Utilizing A.R.I.E.L., Agricultural Resources Intelligent Educational Lecturer, in the Formational Study of Understanding Before and After Perceptions of Agricultural Industry Leaders and Representational Consumers in an Applied Convenience Sampling

This thesis aimed to determine where agricultural information was acquired by individuals in an agriculturally-related occupation in Texas and individuals 18 years of age or older involved with or within Texas agricultural higher education or extension environments. It also aimed to determine adoption attitude towards utilizing a new media form to acquire agricultural information.

Research sought to identify the most common information sources used to obtain agricultural data. Evaluation of sources used to obtain agricultural data allows identification of foundations, links, and gaps from an individual's perspective on inquiring about production agriculture. Also, this study sought to survey individual?s reaction and any possible perception change to using an online information source to obtain agricultural data. Observing reaction and perception change allowed for assessment of retention and engagement.

A descriptive, convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed to identify self-reported, commonly used information sources used to gather information about production agriculture. Quantitative research questions sought answers to identify knowledge levels compared to non-agriculturally minded consumers, commonly used information sources for knowledge acquisition, engagement with agricultural events and technology adoption characteristics. Research questions addressed through qualitative methods focused on individual?s use of an online information source and any possible perception change towards information provided.

This study found that there were no strong reportable differences between the two groups in use of information sources or reaction towards an online information source. Even though group averages were not extremely different, the results did not show any real direction to one source of commonality. Any differences discovered turned out to be small. The same applied to research findings and added to the problem of trying to find a common information source.

Overall, results presented were not representational of the entire study population due to low response rates. As such, no conclusions could be made from this study. This thesis recommends that further study of information sources, new technology, perception changes, and tools used to acquire agricultural information be further studied.