Extension's Bottom-Up Program Development . Extension's community-based program development process is unique in universities. Virtually all other university activities are top down. They begin with university people making decisions about what people need. Knowledge transfer then takes place from the university to the community using the university's traditional classroom instruction methods.
Participation is driven by the carrot of credits.
The Extension process, in contrast, begins in local communities and feeds into the university, making for more responsive and better targeted programs. The Extension carrots are relevance and usefulness, rather than credits. Extension professionals know more about informal, adult education than any other group on campus. One of the great ironies of university life is that so few principles of adult learning are recognized, understood, and incorporated into university teaching. To effectively educate the people in all areas of university knowledge will require methods quite different from traditional classroom instruction.