December 12, 2023
Amazing Gift
We all know that K-State Research and Extension professionals and volunteers affect lives by providing the research-backed education, facilitation and information that Kansans need to improve their lives, livelihoods, and communities. It is also good to be reminded how often this happens.
During the 2019–2020 programming year, our Kansas State University extension professionals and volunteers made 698,509 direct educational contacts and 747,121 indirect educational contacts for a total of 1,445,630 total educational contacts.
Direct educational contacts refer to synchronous contacts, where the educator(s) and the learner(s) are engaging each other at the same time either face-to-face or virtually. Indirect educational contacts are asynchronous contacts, where the educator(s) uses delivery methods that do not require the learner(s) to engage at the same time. Such methods include, among others, educational programs conducted via Canvas, podcasts, YouTube videos and educational posts delivered via other social media platforms.
Given the population of Kansas hovers around 2.8 million people, 1.4 million educational contacts sounds impressive, but we did not stop there.
Through better use of indirect educational delivery methods and improved reporting, we increased our total educational contacts to 2,534,528 (862,088 direct educational contacts and 1,672,440 indirect educational contacts) in the 2020–2021 program reporting year. In 2021–2022, our total educational contacts increased to 6,234,623 (735,967 direct educational contacts and 5,498,656 indirect educational contacts).
Numbers like 2021–2022 are hard to comprehend and hard to top. Nevertheless, proving we should never doubt our ability to reach the people who need us, we did.
The 2022-2023 numbers are now in, and we reached a total of 8,172,404 learners. We reached 773,040 people via direct educational delivery methods and 7,399,364 via indirect educational delivery methods. That means we are reaching an average of 22,390 people daily. Wow!
Many of us think about this time of year as a time for sharing gifts. An extension professional’s and volunteer’s gift is the gift of a better life through the power of the research-backed education, facilitation and research.
I want to thank all of our Kansas State University extension professionals and volunteers for sharing their amazing gift with the people we serve, and doing so more than 8.1 million times this past year. Thank you.