Effectiveness Evaluation of Senior Extension Researchers in the New Agricultural Extension System: The Use of CIPP Model

Interaction with research institutes and centers is one of the components of the new agricultural extension system in Iran. In order to play an appropriate role of researchers in the agricultural knowledge network, senior extension-researchers and supportive researchers were defined as two main actors.Accordingly, the main purpose of this survey research was to evaluate effectiveness of senior extension-researchers in the new agricultural extension system of Iran. Statistical population of the study consisted of research network (N= 1908 pepole),out of whom 320 people determined as sample using Daniel's sampling formula and simple sampling technique. Data were collected through a questionnaire; validity of questionnaire was approved by a panel of experts and construct validity (AVE≥0.51). Reliability of the questionnaire was approved by calculating the Ordinal Theta (θ≥0.77) and composite reliability (CR≥0.77). The collected data were analyzed by SPSSwin22 and Smart PLS3 software. Results of prioritizing showed that, in the context dimension, “compatibility of senior extension-researchers’ objectives with policies of the agricultural sector”; in the input dimension, “technical ability of senior extension-researchers”; in the process dimension, “participating in E-learning courses as teacher”; and finally, in the product dimension, “applicability of the recommendations to target users” were in the highest ranks. Also, results of prioritizing effectiveness evaluation dimensions of senior extension-researchers indicated that "product" was in the highest rank and "input" was in the lowest rank. Besides the confirmation of indicators’ homogeneity and reliability, the results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed that effectiveness evaluation model had four components (i.e. context, input, process and product).