eXtension Information for Responding to NIFA RFAs

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    SCRI - eXtension Information

    Specialty Crops Research Initiative (SCRI) Program funds may be requested to develop eXtension Communities of Practice (CoP) for the eXtension system that are consistent with specific SCRI program priorities. In addition to funds for establishing a new CoP, funds may be requested to support enhancement of existing CoPs to ensure that information and technology transfer reaches potential adopters as quickly as possible. Most opportunities will be in SCRI coordinated agricultural projects that support eXtension in combination with research and/or education. To be convincing to the peer review panel it is recommended that applicants who include an eXtension component in their project include a letter of acknowledgment from eXtension in the application.

    General Information

    This information is designed to assist applicants who intend to:

    1. Establish a new eXtension Community of Practice (CoP), or
    2. Enhance an existing Community of Practice

    The section titled About eXtension and its four subsections apply to both new and existing CoP applications. The subsequent sections pertain to new or existing CoPs.

    About eXtension

    eXtension is an evolving, virtual, customer centered educational environment that will provide the most current, objective, research based information from the land- grant university system for anyone, at any time, on any device, and in any location. eXtension is founded on the fundamental land-grant principles of aiding in the distribution of useful and practical information and represents the entire land-grant system. It also serves to minimize duplication and to aggregate information through identifying or developing the “best of the best” content on any given subject addressed by a Community of Practice.

    eXtension will enhance and transform the way the Cooperative Extension System nationwide develops and distributes educational programs and products and interacts with customers. It involves a new way of working as programs and products are adapted from existing content and/or developed by virtual teams of content specialists and support professionals (Communities of Practice or CoPs) constantly interacting with the clientele served (Communities of Interest or CoIs). These educational products and programs will evolve over time as needed, remaining current and based upon the latest research-based information available. The resources needed to develop these customer-centered, effective, interactive on-line educational products and programs are costly. Individual land-grant institutions cannot afford to develop these on-line educational resources for all content areas needed by the clientele they serve. Therefore, in the spirit of cooperation, strength in sharing resources and branding to the local or the client’s preferred land-grant institution, eXtension serves as a complement to the on-the-ground work of the Cooperative Extension system nationwide. The strength of eXtension comes from its nationally shared knowledge base that can be localized so that every customer will have access to the best the system has to offer.

    Guiding Principles of eXtension

    CoP membership must subscribe to the eXtension Mission, Vision, Values and Guiding Principles.

    Community of Practice

    A Community of Practice (CoP) is defined as a virtual network of subject-matter content providers consisting of faculty, professional and para-professional staff, county educators, industry experts, and government agency representatives who share knowledge or competence in a specific content area and who are willing to work and learn together over a period of time to further develop and share their knowledge in forms of educational products and programs and electronic interactions with an appropriate and identifiable group of customers (CoI). While anyone with expertise can participate, CoP leadership must be land-grant faculty or professional staff with Extension appointments whose institutions are in good standing with eXtension. Specific functions of a CoP include:

    • Interactively helping meet the knowledge needs of their respective CoI.
    • Stewardship of the available knowledge for their specific content area.
    • Best practice development of educational products, tools and programs.
    • Innovation in content-area knowledge and delivery.

    CoPs are constantly interacting with and should be directly related to their CoI. This feedback mechanism allows for the constant improvement of product offerings by the CoP to satisfy CoI needs over time. CoPs must be open to the continual expansion of their membership, as they will have members who move in and out depending on their interest and time availability. Therefore, membership in a CoP is fluid and flexible.

    Community of Interest

    A Community of Interest is an identified group of individuals sharing similar interests, concerns, and educational needs around a subject area. It is important that the description of the CoI is clear, relevant and includes a definable set of audience needs, as well as an explanation of how the CoI audience will be served by the proposed CoP. The development of a CoP should begin with identification of a definable CoI with common needs and interests.

    Collaboration, Intellectual Property and Publishing Requirements

    The following requirements of CoP members are important to 1) support the highest level of multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional collaboration, 2) support the distribution of eXtension works, and 3) ensure the highest level of content discoverability.

    • Register for an eXtensionID.
    - This may be done at people.extension.org.
    • Content creation tools developed or selected for use should utilize the OpenID standard for authentication. All eXtension ID holders have an OpenID that they can use to authenticate with eXtension-hosted and 3rd-party content creation tools.
    • Accept and sign the eXtension Contributor and Business Agreement. This will allow eXtension to support collaborative work, and publish and distribute content.
    -For more information about the agreements visit eXtension Contributor and Business Agreements Overview.
    • CoP created content is to be published and search indexed solely through www.extension.org to ensure maximum content discoverability by today's search engines.

    Become a New eXtension Community of Practice (CoP)

    Steps for Completing this Section of the Application

    1. Contact eXtension; they are prepared to help clarify and guide you in the development of this portion of your application. Please contact: Craig Wood at craig.wood@extension.org, 859.323.8472, Ashley Griffin at ashley.griffin@extension.org, 859.323.8473 or Dan Cotton at dan.cotton@extension.org, 402.472.8841 (office).
    2. Prepare this component of the proposal using the "key criteria" that follow.
    3. Share it with eXtension staff (Cotton or Wood); after they have reviewed what you plan to submit, they will prepare for you a "letter of acknowledgment" indicating you have consulted with them, that key criteria have been addressed and an affirmation that the proposed new CoP does not duplicate one in existence or one being developed.

    Key Criteria to Establish a New CoP

    The following criteria should be addressed in your application to establish a new CoP.

    Describe the CoP

    1. CoP lead contact information including name, title, eXtension ID, address, e-mail, telephone numbers, and other contact details. The CoP lead contact must be a land-grant faculty member or professional staff with an Extension appointment whose institution is in good standing with eXtension.
    2. List of CoP core leadership members, titles, institutions or business affiliation and e-mail addresses and a description of how the leadership team was formed.
    3. Description of the CoP, including the plan to increase the CoP membership. Include a CoP leadership and management plan, number of face-to-face meetings, audio and/or Web meetings planned and methods to achieve the CoP's continued productivity. Also, please describe:
    • Evidence of a national or regional team, as appropriate.
    • Geographic representation appropriate to the Community of Interest (CoI)
    • 1890/1862 representation (inclusion of 1994 institutions is encouraged)
    • Inclusion of institutions of varying resource levels
    • Nationally (or regionally) known key content expertise
    • Efforts to expand Extension’s “reach” to underrepresented or underserved audiences
    • Evidence of distinguished content expertise in Extension programming.
    • Evidence of prior collaboration by proposed CoP members.
    • Evidence for inclusion in the CoP of other groups (research and teaching faculty; practitioners, commodity, professional agency, private sector, or other appropriate groups), including support documentation.
    • Plan for development of a functioning and sustainable CoP, including leadership plan over time.
    • Note: A proposed CoP does not necessarily have to include all of the above to be selected for funding.

    Describe the CoI

    1. Description of the CoI to be served and methods the CoP will use to engage the CoI with educational products and programs on a continuing basis.
    • Description of the scope and boundaries of the audience being served, economic and/or social importance, statement of need or plans to determine needs.
    • Detailed description of any applicable needs assessment data pertaining to the proposed CoI.
    • Description of marketability of eXtension products to the proposed CoI.

    Describe the Plan of Work

    1. Logic model description for the development of a functioning and sustainable CoP including inputs, outputs and outcomes (short, medium and long term) for a three-year period. Download Logic Model templates provided by University of Wisconsin.
    2. Detailed plan of content aggregation, evaluation and development/repackaging for year one and maintenance, sustainability and evolution over time.
    3. Scope of Work for the proposed CoP over the first 12 months. This Scope of Work should include detailed deliverables for this time period including:
      • Number of published FAQs (minimum of 100)
      • Protocol for the "Ask an Expert" function
      • Curriculum content outline
      • Number of basic information pages (minimum of 250)
      • Other deliverables, e.g., educational, analytical tools
    4. Brief description of deliverables for years two and three
    5. Anticipated date of CoP inclusion in the eXtension public site(public release)
    6. Resources currently available to this proposed CoP and plans for CoP sustainability

    Budget Inclusions

    Newly forming CoPs are encouraged to include the following items in their budget and budget narrative. Use the CoP budget form.

    • Funds for at least one annual face-to-face meeting
    - meeting should include organizational aspects of the CoP
    - collaboration and team building for CoP members
    - receive training on eXtension applications
    • Salary compensation amount for one or more of the primary investigators
    • Travel expenses
    • Subcontract amounts to identified institutions
    • Evidence of budget sustainability of the CoP including institutional resource sharing plans and institutional contributions, if applicable; availability of outside funding and potential development opportunities

    Note: The majority of the technology infrastructure required by CoPs and their members will be provided by eXtension and should not be included in your budget. For a description of such support please link to Support Provided by eXtension.

    Enhancing an Existing Community of Practice (CoP)

    Steps for Completing this Section of the Application

    1. Contact the CoP leaders of the CoP to which you intend to add value and work out the necessary arrangements to enhance that CoP.
    2. Contact eXtension; they are prepared to help clarify and guide you in the development of this portion of your application. Please contact: Craig Wood at craig.wood@extension.org, 859.323.8472 (office), Ashley Griffin at ashley.griffin@extension.org, 859.323.8473 (office) or Dan Cotton at dan.cotton@extension.org, 402.472.8841 (office).
    3. Prepare this component of the proposal using the "key criteria" that follows.
    4. Share it with eXtension staff (Cotton or Wood) and the appropriate CoP leaders; after they have reviewed what you plan to submit for this part of the application, a "letter of acknowledgment" will be prepared by eXtension staff and shared with you indicating that you have consulted with them, that key criteria have been addressed and that you are prepared to enhance the existing CoP.

    Key Criteria to Enhance an Existing CoP

    This section of information is designed to assist applicants who would like to enhance an existing CoP. Enhancing a CoP includes, but is not limited to: 1) contributing new content; 2) increasing membership of the existing CoP; 3) creating new cross-disciplinary partnerships within and across CoPs. The following criteria should be addressed in your application.

    Describe the Intended Enhancements and their Impact Upon the CoP

    1. List the lead contact information including name, title, eXtension ID, address, e-mail, telephone numbers, and other contact details. The CoP lead contact must be a land-grant faculty member or professional staff with an Extension appointment whose institution is in good standing with eXtension.
    2. List the CoP members who will be involved including titles, institutions or business affiliations and e-mail addresses.
    3. Describe how enhancements will be formed, their relationship to the existing CoP, how enhancements will be integrated, and how the CoP membership will be integrated with the existing CoP.
    4. Provide a description of the CoP to which enhancements will be made, including a description of how the CoP will be affected in terms of new content, programs and/or membership. Include your content development and management plan, number of face-to-face meetings, audio and/or Web meetings planned and methods to achieve the continued CoP productivity.
    5. Describe how the interactive elements (FAQs, Ask an Expert, etc) related to the new content will be handled in relation to the existing CoP plan.

    Describe the CoI

    1. Description of the Community of Interest to be served and methods your CoP will use to engage the CoI with your educational products and programs.
    • Description of the scope and boundaries of the audience being served, economic and/ or social importance, statement of need or plans to determine needs.
    • Detailed description of any applicable needs assessment data pertaining to the proposed CoI.
    • Description of marketability of eXtension products to the proposed CoI.

    Describe the Plan of Work

    1. Logic model description for inputs, outputs and outcomes (short, medium and long term) for a three-year period, if applicable. Download Logic Model templates provided by University of Wisconsin.
    2. Detailed plan of enhancements to be developed (e.g., new content, membership, cross-disciplinary efforts, etc.), evaluation, maintenance, sustainability and evolution over time.
    3. Scope of Work for the proposed enhancements being contributed over the next 12 months. This Scope of Work should include detailed deliverables for the time period defined.
    4. How the proposed project will contribute to the:
      • Number of published FAQs
      • Protocol for "Ask an Expert" function
      • Number of basic information pages, if applicable
      • Other content deliverables
      • Increases in membership
      • Cross-disciplinary work
    5. Brief description of deliverables for years two and three, if applicable
    6. Anticipated date of new content inclusion on the CoP eXtension public site (public release).
    7. Resources currently available to this CoP and plans for sustainability

    Budget Inclusions

    Consideration should be given to including the following items in your budget and budget narrative. Use the CoP budget form.

    • Funds for at least one annual face-to-face meeting.
    - meeting would include organizational aspects of the CoP
    - collaboration and team building for CoP members
    - coordination with existing CoP
    - receive training on eXtension applications
    • Salary compensation amount for one or more of the primary investigators
    • Travel expenses
    • Subcontract amounts to identified institutions, if applicable
    • Evidence of budget sustainability of the CoP including institutional resource sharing plans and institutional contributions, if applicable; availability of outside funding and potential development opportunities.

    Note: The majority of the technology infrastructure required by CoPs and their members will be provided by eXtension and should not be included in your budget. For a description of such support please link to Support Provided by eXtension.

    Related Information

    The following information will provide more insight into the CoP certification process and expectations in accountability and reporting. Also, a list of current and planned CoPs is provided.