World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2021

12 MARCH 2021 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S .ORG A s COVID-19 took hold around the world, the United States Aquaculture Society webinar committee was hard at work bringing valuable information and advice to our members and beyond. Using the 2017 USAS member survey as a starting point, the committee located experts from various fields of aquaculture and education that were willing to share their research and knowledge virtually. Partnerships withWAS, the National Aquaculture Association (NAA) and the Alabama Cooperative Extension System (ACES) helped shape the success and extend our reach. The 2020 joint USAS/NAA/ACES webinar series was indeed a success, with eight webinars conducted and more to come in 2021. The total number of unique registrants for the webinars was 1,961 people from 79 countries, but several people attended multiple webinars. Table 1 provides details on the registration, live viewing and recording views for 2020. These webinars and views of the subsequent recordings provided more than 2,500 hours of continuing education for participants and viewers around the world and will continue to add value for years to come. Follow-Up Survey As a follow up evaluation of the webinar program, we reached out toWAS, USAS and webinar registrants with a 22-question survey via Qualtrics. Survey questions included demographic information, questions to evaluate the impact of webinar series, and questions seeking input for future webinar topics. The total number of respondents was 246 but varied among questions fromN = 90 to 150. There were 27 states and 32 countries represented. Demographics Respondents were 72 percent male, 27 percent female USAS Aquaculture Education Webinar Series Adds Value and Extends Reach David Cline and D. Allen Pattillo (N=149); 54 percent white, 25 percent Asian, 5 percent black, 0.7 percent Pacific Islander and 22 percent other (N=144); 76 percent Non-Hispanic, 24 percent Hispanic (N=141); very educated, 47 percent PhD, 39 percent professional degree, 11 percent 4-year degree, and 1 percent 2-year degree (N=150). Sixty-two percent of the respondents were members of WAS (N=246) including members of USAS (80), APC (19), AFRAQ (15), LACQUA (12) and Korean (1) chapters. Respondents also were members of our affiliate organizations including the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA), American Fisheries Society (AFS), National Aquaculture Association (NAA), National Shellfish Association (NSA) and several others. The top five motivations for attending the webinar series in descending order were: professional development, research interest, personal interest, aquaculture policy and industry advocacy. ValueAddedandExtendedReach Ninety-four percent of the respondents indicated that the webinar series has positively contributed to the value of USAS membership (N=180). When asked to estimate the monetary value of the information received during the webinar series the average response was $1,718 (N=63). There were responses that included $1,000,000 and priceless (of course, we agree) but these were not included in the average. Seventy-two percent of the respondents indicated that they shared the information gained from participating in the webinars. They estimated that an average of 50 people benefitted from the information they shared (N=86). If we choose to apply this as a representative figure for the entire population (N=1,796) that attended the webinars live, this information may have reached nearly 90,000 people and close to TABLE 1. Details on registration, live viewing and recording views of 2020 USAS webinars. Da t e Web i nar Reg i s t e r ed At t ended L i v e Aqua Ed USAS To t a l YouTube YouTube Vi ews Re c o rd i ng Vi ews 3/20/2020 Aquatic Weed Control * 57 413 132 602 4/10/2020 Aquatic Animal Nutrition * 213 666 950 1829 5/15/2020 Aquaculture Genetics Basics 839 298 +47 livestream 1973 2318 7/10/2020 Perceptions of Marine Aquaculture 592 597 530 1127 8/21/2020 Seafood Consumption Patterns 305 115 482 49 646 9/4/2020 Impacts of COVID on Aquaculture 308 125 520 62 707 10/2/2020 Aquaponics Economics 309 116 422 204 742 11/20/2020 Aeration Theory and Practice 743 228 1207 196 1631 Total 3096 1796 6213 1593 9602 The videos are housed on YouTube on the USAS Channel as well as the Aquaculture Education and More YouTube channel and linked to the partner websites. * Registration numbers lost during computer glitch.