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Today we explore the impact of sharing information. Are shared ideas spread the way we think? Jean Haley is responsible for answering that question for soil health at North Dakota State. She is joined by soil health extension specialist Dr. Abbey Wick to discuss the plans and impact of providing information on soil health. While profit driven businesses can measure income as a metric for success, projects with education goals require a different approach for evaluation. \\u201cWhat does success mean?\\u201d That is where Jean comes in.

\\u201cI help programs get better at what they\\u2019re doing and provide data to their funders. That lets funders know what their return on investment is.\\u201d - Jean Haley

Program evaluation is prominent in education and health and human services. Jean has expanded it into soil health. Her data shows what projects and education sharing efforts have been effective and how so. Jean creates \\u201cneeds assessments\\u201d which allows for identification of end game goals for the evaluation. She then reaches for whatever tools would best achieve that end whether that be a survey, observation of conversations and interactions at events, or creating focus groups.

According to Jean, with the advent of \\u201cCafe Talks,\\u201d Dr Wick created a boundary organization. This allowed for \\u201ca conversation in real time\\u201d that she was then able to moderate and grow. By identifying the strength of this event, Dr Wick was then able to show the significance with data to those funding the lunches.

\\u201cHere we have something that\\u2019s going to outlast everybody and it\\u2019s going to continue feeding on itself... It\\u2019s bigger than the individual. It\\u2019s about everybody that\\u2019s part of the network. I think funding sources really like hearing that because it (doesn\\u2019t) just end with this project.\\u201d - Dr. Abbey Wick

One significant recommendation Jean has offered to the soil sense movement is to offer longer breaks during workshops. As opposed to the presumed \\u201cdead time\\u201d this may allow it fostered conversation which was the ultimate goal of the workshop and therefore provided a greater benefit than perpetual lecture. \\u201cWe were so focused on the talks and the presentations and the content that we totally forgot about the fact that people like to just visit\\u2026.They\\u2019re coming here to meet other farmers. They\\u2019re coming here to get ideas and to get inspired and it\\u2019s like we just extinguished all of that with content.\\u201d Dr. Wick credits Jean with shifting the focus from disseminating as much information as possible to providing quality programming to create the desired networking effect.

This Week on Soil Sense:

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• Meet Jean Haley and learn about her role in evaluation of NDSU\\u2019s Soil Science Program
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• Discover what program evaluation is and the tools they employ
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• Hear about the impact Jean has had on the program from Dr Abbey Wick
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• Explore the benefits this provides to the program and by extension those that fund it
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Connect with Soil Sense:

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• Soil Sense Initiative
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Soil Sense Podcast is hosted by Tim Hammerich of the Future of Agriculture Podcast.