Special Issue: Educational Materials About Industry and Market Developments

Applied Economics and Teaching Resources is calling for manuscripts that fit into Extension Education, Case Studies, and Interdisciplinary Narratives relating to innovative and impactful ways of:

• Communicating industry and market developments,
• Evaluating the delivery of government and private program educational training and how methods affect delivery and impact, and 
• Training and learning methodologies in industry and non-governmental organizations.

New industry developments, the rollout of new government programs, applied economists’ roles in educational programs led by producer interest groups, new models to deliver and assess one-on-one training sessions, and similar educational or extension initiatives are often not documented in the agricultural and applied economics literature due to a lack of hypothesis testing, statistical rigour, or theoretical foundations. Nevertheless, the AETR readership values sharing and communicating technical developments for enhancing learning and elevating training effectiveness for government program rollout and implementation, for communicating market and industry reports, and for methods to assess successes and failures of efforts to support programs and initiatives in government and industry. Such articles and information about educational methods and learning effectiveness may serve as models for adoption and modification by future industry, government and NGO members and serve as tools in the classroom for educational purposes.

Potential topics for this special issue include, but are not limited to:

1. Methods used to communicate new technologies or services to target audiences and measurement of educational success/failure, including how stakeholder targeting, reception, interaction with stakeholders, and barriers to information transfer affect learning and teaching effectiveness. Specific examples or general approaches are welcome.
2. Case studies of technical training related to improved agricultural production, with descriptions of audiences, trainers, delivery methods, learning objectives, and educational outcomes. Innovative approaches to interdisciplinary training methods are particularly welcome.
3. Examples of information and knowledge transfer of government programs supporting agriculture and the agri-food industry, including short-term COVID programs that emerged over the last 2 years. Details of interest could include program learning objectives, training needs and methods, and measurement of teaching effectiveness when measured in terms of interest/adoption and impact.
4. Industry case studies or reports describing the roadmap/ pathway/educational process starting post-discovery of product (e.g., irrigation technology, hemp, vaccines) or service (e.g., drone monitoring, online marketing platforms) to commercialization and market launch, including educational efforts targeting regulatory barriers, how enablers can learn to better facilitate adoption, and government support for training.
5. Industry and market case studies on how to educate about market trends and innovations, particularly if there are classroom teaching or Extension notes/assessments.
6. Extension programs and narratives describing audience, objectives and delivery, tools, and measures of success. For example, this could be an outlet for recent graduate student Extension competition finalists to publish their work.

We expect this special issue will be of broad interest to agriculture and agri-food industry stakeholders, including producers, agribusiness managers, producer support groups, input providers, processors, local to federal government agencies, and extension personnel. Students and educators of agricultural and applied economics, agribusiness economics and management and related agri-food disciplines interested in knowledge and information transfer will also be interested in this special edition.

The special issue will have a guest co-editor Dr. David Hall (dchall@ucalgary.ca) at the University of Calgary in addition to the AETR Editor, Dr. Jason Bergtold (bergtold@ksu.edu).

Special Issue Timeline:

If you are interested in making a submission to the special issue, please submit a 300 word abstract to Dr. David Hall (dchall@ucalgary.ca) and Dr. Jason Bergtold (bergtold@ksu.edu) by December 31, 2022 at the latest. The abstract should describe the overall theme/topic of the manuscript, how it relates to the special issue call, and how it can be used for educational purposes. Your abstract will be reviewed once submitted and you will then be informed if you will be invited to submit a submission to the special issue. 

Full papers for accepted abstracts must be submitted through AETR online by March 31, 2023. All papers will go through a double-blind peer review process and be available online via Advanced Access for readers once accepted. All submissions will need to follow the AETR submission guidelines at: https://www.aaea.org/publications/applied-economics-teaching-resources/aetr-manuscript-submission-guidelines. If you have questions about the special issue, please email the special issue editors.