Growing Your Professional Development Audience

by Rick Koelsch

Last November this blog discussed the use of Learn (http://Learn.eXtension.org) for accessing a wide range of professional development weginars. In the next week there are 15 professional development webinars targeting Extension faculty on topics suchs as "Helping Children Adjust to the Return of a Military Parent", "Modern Livestock Production Trends and Vulnerabilities", "Use of Surveys in Extension for Program Development and Evaluation", and "County Fairs and Zoonotic Diseases" to name a few. Increasingly, our peers from around the US are coming to this site for their professional development. Participation increased from 3,400 in 2011 to 25,500 in 2012 with another  big jump expected in 2013.

Can our peers around the US find UNL Extension professioal development webinars in eXtension's Learn site?  If not, consider investing 5 minutes to announce your next professional development within Learn in addition to your own typical promotion efforts.  Here's my top 5 reasons for "Why UNL Extension professional development should be found on Learn:"

• #5. Learn maintains a Log of every professional development I Attend, Present, and Follow (click on "Activity" option) that can be quickly used for the next Activity Insight annual report.
• #4 Learn provides a professional looking web page for both promoting and archiving each individual professional development session.
• #3 Learn provides our participants the opportunity to access  handouts, powerpoint slides, and evaluation tool.
• #2 Learn provides us access to an audience from around the US consisting of your peers and other professionals.  Your professional development sessions are actively promoted twice monthly through eXtension newsletters to all Extension professionals registered with eXtension.
• #1 Presenters become recognized around the US for their expertise.

Add your next webinar for faculty professional development or clientele training to Learn.eXtension.org  to grow your reach, your recognition, your impact, and your professionalism.