeting Notes May 27 2009
AaE Task Force Meeting Notes May 14 2009
AaE Task Force Meeting Notes April 13 2009
AaE Task Force Meeting Notes March 17 2009
AaE Task Force Meeting Notes: February 23 2009
AaE Task Force Meeting Notes: January 23 2009
AaE Task Force meeting Notes: December 15 2008

Final Report

• Ask an Expert Study

1. Slides: Ask an Expert Study and Decisions
2. Report: Ask an Expert Report (PDF)
3. June 25 webinar Recording