Online Education &
Women Farmers –
Opportunities and Barriers
Mary Peabody
UVM Extension/Women’s Ag Network
2008
Why go online?
• Accommodate more students
• Leverage our capacity
• Capture the course materials in an
organized, methodical way
• Convenience
Growing Places Online
• Built from a well-established f2f class
• F2F class = 18 hours –> Online class = 6
weeks
• Beginning farmer class
– Develop a comprehensive goal statement
– Decision-making
– Resource evaluation
– Market opportunities
– Basic financial management
The Technology
• Use an asynchronous platform
• Most of the materials are available as
powerpoint presentations, adobe files
and/or links to web sites
• Some audio/video
• Also use discussion board extensively to
create community & opportunities for
interaction
Opportunities
• Allows broader
participation
• 24/7 access
• Written platform
• Increases the participant
output
• Encourages creativity
• Creates a written record of
the course
• More efficient to re-set the
course materials for future
Challenges
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Connectivity
Knowledge of technology
Creating a class ‘culture’
Requires a certain level
of literacy
Coaching out-of-area
participants
Competing with other
responsibilities
Written environment
requires some
adjustments
24/7 education
Observations about women &
the online environment
• The need to create community asserts
itself in spite of the environment
• Women are fairly quick to ask for help
• Women are less confident with the
technology
Participant Overview
46 students
over 5
sessions--30
from VT; 16
from outside
VT
Coaching will be key to success
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Why do we need coaches?
Who are the coaches?
What do coaches get?
How does the coaching work?