An environmental scan is a process of studying and analyzing the current and emerging forces that exist within an educational organization's environment.

The keys to successful scanning are active and open exploration of our communities that incorporates diverse sources of information (primary and secondary data) and diverse viewpoints (key stakeholders, volunteers, advisory leaders, clientele groups, general public).

In essence, scanning is our opportunity to take a fresh, objective look at issues that fit within our Extension mission and goals, and lend themselves to educational solutions.

Organizational environment consists of both external and internal factors. Environment must be scanned so as to determine development and forecasts of factors that will influence organizational success.

The factors that need to be considered are explained below:

• Events are important and specific happenings in the internal or external organisational environment which can be observed and tracked.
• Trends are grouping of similar or related events that tend to move in a given direction, increasing or decreasing in strength of frequency of observation.
• Issues are the current concerns that arise in response to events and trends. Identifying an emerging issue is more difficult.
• Expectations are the demands made by interested groups in the light of their concern for issues.