Learner Satisfaction with Pomegranate Production Extension-Education Courses in Yazd Province, Iran

Nowadays, more attention is being paid to customers’ satisfaction as funding decisions are made. Extension organization, which plays an important role in educating farmers, must know how far the learners are satisfied with its educational program. Accordingly, this study was conducted in Yazd Province (Iran) with the main objective of investigating the pomegranate growers’ satisfaction with their extension-education courses. A survey method was adopted for the study and 150 people were selected as sample out of 478 learners participating in the courses from 2003-2004 throughout the province. A questionnaire was developed as the tool of study. The questionnaire was found to be valid and reliable (Cronbachs'' alpha was 0.93). The results showed that the courses did not achieve many of their teaching objectives and were assessed as achieving their goals to a moderate extent. The contents of the courses were assessed as being comprehensive, applied, and new to a high, moderate, and low extent, respectively. The respondents are very satisfied with teachers’ characteristics and with the locality and facilities of courses, but were satisfied with teaching methods to a low extent. They generally had a positive and favorable attitude towards the pomegranate extension-education courses. According to the study there were significant relationships between learners’ satisfaction with courses and their annual income, pomegranate yield, pomegranate production, times of participation in courses, and attitude toward the courses. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that three variables, attitude toward the courses, pomegranate yield and pomegranate production totally accounted for 77.8 percent of variations in learners’ satisfaction with the pomegranate extension-education courses.