1. The Adoption & Diffusion of “The AET” By: Marie Gowan

2. Agricultural Experience Tracker (AET)  Online system for tracking educational and financial experiences in agricultural education  Summarizes experiences into standard FFA award applications  Aggregates those experiences across programs to produce local reports and overall economic impact reports

3. Before the AET  Paper record books  ACRO: Computer software program. Farm record keeping system, but the company saw the need to help ag students keep their SAE records.  Early 90’s: Excel based programs  Late 90’s: IMS web based program

4. Innovation Development Process 1) Needs/Problem ~ Old systems were managed and sold on a kid by kid basis ~ Offline ~ Geared towards award applications ~ No way to print mass reports 2) 3) Research & Development ~ Dr. Hanagriff and two other associates at IMS brainstormed the new program ~ 6 months to develop ~ Pilot tested with ag teachers for 2 months

5. Innovation Development Process 4)Commercialization ~ Debuted at Texas ag teachers conference in 2007 ~ Viewed teachers as their clients 5)Diffusion/Adoption ~ Within 8 years they now have 612,000 AET accounts in 45 states 6) Consequences ~ Able to provide school officials, industry stakeholders, and legislatives with economic impact reports ~ Save students and teachers time

6. Factors Affecting Rate of Adoption  Compatibility ~ By 2007 most schools had computers ~ Accessible by smart phone ~ Affordable  Trialability: ~ 90 day free trial for students and teachers  Observability ~ In chapter reports (used to get donations, sponsorship, scholarships, awards) AET Pricing Structure

7. Factors Affecting Rate of Adoption  Complexity ~ Online video tutorials ~ Ask AET Vanessa Rutherford Assistant Director of Educational Outreach

8. Factors Affecting Rate of Adoption  Relative Advantage ~ Online ~ Efficiency ~ Free guides ~ Manages records as a chapter v. per kid ~ Actually teaches kids about record keeping principles

9. Who Decides to adopt AET? It depends on the state.  Collective innovation decision: The state FFA association collectively decides to… ~ Adopt it and require all chapters to use the system (AK) OR ~ Pay for chapters who wish to adopt it (CO)  Optional innovation decision: teachers are allowed to purchase AET service if they so wish (TX). While AET considers teachers to be their clients, they can sell to the state in the case of Arkansas, or to teachers like they do in Texas.

10. From An Ag Teacher’s Perspective Kasee Smith  Started teaching ag in 2007 in Utah  Used an Excel spreadsheet to keep records o Student files often got lost or corrupted o Hard to grade  AET came to the Utah ag teacher’s conference in 2007 o Q&A session with AET reps o Teachers in attendance voted to adopt (90% of Utah ag teachers in attendance) o Utah schools had 3 years to fully transition over to the AET

11. From An Ag Teacher’s Perspective  Complexity: o Program is not intuitive for all students so teachers training is necessary o Utah held teacher in-service trainings for ag teachers  Relative Advantages o Online o AET is always adapting to the needs of the teachers/students o It can print out chapter wide reports

12. The AET A Successful Innovation Week of October 12, 2015