BUILDING A PEER-TO-PEER NATIONAL NETWORK: CONNECT EXTENSION
Aaron Weibe, Communications and Engagement Manager, Extension Foundation
“ Connect Extension is driven by its users, not the Extension Foundation. Extension Foundation uses this platform just like anybody else across Cooperative Extension can use it: to share professional development opportunities, collaborate in private and public groups on specific projects and programs, and stay connected with the system.”
Introduction Over the last several years, the Extension Foundation has shifted from using its own custom platforms to finding commercial tools to meet the needs of Cooperative Extension. Since 2019, Extension Foundation has been looking for a commercial replacement for its Learn system as a place for Cooperative Extension professionals to post webinars and other virtual events to share publicly and across the system. In the process of searching for a replacement, it became apparent that there was a system-wide need for peer-to-peer resource sharing and collaboration. The new vision was to create a national platform where Cooperative Extension professionals could access and share learning and professional development opportunities, inspire new connections, and also have a place to collaborate across state lines in a way that breaks down the barriers that make these collaborations challenging. Barriers include states operating on different tools and technology from one another, email distribution lists that become challenging to navigate, and bringing more visibility internally towards the work going on across the system. Unlike Extension Foundation’s Communities of Practice of the pas t, where Cooperative Extension published content for public consumption, the vision now was to equip the system with a single place to go where it can work nationally on internal collaborations and know what colleagues are doing nationally. Connect Extension is an audience engagement platform powered by CrowdStack, a customizable commercial platform that provides many communications features. Connect Extension meets the needs of providing a national calendar for Cooperative Extension similar to the Learn system to share online engagements, but it does so much more. What began as an idea to replace an online calendar turned into a national peer-to-peer social Extension network - complete with private and public groups used for internal collaborations, multi- state initiatives, and national resource-sharing. Connect Extension went from idea to full implementation in seven days and has been active since March 23, 2020. At the time of this writing, the total life of Connect Extension is 50 days: 2,000 active Cooperative Extension accounts representing seventy-six 1890 and 1862 Land Grant Universities, six 1994 TCUs. 73,121 users from Extension and the public 103,964 sessions 192,824 page views
“ Part of what has made Connect Extension successful in such a short amount of time is a combination of a few things: learning from past success and failure, the technology, and enlisting individuals willing to make it successful. ”
Learning from Success and Failure Prior to Connect Extension , the Extension Foundation had two platforms that when used in combination, were similar to the capabilities of Connect Extension. The first one was the Learn system. By all accounts, this was a successful platform that users enjoyed working with. Not only was it a central advertising platform
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