Iowa Master Gardeners' Preferred Continuing Education Topics and Delivery Methods

Iowa Master Gardener volunteers receive 40 hours of initial classroom training. Upon completion of this training and the required volunteer service hours. Master Gardeners are responsible for completing a minimum of 10 hours of continuing education and 20 hours of volunteer service each year to remain active. The objective of this study was to identify popular continuing education topics and preferred delivery methods of Iowa Master Gardeners. Continuing education themes vary from state to state but focus on regionally relevant horticultural topics. As part of a larger survey, several questions were asked investigating the appeal of prospective topics and delivery methods. Approximately 3700 current and past Iowa Master Gardeners received the electronic survey and more than 1200 responses were recorded. Responses were ranked on a 4-point Likert scale from not at all interested to very interested. The data indicate that Iowa Master Gardeners have a strong interest in gardening with native plant material and sustainable horticultural practices. More than 85% were moderately or very interested in more training and education related to gardening with native plants. Sustainable horticultural practices were also popular with more than 80% moderately or very interested. Interestingly, youth garden education was the least preferred topic with nearly 50% of respondents slightly or not at all interested in further training. Live presentations and workshops are preferred by more than 90% of Iowa Master Gardeners. Video presentations and webinars were generally less preferred.  Respondents were moderately or very interested in video presentations (75%) and webinars (65%). Certain social media sites are also popular with Iowa Master Gardeners. Nearly 60% of respondents use Facebook some or a lot and more than 30% use Pinterest some or a lot. Therefore, while they are comfortable with these technologies, they prefer live presentations and workshops over webinars and videos to receive training on these new garden topics.