Student Survey launched!

We have some very exciting news, the student survey has officially been launched! Students within the OAC (Ontario Agricultural College) at the University of Guelph have been some of our first respondents and we appreciate their responses. We are working to get other individual colleges as well as the Central Students Association to send the survey link out. In the meantime, if you are a University of Guelph student, please email acestudy@uoguelph.ca for the link and give us your opinions on an agricultural communications education centre. Thank you in advance!

Read our story in the Farm Journalist!

Read about our study in the May 2007 Edition of the CFWF's Farm Journalist! Go to http://www.cfwf.ca and click on the e-newsletter in the top right.

If you would like to make sure you will be contacted for the survey, email us at acestudy@uoguelph.ca.

A Feasibility Study…

Up to this point all of our mini-reports have been geared toward explaining concepts such as social communication, service-learning and extension. All of these are beneficial to the understanding of concepts the proposed centre may incorporate, but we have yet to define one very important aspect of our study. What is a feasibility study? For simplicity sake, a breakdown of this concept into three areas will be performed with those areas being: What is a feasibility study, what are the components of a feasibility study and finally, how to write a feasibility study report.

What is a Feasibility Study?

A feasibility study is an important component of the project/business development process, assisting in the evaluation of new business ventures. A feasibility study is mainly used to assess the economic viability of a proposed business, allowing planners to determine whether the project idea is realistic and if the benefits of the project outweigh the costs. One important aspect to consider when conducting a feasibility study is the people involved. It is important to involve independent researchers or consultants of the organization in order to ensure that results are unbiased.

What are the Components of a Feasibility Study?

Feasibility studies include many components. Whenever a feasibility study is conducted the researchers must examine four major areas of feasibility including market, technical, financial and organizational or managerial feasibility. Market feasibility examines the demand for the product in the marketplace. Technical feasibility looks at the both the physical space and equipment required to produce the product. Financial feasibility is one of the most important aspects of the study and must be examined carefully. Every potential cost and benefit must be analyzed to ensure that the project can be profitable on a long-term basis. Organizational or managerial feasibility determines the structure of the project and where people fit within it. These components are crucial to the study and must be analyzed thoroughly to ensure the results are accurate.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/AGDM/wholefarm/html/c5-66.html


How to Write a Feasibility Study Report

One important aspect of a feasibility study is to be able to write a report at the end detailing your results and recommendations. Many people get caught up in believing that the report is the most important aspect of the project believing that a large report means a large effort. However the process is actually just as important as the final report when conducting the feasibility study and the size of the report is irrelevant as long as you get across the points in a clear and concise manner.

Seven key areas of focus on writing the report include: appearance (looks professional), table of contents (makes it easier to locate sections of information), an executive summary (provides a synopsis of the report that allows readers to gain an understanding prior to reading the report), sections (break information into sections for easier reading), quotations (adds credibility), other supporting elements (visuals such as charts, graphs and tables) and finally, appendices (provides an area for additional information to be read). These areas of a report help the readers by providing a clearer, more appealing and professional structure of the information.

http://books.google.ca/books?id=M-4tQQ_U4wsC&pg=PA55&ots=Z_8I2lYGdF&dq=feasibility+study+-+writing+a+report+is+important&sig=GCQjCL6MlXZEeGtSRGRCpZ_YKm4#PPA55,M1

Keeping Busy!

A lot has been going on in the past week, so it’s time for an update!

Last week, we met with Cheryl Rose, who is the Executive Director of the Canadian Association for Community Service-Learning. We explained our project and the proposed centre’s vision, and she was very supportive of the idea. She gave us a lot of helpful information on service-learning as well as tips on how to approach the agricultural sector in our interviews.

Yesterday, we went to a Social Media Conference at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters, in Burlington. We listened to two speakers:

- Ian Ketcheson (Acting Communications Manager, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada) discussed how blogs, youtube, wikis, and podcasts are changing government communications

- Dr. Alex Bielak (Director, Science and Technology Liaison, Environment Canada) talked about the importance of effective communication in science

We learned a lot about not only how we are being affected by technology, but different aspects of effective communication. This will come in handy when conducting interviews later this summer!

On that note, our survey for the agricultural sector is still in the works, but our student survey has officially been submitted to the ethics board! We should receive ethics clearance within 2 weeks, so we will begin distributing the survey at that point.

Until then, let's cross our fingers and hope the weather stays nice!

After the long weekend update!

After a great Victoria Day weekend we're back in the Office of Research at the University of Guelph working on our surveys. Owen went through the rough draft of our student survey on friday and gave us some very helpful advice and suggestions on what to change, what to take out and what to keep in order to improve our survey. We are working on the student survey today as well as the sector survey fixing up the problems Owen pointed out and changing parts of the industry survey to avoid the same problems.

During the rest of the week we will continue to revise and update our surveys as well as the literature review for our final report. Our aim is to have the first draft literature review pretty well wrapped up by the end of the week as well as have our student survey go through a second look with Owen. The surveys will not be going out as early as we (the students) had thought however this won't be a problem as we are aiming to have the survey as perfect as possible! We'll have a link to the survey soon!

"Extension" in Ontario and Survey Progress

Contributing more than $25 billion a year to the provincial economy, Agriculture is Canada’s third largest industry. Yet, in Ontario, a gap between this essential industry and the consumer base has formed, resulting in constant difficulties in the agricultural sector.

Agricultural extension, as defined by wikipedia, is “the application of scientific research and new knowledge to agricultural practices through farmer education.” Further dissected, extension, on its own, is the passing of knowledge from educational institutes to users of the information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_extension

According to the Canadian Society of Extensions, extension is a system of non-formal education. As such, it is a field of professional education aimed at:

• teaching people, in their own context and life situations, how to identify and assess their own needs and problems;
• helping them acquire the knowledge and skills required to cope effectively with those needs and problems.
• inspiring them to action.

http://www.extension.usask.ca/cse/about.htm

The government phased out agricultural extension from the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food in the 1990s, and extension officers have disappeared as a result. Although the agri-food sector is one of the most important in Ontario, government support and agricultural education/extension initiatives are lacking, if not non-existent, which results in a much larger challenge of increasing awareness.

Presently, there are a small number of extension divisions and programs in universities throughout Canada. A need for agricultural extension, especially in Ontario, still exists. With reference to the proposed Agricultural Communications Education Centre, it is our intent that extension practices be integrated and implemented to better service the industry, students and the users of the knowledge.

Search for Similar Initiatives; News Story

We have spent the last couple of days searching for any initiatives that are similar to the proposed Centre. We have found that while there are institutions throughout Canada and the United States that offer agricultural communications or journalism programs, the only opportunities that they have for hands-on learning are through internships or co-op programs. The only thing we have found that can compare to the proposed Centre is the Brock Center of Agricultural Communication at the California Polytechnic State University. Similar to the vision for the Centre, the Brock Center connects students with an interest in communications to the agricultural industry, giving journalism students a better understanding of agriculture, and agriculture students a more unbiased approach to their industry.

Since there has been a lack in any similar agricultural communications education centres, our surveys and interviews of industry representatives throughout the summer will focus on whether there is a need for or interest in such a centre.

In other exciting news, we will be submitting a news story of this feasibility study for the next issue of the Farm Journalist, the national newsletter of the Canadian Farm Writers' Federation... so keep an eye out for it!