Program Planning - the Process

Whether or not Colorado State University Extension will continue to have public and political support depends on its ability to communicate positive program results. The need to demonstrate relevance is greater today than at anytime in our history. Our challenge is to effectively communicate with public, private and political decision makers, as well as with internal university leadership, that today's Extension programs are relevant, focusing on priority issues with significant impact on people and communities. An effective strategy for a state and local system of communications and public/political support should be built on relevant experiences and impact-filled programs. Local real-life examples and personal experiences from Extension programs carry the strongest message of our "value to people." Local success stories, program examples and impacts are most relevant and of most interest to decision makers and influential stakeholders when they are backed by the enthusiasm of clientele groups who are their constituents.

Programs don't just happen. They need to be designed to help people learn and solve or manage the problems they face. Programs that are planned result in a more effective, results-focused educational effort to meet high priority needs. Each educational experience should connect to and build upon previous ones. Program planning is a process through which clientele representatives and stakeholders of Extension become involved as partners with professional Extension staff in strategic planning to study community issues, trends, problems, needs, and assets in order to:

  • identify educational opportunities,
  • weigh problems and opportunities within organizational mission,
  • define specific problem areas or needs to work on,
  • set priorities and goals,
  • establish and write measurable objectives,
  • develop educational strategies and methods,
  • design evaluation plans,
  • carry out educational programming and evaluation,
  • serve as part of the marketing team to communicate impacts to decision makers and others.

Representatives of the audience for whom the program is planned should be involved in the program design and the determination of program objectives and evaluation criteria.

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Definition of "Program"

"Program" as used in this document and in the Extension Program Planning Process (including e-POWER) is defined as a coordinated set of dynamic, results-oriented, educational activities focused on a problem and aimed at achieving predetermined, measurable objectives.

Think of a "Program" as a planned sequence of educational experiences focusing on a single major purpose over a specified time period, or a series of activities designed to collectively hasten consideration and adoption of technologies and/or practices toward improving social, economic, and/or environmental conditions. A statewide program should exist in more than one county and should have some kind of identifiable university resource base. Program effectiveness is the degree to which a program yields a desired outcome.

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Good Programs Make the Organization

"Programs result from a mix of national needs, state research input, and local 'grass roots' people working to develop educational responses to identified needs."
-Extension Program Planning Guide

An effective effort to market an organization will be of little value if the programs or products of the organization are poorly determined, developed, packaged, or delivered. In other words, an organization is only as good as the programs it delivers to the public--its "products"in the marketplace. Program marketing is a process designed to make sure programs are well planned, developed, packaged and delivered to the customer. (It is not promoting a specific workshop or other activity-which is only one element of a marketing plan.) It is the process we refer to as program planning in Extension. A program is not just one activity, event or workshop; it is a series of planned educational interactions designed to bring about a desired outcome or change in the intended target audience. Extension programs should be based on the desires of your market-assuming you do your homework to find out what the audience wants or what needs the community has. In some cases, your programs will be based on what someone else has determined the market needs. An example might be an educational program on "planning for retirement" that you design for a target market of young married couples. You know they need the program, but the audience doesn't have an expressed interest-they don't recognize their need at the moment. In this case, your program planning/marketing job becomes more difficult.

As you identify organizational goals and objectives, or problems and opportunities that can be addressed by a logical process of analysis and strategy, you have started the program planning (marketing) process. Program plans seldom follow steps as closely as you might follow a recipe. There are, however, certain activities that if accomplished, will help ensure a successful planning effort. But how do you know where to start and who to involve in the process?

  • The first thing you do is your homework. You may have a good sense of the issues and problems in your area. Perhaps this is from reading the newspaper about an emerging issue in the community, or maybe from the expressed concerns and identified problems of an audience you have been working with. You might conduct a formal or informal survey of your market to determine what they want or need. No matter how you find it, you believe that Extension resources could help address some problem or issue. The first challenge is to do some research to be able to articulate the exact problem you want to address. You must be able to clearly define the specific societal, economic or environmental problem or need.

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  • The next step is to form a team (or a group) to help you begin planning. The team can help define the problem and weed-out the "symptoms" from the real problem. Team members should represent your target audience and should include representatives of all levels and other agencies that will be involved in carrying out the program effort. It is essential that you consider your customers/clients when developing programs and products. You should also include on your team a "mover or shaker" from your community who believes that the problem is a real concern to community constituents. If this person believes in what you are doing, you will have a "built-in champion"-an important stakeholder-who can help promote the program as the educational effort develops.

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  • The next step is to develop the program/marketing plan. The steps described next are designed to force you to consider all aspects of a marketing approach. Sometimes you will not need to carry out each step, and sometimes you won't always follow the steps in order. The important thing is that you understand the value of thoroughly analyzing the situation and base your educational planning decisions on sound data.

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Ten Steps To Successful Program Planning

1) Identify the problem.

Collect facts, analyze and interpret local situations; understand significant needs, interests and problems of local constituents; identify those areas where it is believed improvement can be accomplished and which lie within the mission of Extension-this then becomes the foundation of an immediate or long-range program plan. Evaluation can be done on content, processes and procedures used.

2) Prepare a goal statement.

State clearly and concisely the problem, opportunity or need this plan will address. The goal should be one that all participants can agree on. It should describe the intended outcome. Do not list specific objectives yet. For example, say your team wants to create an educational program effort to impact teen violence in your community. It is in this step that you describe the real problem. There should be a clear fit between the educational goal and Extension's mission

3) Identify and segment your market.

Identify the audiences you want to address. For each market, break the group into smaller groups (segments) that have common identifiable characteristics. Then, put these target markets in a priority order to address in the plan. For each target market, list those people who influence the market. These "influencers" may be valuable in your strategy for reaching the target group.

4) Research your information needs.

(This information gathering will also help you complete a strong situation statement describing the problem you want to address.)

There are three sets of data you need to accumulate to help you develop a program/marketing strategy. You'll have to learn all you can about your target market, the environment in which you'll be marketing and the competition you'll have for your market. Obtain as much information as is practical/feasible in the time you have available.

--About the target market: Do a demographic and geographic profile of the target audience. List everything you learn about them. Never assume you already know the audience habits.
--About the environment: What are the social and demographic trends? Are there patterns, other than what you already outlined for your audience, in the way people interact? Is the population aging? Are there more working people in the job market? What other questions do you need to answer?
--What are the economic trends? What's happening to incomes, spending patterns, employment, credit availability, public attitude toward funding services, etc.?
--What are the government trends? Any changes in local, state or federal laws? Political trends (which party controls government spending)? What are the "hot" or "in" programs that seem to get government support?
--What are the technological trends? What impact on your target market (and your ability to deliver your programs or products) do you see from such technologies as satellite communications, video, office automation, computer-related technologies? Who controls this technology? Who has access to it?
--How does the price of your product or service affect audience acceptance? (Remember: just because it might not have a real dollar price doesn't mean there is not some "cost" to the customer.) What can you do about it? What are your resource limitations in people and budget and what can you do about that?
--What other trends should you be aware of if you are to compete for your market share?
--About the competition. Do you know who your competition is? Who has a product or service similar to yours? Who else is trying to reach your target market(s)? What do you know about your competition? What are there strengths and weaknesses, an how do they compare with yours? How is the competition positioning itself to the market? How does the price the competition charges for their product/service compare with yours?

5) Determine specific objectives.

After needs, interests or problems have been identified, work with constituents who have interest in the problem area to determine their objectives. This involves deciding what needs to be accomplished in relation to the problem or interests-both immediate and longer-term-as well as how and by whom these accomplishments are to be done. Develop a series of statements that are very specific in defining what it is you want to accomplish with your target market. One way to write specific objectives would be to complete the statement, "This program is a success if..." It's important to be realistic in your objectives. Make sure they are achievable. Criteria for this stage can be established, and evaluations can be done on both content of the objectives and procedures followed.(See "Writing Measurable Objectives.")

6) Develop your market position.

"Positioning" is a marketing term that refers to how you set yourself apart from the competition. In what way is your organization or your product unique? What advantage does your organization or product have over the competition? Positioning also describes how you want to be perceived by your target market. Does your organization or product meet a perceived need of your target market? Are you perceived as a credible source of the product? List those things about your organization, or product, that could be used to position it effectively. What audience needs do they meet? What does it have that the competition doesn't have or isn't using?

7) Prepare strategic and tactical plans (your plan of work).

Now it's time to develop your marketing strategy. This is the heart of your program/marketing plan. It's here you will develop strategies for how you will go about reaching your target audience(s). Select a mix of strategies, methods, events, media and other activities to deliver the educational messages, and devise a game plan that will help you achieve your objectives and put your educational program into action. Develop a specific tactical plan that identifies who will develop what messages for what delivery methods on what timeline. Follow sound principles of social action--involve members of the audience (learners) in the planning to determine specific jobs to be done, subject matter needed, teaching techniques to be used, activities to be undertaken, division of responsibilities, calendar to be followed and deadlines to be met.

8) Make evaluation part of your plan.

This is where you build into your plan a means of evaluating how well you will have accomplished what you set out to do. At some point you will be able to look back at your specific objectives, and determine if they have been met. But you also need to have several checkpoints where you ask yourself if things are going according to plan. Include deadlines for checking on your progress. Be prepared to make changes in your plan based on what you learn from the checkpoint evaluations. The means you use to evaluate the success of the program depends on the resources you want to put into it. You may want to consider formal evaluations using surveys to obtain reliable data about attitude or behavior changes in the target audience.

9) Follow-through on your plan of work.

Your plan of work represents the most effective way to accomplish the agreed-upon objectives. An action plan built on sound educational principles and social action strategies will require persistent effort from you and all your stakeholders to keep it moving. Evaluations can be done on both content and activities and actions completed.

10) Determine progress and results.

The extent to which your objectives are accomplished is the best way to determine how well a program has succeeded. Evaluation of progress helps determine what remains to be done. When objectives are satisfactorily reached, new ones can be included in the program and plan of work for the following year. If the objectives are not accomplished, you might have to revise your plan of attack for the same problem and carry it over into a new program. Evaluation on program progress can provide data for future or follow-up programs, and tangible information for reporting.

Active participation of constituents/customers/audiences in all ten stages is the core of the Extension teaching-learning process. Each of these stages can provide many experiences for those involved, and it is through such experiences that learning takes place. Each stage can be evaluated. This is important because the accomplishments and successes in any one stage are indicative of how much is likely to be attained in each subsequent stage of the educational program process.

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Extension's Program Success Depends on Sound Principles of Teaching

In Extension education, it is acknowledged that people must be reached where they are; that is, at their present stage of educational development and experience and at their present level of interest and understanding. It is your function as an Extension educator to teach people how to assess their own needs and solve their own problems. Additionally, you should help people acquire knowledge and understanding, and inspire them to action. You best serve people by teaching them how to help themselves; in so doing, you teach people, not subject matter. You teach people how to think, not what to think.

The success of Extension teaching depends on much more than knowledge and understanding of technical irrigation methods or successful parenting techniques or how the food pyramid works. It is equally important that you understand people and their problems, and that you know how to apply sound principles of education, psychology and sociology.

The goal of the Extension educator is to teach not only desirable practices and understandings but also the interdependence of practices and understandings fundamental to achieving satisfying family and community life. This is accomplished through programs that the people and Extension educators work out together. It is your role, first, to inspire people as individuals, and as members of families and communities, to work together to identify their own problems; second, to help them determine their objectives; and third, to counsel and supply technical help to them as needed in working toward these objectives.

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The Teaching-Learning Process

Understanding educational learning and teaching concepts is helpful in understanding Extension as an educational process, as well as the role of evaluation in this process. A definition of education generally accepted by Extension workers is: "Education is the production of changes in human behavior." It is the aim of Extension education to influence people to make desirable changes in their behavior that will contribute to better families, communities, business operations and individual lives. The educational changes in behavior that concern Extension educators, and that are expressed in teaching objectives, may be classified as follows:

  1. Interests
  2. Ideals and purposes
  3. Information, knowledge and understanding
  4. Abilities, skills, habits and practices
  5. Attitudes and emotional responses.

The steps in the learning process that contribute to these behavioral changes have been identified and studied carefully. Beal and Bohlen, in their treatment of the diffusion process, suggest four steps that can be summarized as:

  1. Awareness--People find out that the idea or practice exists.
  2. Interest--People become concerned and recognize that the idea or practice has merit.
  3. Evaluation and Decision--People make mental applications of the idea or practice to their own situations and reject it or decide to try it.
  4. Testing and Adoption--People try the idea or practice and adopt it if they are satisfied.

Effective educational programs provide for these steps in the learning or diffusion process and contribute to "production of behavioral changes." To evaluate a program, evidence must be collected about these kinds of behavioral changes in the target audience. Extension educational evaluation, then, is the process of determining the degree to which desired behavioral changes have taken place or are currently taking place as a result of educational effort(s).

By analyzing the action steps of the education program as it moves forward, related stages are suggested. These stages are part of successful educational programs whether they are individual-centered or group-oriented. Extension educators are concerned about:

  • The areas in which there is a need for change,
  • What direction the change should take,
  • How rapidly the change takes place, and
  • How change can be directed so that desired accomplishments are maximized.

There are many functions that must be performed to successfully implement action-oriented educational programs. These functions can be organized logically into a series of action steps, from the inception of an idea or recognition of a need or problem to the final accomplishment of the desired objective or goal. Steps that usually occur in such a social action program can be organized into a logical time sequence and used as a framework to plan and analyze the program.

All educational change takes place within the context of social systems. The beginning of all educational change occurs when interest and need come together and are recognized by a few people.

In most communities or counties, there have been previous experiences with educational programs that should be considered in planning any new educational effort. Seldom are all social subsystems of a community involved in any one action program. This being true, it becomes necessary to outline the relevant social systems (the "target") for a particular educational effort. Initiating action through a "sounding board" to give the project sanction and make it "legitimate" is important in building the foundation for any educational program.

The process of organizing and planning for action in such a way that the educational need is defined and becomes the felt need of the people, and around which those in the relevant social systems commit themselves to action and set objective or goals for themselves, is another area necessary in the process of educational programming. At this stage, the series of learning experiences that will be needed to attain these objectives/goals can be set up in a plan of work.

A plan developed in this manner, which includes evaluation to determine progress and results, can then be carried through.

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Criteria for Program Selection/Priority Setting

The following checklist may be useful as a guide for analyzing problems, selecting programs, setting priorities.

  • What is the problem or opportunity?
  • Who wants the problem solved and why?
  • How big is the problem? What degree of importance does the problem have (now and foreseen)?
  • What are the chances of success?
  • Can Extension make a difference in the problem? Can it be solved?
  • Is it do-able? Can the objectives be accomplished?
  • Is it a contribution which Extension is best qualified to make? Can they play a unique educational leadership role?
  • Is it a topic that requires a university resource base? If not, is that resource base available locally?
  • Is the topic worthy of public funding? Will it be an effective use of public resources?
  • Will it have, gain or generate public support?
  • Is it worth staff time and energy?
  • Will it attract other financial or political support?
  • Is it compatible with Extension philosophy and mission?
  • Can adequate resources be secured?
  • Will goal achievement have a multiplier effect?
  • Is it an "educational effort" rather than a "service?"
  • Is it a duplication of effort, available from other sources, or supplied by another agency?
  • Is it a topic that can be better supplied by another agency?
  • Will it help individuals or families solve real problems?
  • Does it meet the needs of an appropriate number of people? How many people will it reach?
  • Will it attract new people to the program?
  • Will it create an impact on individuals, families, businesses, communities that can then be reported to decision-makers?
  • Will it be exciting? Is it going to be fun?

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Issues and Programs

"What is the nature of the problem we are trying to solve; the condition that needs to be changed? Whose problem is it?"--M. Keehn and W. Kniep

The goal of the Extension education process is to nurture conditions that ideally might be brought about through education. The process starts with scanning the environment for major issues about which something can be done within existing resources and expertise, and through networking with other community organizations. The process then concentrates on defining problem solutions for the identified issues.

You as an Extension educator need to be receptive to the changing needs and issues of learners, learner groups and community systems. You need to know how to identify target publics, how to identify and interpret issues, how to establish networks with significant others, how to connect with the leaders of those publics, and how to collaborate with those leaders, their followers, and significant others.

Linkage with targeted publics is achieved through:

  • Studying, analyzing and mapping publics;
  • Identifying target publics to be involved in planning;
  • Identifying and interfacing with leaders of those publics;
  • Collaborating with leaders and potential learners in an egalitarian approach to identifying,
    • assessing and analyzing issues and educational needs of the learners;
  • Designing and implementing a planned program to meet those needs or address those issues.

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Issues Identification

Issues do not just happen; they spring from a concern or aggravation, or someone's vision of what could be. If this concern is shared by other people, they begin their involvement by means of informal discussion. As more people become involved in the concern, communication becomes more complex and finally the issue emerges.

An issue is defined as a matter of wide public concern arising out of complex human problems; a social, economic, environmental or technological condition that people find unacceptable or questionable. An emerging issue is an unforeseen or emergency problem that arises or evolves that may have the potential of becoming a program in the future.

Issues programming begins with the identification of important problems, and then proceeds to focus organizational resources, program content, delivery methods and structures to meet the needs related to the issue. Issues programming focuses resources from relevant disciplines and program areas on significant problems and needs.

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Community Mapping/Needs Assessment/Stakeholder Input

Determination of the educational needs of targeted publics is a challenging and necessary task of the Extension educator. It is necessary to focus Extension's programs on identified and analyzed needs and issues of various publics in order to gain the attention, interest and commitment of such groups toward problem solving and related behavioral change.

It's important to know that needs are influenced by a number of psychological, social and cultural factors. Learned behavior, lifestyle and needs are all influenced by expectations and norms imposed upon a person by the various social groups with which that person identifies. Understanding how needs are linked to an individual's social and cultural heritage is important in order to know the extent that fulfillment of those needs will be a benefit to them in their social and cultural "place."

The first stage of community mapping is to become aware of the characteristics of the various audiences or publics in a community--their memberships, patterns of interaction, values, assets, beliefs, sentiments, norms, resources, sociocultural heritage and leadership. The second stage of mapping is recognition of the distinctive patterns of interaction between and among people in an area. The importance of knowing about and understanding the differences that exist between groups is emphasized by the fact that their needs and readiness to participate in externally developed programs will vary. Identification of the differences in special interests, ethnic backgrounds, socioeconomic status, religions, and subcultures is basic to the success you'll have in scanning environments for issues, and in implementing programs that will yield behavioral change in your target audiences.

Once your publics are analyzed, prioritized and targets identified, your next step is to establish communication with identified leaders-this is necessary to build trust that is essential to your program planning and accurate needs assessment and for you to secure commitment for your target audience's participation in your educational programs.

(More information on this process is in "Working With Our Publics, Module 2, The Extension Education Process," available from the Staff Development Library.)

After successfully interfacing with leaders of your target public, your next step is to collaborate on needs and issues identification. Analysis of needs with those leaders and potential learners is a major task in planning to meet educational needs for this audience. This process is also called stakeholder input. Input and collaboration with your stakeholders is important to the success of targeted educational programs.

Here are some questions to consider when planning stakeholder input:

  • Who are the stakeholders? Have you included representatives of all audiences?

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  • Who are the obvious "first adopters?" Who are the clear critics?

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  • Is the input process fair and open?

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  • Do you have a system designed to consider and encourage participation by diverse individuals and groups?

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  • Do you make personal contact with or extend invitations to minority group members to inform them of programs and to encourage their participation?

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  • Have you addressed outreach efforts focused on providing technical assistance to underrepresented communities and under-served customers?

Needs of persons/audiences/groups are cumulative effects of psychological, social, cultural and physiological factors. A need can be defined as a deficiency, imbalance, lack of adjustment, or gap between the present situation and a set of societal norms believed to be more desirable. (Boone, 1985). Need, then, may be defined as the difference between "what is" and "what ought to be." As an Extension educator, you, in collaboration with audience leaders and followers, can use properly selected and relevant information to identify and analyze needs and issues, to stimulate interest among the target public, and to arrive at alternative courses of action to meet those needs and address those issues. You must analyze the current situation and what is expected by the target public. The nature and extent of the need or issue should point up the importance of the problem you want to address.

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