UK Extension educators provide practical, research-based education to help improve the lives of Kentuckians, their families, and communities. As part of their regular job requirements, UK Extension educators are expected to conduct program evaluations to generate credible evidence of the outcomes and impact of their programs. However, internal employment indicated that about two-thirds of current Extension agents have less than three years’ experience in their positions, thus needing intentional training on best practices for program evaluation and impact reporting. Moreover, informal internal situation analysis conducted in 2022 identified gaps in evaluation and reporting and noted the need for evaluation capacity building (hereafter, ECB) to create a culture of evaluation and enhance the evaluation skills of UK Extension personnel. 

To identify priority evaluation topics to address to target in ongoing ECB efforts (e.g., in-service trainings and web resources), the Extension evaluation team (Adedokun and Corum), in consultation with the UK Extension Evaluation committee, developed and conducted a survey of UK Extension educators’ evaluation training needs. Data collection occurred primarily via a Qualtrics survey deployed during professional development events in March 2025. Specifically, specialists and associates completed the survey during one of the morning sessions of the KY State Extension Conference while agents completed the survey during March 2025 Area Professional Development. The survey was also disseminated via listservs to give educators who were unable to attend the events an opportunity to complete the survey. 

A total of 450 Extension personnel (343 Agents; 46 Specialists/Associates; 29 Faculty; 32 “other”) provided valid responses to the survey.  Data analysis identified the top five priority evaluation training needs as: 

• Determining the economic value of program(s) using return-on-investment or cost-benefit analyses. 
• Developing measurable long-term outcomes to assess program impact (i.e. social, economic, technology or environmental situations).
• Conducting follow-up surveys to evaluate behavior change and/or program impact.
• Developing effective quantitative data collection tools for program evaluation.
• Developing evaluation plans to address what, why, when, and how to evaluate program outcomes/impact.

The Evaluation Team is using the survey findings to guide the development of in-service trainings, professional development opportunities, and resources targeting the topics that emerged as priorities. In particular, the evaluation team is currently developing publications focused on effective survey development (addressing the second and fourth priority topics centered on survey development) and non-survey methods, including how to extrapolate research and data to document impact (addressing the top priority need). The evaluation team will present the results of the survey to the UK Extension Evaluation Advisory Committee in September 2025—the committee will provide feedback and strategize on how to address the identified evaluation training needs through creative and engaging ECB efforts.