An Evaluation of Two Modes of Self-Paced Agent Inservice Training

Little attention has been paid to evaluating modes of in-service training for county agents. This article describes an evaluation of agent in-service training comparing written and audiotape approaches. The primary purpose of the study was to evaluate whether one approach would have an advantage over the other in self-paced training situations. Step-families were the topic of the training. Data were collected from 119 Alabama Cooperative Extension agents. Results indicated that written approaches were more successful than the audiotape approach in producing knowledge gains. Implications for the training of Extension agents are discussed.