STUDENT PERSPECTIVES OF THE NATURE, EFFECTIVENESS, AND VALUE OF THE MINNESOTA FARM BUSINESS MANAGEMENT EDUCATION PROGRAM

The Minnesota Farm Business Management Education Program provides business management education to farmers. Over 100 instructors currently provide instruction that assists 4,000 to 4,350 farmers annually in meeting their financial, family, and personal goals. This evaluation study sought to determine how the contemporary students viewed selected instructional activities, elements, and program outcomes. The results show that individualized instruction and telephone communications were the highest-ranking instructional methods and instructional media, respectively. Instruction relating to the practice of keeping and analyzing records, and making management decisions were highly desired. The effectiveness of the FBM program in delivering selected instructional topics, activities and/or benefits was highly related to the level of importance placed upon each topic, activity, and benefit by the students. The students were very satisfied with the program as evident by the positive nature of their recommendations to potential students and their belief that they receive an annual improvement in net farm income of nearly $5,000.