A look into the survey of Extension’s technology services and team

Earlier this year, many of you in UM Extension completed a survey about your awareness and needs related to Extension’s IT department. In today's Quick Byte, I thought I'd share some of what we learned from that survey, and the actions we're taking as a result in the New Year!

Results

Overall, the results were favorable: 82 percent of the 400 survey respondents said they are “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with services currently offered.

With over 250 write-in comments mentioning the staff, it is apparent that the Extension Technology team is respected and trusted.

We're also really proud to share that respondents ranked Extension Technology staff knowledge or expertise 5 and above out of a possible 6 on all subjects, including production work, registration setup, training, and equipment selection. When asked what the strengths of Extension Technology are, our staff really shone. With over 250 write-in comments mentioning the staff, it is apparent that the Extension Technology team is respected and trusted. Thank you!

But let's dig a little deeper.

We started very generally by asking respondents if they have access to the technology they need to accomplish their Extension work. 77% of respondents said they have the technology they need  “always” or “most of the time.” Other responses mainly expressed the desire for a named piece of software to be provided. The only software written-in more than twice was Zoom.

Many requests were for a service we already offered.

We then got a little more specific, asking if Extension Technology (our team) has the services you need. 75% of respondents indicated we have the services they need to accomplish their Extension work “always” or “most of the time.” Suggestions for additional services had no consensus toward anything specific, and were frequently asking for a service we already offer.

Likewise, only 68% of respondents “agree” or “strongly agree” to the statement “I know where to go to obtain help from Extension Technology.” This concerned me, so I dug a little deeper into the data. When asked what path you would take for technology help, most respondents indicated they start with OIT Tech Help, and their next preferred option is to contact an Extension Technology team member directly. Then they would check the Intranet or Quick Bytes blog, and fourth is to email the team's email exttech@umn.edu. Our team decided we have some work to do in making contacting us easier and more obvious.

Respondents on the whole desire to know more about who we are and what we can do for them.

When we asked what we can do to improve, respondents on the whole desire to know more about who we are and what we can do for them. Surprising to me, respondents overwhelming desire to hear unit information (about our strategy, goals, processes, services, and activities) from us via email. They also desire this info to be available on the Intranet.

Resulting Changes

Our team, Extension leadership, and the Extension Technology Advisory Committee have carefully reviewed and discussed these results. As Dean Durgan announced on November 15th, we have decided on a few strategies to make improvements. 

Our name has changed to Extension Learning Technologies (ELT). 

This more specific name will inherently address some of the ambiguity of colleagues knowing who we are and what we can do for them. In my mind, "learning technologies" represents the broad work our team does in support of the Extension learner, from online learning to web design.

We have tweaked our services.

This includes the expansion our participant registration services for Extension programs. This decision was made based on several sources of data, one of which was this survey, which revealed inefficiencies in our support of online registration. The changes include the bundling of registration packages, making our team more of a one-stop shop for online learning. You do not need to know to contact Alison for Canvas course review, then Stephanie for registration setup, then your Center web professional for a page on the main site. One contact to any of these places will be all you need.

We have also re-worked our priority project process a bit. Smaller projects can be fast-track approved, and the quarterly acceptance deadlines are gone. We hope this removes any perceived barriers of including the ELT team in learning technologies projects where your team could use assistance. 

Our team has decided to vigorously promote our services through a new marketing plan. 

This has been a challenge for us, but in the end I think we have some fun things planned. We already published a series of blog posts on "Meet the Team" as one part of this effort. Keep your eyes out for "ELT Week" coming up this winter! We are also working on creating a "Liaisons" program to liaise with all Extension program teams. We are doing this with the goal of meeting with programs more often, in order to better anticipate and respond to program needs, and to make it easier for everyone in Extension to know our work and how to access us. Setting this program up "just right" is turning out to be a challenge, and I think we might need to try a couple tactics before we find something that works well for all involved.

I look forward to an increased awareness and utilization of the ELT team.

I am excited for these changes and look forward to an increase in awareness and utilization of the ELT team. We so appreciate all of your responses. Thank you for taking part in the survey!