Planning and Evaluating Education and Outreach Programs

Target Audience:

Service employees that develop and deliver environmental education, outdoor skills, outreach, career, and citizen science programs (and etc.) for audiences ages 12-25.

Summary and Objectives:

If you want to demonstrate the value of education and outreach programs, you must implement programs that deliver results. During this course, you'll learn to use a deliberate planning process that promotes strategic, accountable, and adaptive action resulting in programs that support achieving resource management goals. "Planning and Evaluating Education and Outreach Programs" is designed to assist U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) employees with using a planning and evaluation model to develop programs that support the Service's conservation mission. This process can be used to develop any type of program with a target audience ages 12-25, including environmental education, outdoor skills and interpretive programs, science programs, nature camps, internship programs, and etc.

How the course works:

This course is built on principles of adult learning, using the "authentic task approach". It is delivered online through an online classroom (Moodle) and live instructor-led webinars. Participants start, end and progress through the course together and with course instructors, and independently complete assignments ("homework") within each module online through Moodle.

For each module there are three parts, done by participants in the following order:

• Part 1 - Participants learn the content which is delivered in the Moodle online classroom
• Part 2 - Participants apply the content to their site by completing assignments in between the webinars
• Part 3 - Participants and instructors discuss the assignments and application of the content to their situation during the live webinars.

Participants who successfully complete the course will take away a nascent plan that can be completed with their stakeholders.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Use the program planning and evaluation model to create programs that support achieving your resource management goals.
• Write measurable outcome objectives.
• Select activities to achieve desired outcomes.
• Develop a program evaluation framework.

Competency Addressed: 

Planning and Evaluating - Intermediate, Creativity and Innovation - Awareness, Program Management - Basic, Manages and Organizes Information - Basic, Writing - Awareness