Online Education Remains Strong

April 1, 2022

By Sara Croymans, Extension Educator, Family Resiliency

U of MN Extension graphic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the inability to provide in-person education due to university closings and mandated physical distancing in the spring of 2020, the UMN Extension Center for Family Development had to adapt how we engaged with participants and provided education and resources across the state.

As a result, we began offering free virtual education and are currently in the middle of our seventh round of webinars. To date, we have provided 144 webinars, reaching 4907 participants on the live webinars with an additional 4874 people registered and receiving links to the archived webinar. Registrations have been received from all 87 Minnesota counties, over 40 other states, and 11 countries. In one follow-up evaluation, 53% of participants indicated the webinar was their first experience with UMN Extension programming. Several of the webinar topics have been offered in Spanish. In addition, language interpreters have been available for events held in English.

Many of the webinars are offered in thematic series to provide an opportunity for participants to take a deeper dive into subject matter content. Series themes have included Finding Balance, Disaster Financial Preparedness, Financial Parenting, Feeding Your Child, Making Cents of It All, Our Minnesota Communities and U, Protecting Your Family from Identity Theft, What’s for Dinner?, and Supporting the Needs of Families and Communities.

We invite you to participate in one or more of the current webinar series that began in January and continue through April. Together with our partners across many disciplines, we have created six dynamic series. Several webinars are intended specifically for a Spanish-speaking audience.

Share these opportunities with friends, family, co-workers, networks, and program participants. To find additional online offerings from all Extension program areas, visit the UMN Extension web page.

Please register for the webinars you plan to attend by using the links below.

No Place Like Home

Family Friendly Earth Care

Making Cents of It All

Charlas en Español

Recovery and Health

Finding Balance

Extension webinars are offered via Zoom. If you have not used Zoom before, please visit this resource to learn how.

This article was written by Sara Croymans, MEd, AFC, University of Minnesota Extension Educator, Family Resiliency. She can be reached at [email protected] or 320-226-6052.