Impact of an Equine Reproductive Short Course on Participants' Knowledge and Self-Efficacy

Abstract

Continuing education opportunities available to the public are becoming increasingly popular. Land grant universities with agricultural extension departments play an important role in providing continuing education programs to the public. These courses are important to the equine industry in providing opportunities for the public to learn various concepts and grow their businesses. The Equine Reproductive Short Course hosted by Texas A&M University Extension provides the general public with knowledge and skills in equine reproduction. These opportunities are important for horse owners to learn current practices and how to safely and correctly perform reproduction procedures to improve the equine industry as a whole. Using a qualitative approach, this study evaluated the impact of the short course on conceptual knowledge and self-efficacy of the participants after completion of the short course. This study is focused on the following research questions: 1) What content knowledge, if any, is gained by participants after the completion of the course? 2) What is the impact of the course on participants’ confidence in performing the skills they learned? 3) What skills do past participants use in their own operations? 4) What factors influence the past participants’ use or non-use of skills learned in the course?