A Guide to Preparing eFARS Reports for Agent Faculty
The electronic Faculty Annual Reporting System (eFARS) report is an account of an individual’s annual contribution to addressing the mission for which the agency is funded to achieve. Careful attention to high quality individual reporting is critical not only to communicating an individual faculty member’s professional accomplishments, but also contributes to the agency’s reporting to fulfill accountability requirements to funders. The following are tips for reporting that conveys the best story of an individual’s work and contributes best to fulfilling the agency’s obligations.
● All Agents are encouraged to view the Adobe Trainings available at
http://efars.cals.vt.edu/
The “Introduction to eFARS” training is suggested for new Agents, however the information presented in this training is useful in guiding all Agents in the preparation of their faculty report.
Another presentation for experienced eFARS users posted at the same web site provides an annual update about any changes to eFARS.
● Impacts statements should be written in the style recommended, utilizing the format recommended. Impacts statements are not a substitution for the narrative reporting in the “Accomplishment” section.
● The “Achievements” section is a narrative of an individual’s total year’s efforts. This section should convey the same information provided in “Impacts Statements” however “Impact Statements” will not communicate all the work achieved by an individual over the reporting period. The “Achievements” section provides a reader/evaluator an excellent view of the work achieved and attended to by an individual over the current reporting period. This is the section to tell an individual’s overall programming story for the year in review. This section relays to a reader/evaluator that the work performed by an individual has accomplished the program expectations for which they are assigned. See “Program Expectations for Extension Agent Faculty. http://www.ext.vt.edu/vce/personnel/piq.html
The Achievements section should narrate the need, who identified the need, the educational effort conducted, and the impacts or outcomes achieved. It is recommended that it is written in a style that presents an individual’s work in a manner that communicates the program applications of a professional Extension educator. A style which reflects the narrative of a personal journal entry (first person) should be used in narrating this section.
The following should be utilized to write this narrative:
· “Planned Program”( Buy-In) titles should be used to organize/introduce the information provided.
· State the situation that supported the effort implemented and how that issue/need was determined.
· What was the effort implemented?
· Who were the targeted audience and how many were there? If the targeted audience was an underserved group, state such.
· What partners/collaborators if any were involved?
· What outcomes/impacts were achieved? Percentage of participants’ change in attitude, knowledge, and skills is critical information to narrate
Work conducted by Program Assistants independently should not be reported in this section. The impact reporting section is a place to report work achieved with program area assistants and the impact statements provided by the FNP program will achieve this. The work of an Individual Agent provided in collaboration and via interdisciplinary programming with Program Assistants is appropriate for an individual to share in this section. Also, an Agent’s role in developing Program Assistants’ abilities to connect with their target clientele and to perform their responsibilities in order that they may deliver programs effectively can be reported in an individual’s narrative of their year’s achievements.
In addition to dividing the Achievements narrative under “Planned
Program” titles, it is also recommended that narrative be provided on
External Funding, and Management/Leadership. “Extramural Funding” (Section L.) does provide a place to list funding from multiple sources, however providing a narrative on the total combination of funds secured (in-kind and other) is recommended.
Unit Coordinators should report the fulfillment of their responsibilities
under the Management/Leadership heading. Efforts involving the Unit’s
Extension Leadership Council and/or its subgroups, as well as volunteer
development and management efforts should be reported under the
Management/Leadership area also.
If applicable, headings and narrative should also be included under
Research, International, and Outreach/Service
C:\eFars\Preparing Efars Reports (2).docCreated on 12/9/2008 10:29:00 AM