University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension

The University of Wisconsin–Madison Division of Extension connects university knowledge with people and communities across Wisconsin. Its educators work through local partnerships on subjects including agriculture, community development, health, relationships, natural resources, and youth development. The division is part of UW–Madison, rather than a separate university. Extension’s history at the university reaches back to the 1890s; its transition from UW-Extension to a UW–Madison division became official in 2019.

Extension also publishes resources for planning and evaluating educational programs. Its Enhancing Program Performance with Logic Models guidance sets out how a program’s situation and resources relate to its activities, participants, and intended results. In that framework, outputs describe work carried out and people reached. Outcomes describe subsequent changes, ranging from learning and decisions to longer-term social, economic, civic, or environmental conditions. The guidance also asks planners to consider assumptions and external factors that could affect the expected sequence.

The model helps make a program’s expectations visible and gives evaluators different kinds of results to examine. It does not establish that an activity caused a later change: the proposed links and other possible influences still require investigation. The logic-model materials originated in the earlier University of Wisconsin-Extension structure and remain available through the present division’s website.