Measuring Knowledge Gain and Customer Satisfaction of Iraqi Extension Agents
Abstract
The purpose of the research was to measure knowledge gains and customer satisfaction of Iraqi extension educators who participated in a five-day workshop through the IAER Project. Measuring knowledge gain and customer satisfaction has a twofold benefit of identifying areas of focus for future training based on knowledge of extension educators and evaluating teaching effectiveness of course instructors.
Eighty-three Iraqi extension educators attended a five-day workshop at one of the Extension Centers in Dohuk, Erbil, or Slemani in northern Iraq in the summer of 2012. Quantitative data were collected using a two-part questionnaire at the end of the course. One section included a customer satisfaction survey made up of 12 close-ended questions with a five-point ordinal scale to determine the satisfaction of participants with the course. The second section of the instrument was a retrospective pre-post evaluation tool to gather data about the change in participants’ knowledge in the competency areas of program planning, needs assessment, teaching methods, evaluation, and youth development.
The study found that Iraqi extension educators were somewhat to mostly satisfied with the five-day workshop. The participants gained knowledge in each of the competency areas covered during the course. Further, the study found that extension educators with the highest satisfaction also indicated the highest knowledge gains.
Citation
Whitney, Katherine Lee (2017). Measuring Knowledge Gain and Customer Satisfaction of Iraqi Extension Agents. Master's thesis, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /165915.