Upcoming Course
Making Your Message Matter: Practical Skills for Communicating Agricultural Science
Registration is now open for our January 2027 cohort.
Click here to begin registration →
After submitting the registration form, you’ll receive an email from our team within one business day confirming your submission and providing a direct payment link. Your course seat is only reserved once payment is completed.
Overview
Communicating technical information clearly is harder than it looks. You may know the topic inside and out, but deciding what your audience really needs to know, why it matters to them, and how to communicate it simply is a different skill altogether. This practical, six-week online course will give you a repeatable approach for turning complex agricultural information into clear, audience-focused messages. Through self-directed learning, hands-on exercises and live group sessions, you’ll apply what you learn directly to information from your own work.
Course length: Monday, January 18th 2027 – Wednesday, February 24th 2027
Format: Online | 6 weeks | approximately 10 hours total (1-2 hours/week)
Includes: Self-paced modules | 3 live interactive sessions | Certificate of Completion
Cost : $250 CAD plus HST
Who Can Benefit From This Course?
This course is designed for professionals and future professionals who work with technical or research-based agricultural information and need to communicate it to others. It may be a good fit if you work in:
Agricultural extension or knowledge mobilization ● Research ● Industry or producer associations ● Government ● Advisory or technical services ● Animal health or other agricultural sciences
You do not need a communications background to benefit from this course. The course is designed to give technical and subject-matter experts a practical framework they can use in their everyday work.
Still not sure if it’s the right fit or have other questions?
Get in touch with our team at training@acerconsult.ca and we’re happy to answer any questions you might have.
What Will You Learn?
By the end of the course, you’ll have a practical process for moving from technical information to a clear, audience-appropriate message. The course is organized around three questions:
WHO are you trying to reach?
Learn how to define and understand your target audience so you can make better decisions about what information to include, what to leave out, and how to frame your message.
WHY does it matter to them?
Move beyond simply sharing information. Learn how to identify the relevance of your technical knowledge to a specific audience and communicate why they should care.
HOW do you communicate it clearly?
Learn how to identify the essential message, reduce unnecessary complexity and communicate technical information in clear, concise and audience-appropriate language.
What Will You Leave With?
At the end of the course, you’ll leave with:
- A repeatable framework for developing clear messages from technical information
- A better understanding of how audience needs should shape communication
- Experience applying the framework to a topic from your own work
- Practical strategies for writing more clearly and concisely
- Feedback and discussion with ACER instructors and other agricultural professionals
- A Certificate of Completion for those who meet the minimum participation requirements*
Most importantly, you’ll have an approach you can apply again to future factsheets, presentations, extension materials, reports, websites, social media content and other knowledge-sharing projects.
*Participants must complete all assigned work and attend all live virtual sessions to receive a certificate of completion. If you have any questions or concerns about completion requirements please contact us at training@acerconsult.ca
How Does The Course Work?
This is a six-week online course combining flexible self-paced learning with live, interactive sessions.
Self-Directed Modules
You’ll complete three online modules focused on WHO, WHY and HOW. Modules may include short readings, videos, interactive content and practical exercises, and can be completed on your own schedule within each assigned timeframe.
Practical Exercises
Exercises will help you apply the course learnings in a practical way, using information relevant to your own role or project.
Live Sessions
Three live virtual Zoom sessions will give you the opportunity to discuss the material, ask questions, work through activities with ACER instructors, and learn alongside other participants.
Not sure if this course is the right fit or have other questions?
Get in touch with our team at training@acerconsult.ca and we’re happy to answer any questions you might have.
Course At A Glance
| Week 1 | Course launch & WHO module (self-directed) Short introductory live session: Wednesday, January 20th @ 7-7:30pm Eastern |
| Week 2 | Work exercise #1 due Virtual live session #1: Wednesday, January 27th @ 7-8pm Eastern |
| Week 3 | WHY module (self-directed) |
| Week 4 | Work exercise #2 due Virtual live session #2: Wednesday, February 10th @ 7-8pm Eastern |
| Week 5 | How module (self-directed) |
| Week 6 | Work exercise #3 due Virtual Live session #3: Wednesday, February 24th @ 7-8:30 pm Eastern |
Why Take A Course With ACER?
We work at the intersection of agriculture, research, and communication.
For more than a decade, ACER Consulting has worked with agricultural researchers, industry organizations, government, and other partners to turn technical information into resources people can understand and use.
Our team works across knowledge mobilization, plain-language writing, communications planning, facilitation, extension, research, and agricultural design. This course draws on that real-world experience to give participants practical approaches they can apply directly in their own work.
Meet the instructors
Claire Windeyer, DVM, DVSc
Dr. Claire Windeyer is a veterinarian, consultant with ACER, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Her interests include pre-weaning calf health and welfare, producer perceptions and decision-making, and knowledge mobilization. Claire completed her BSc, DVM, and DVSc degrees at the University of Guelph. She was raised in Nova Scotia and now lives on a small farm near Dogpound, Alberta.
Claire brings together a love of teaching and a deep commitment to turning science into practical, on‑farm action. With more than 20 years of experience in research and science communication, she’s excited to help guide participants through this course so they can apply the concepts to their own work.
Hanne Goetz, PhD
Dr. Hanne Goetz is a Consultant at ACER Consulting with experience in epidemiological research, teaching, and agricultural communication. She completed her PhD in Epidemiology and BSc in Animal Biology at the University of Guelph where her doctoral and postdoctoral research focused on the health and welfare of non-replacement dairy calves during transportation. Alongside her research background, Hanne has taught both undergraduate and Doctor of Veterinary Medicine students.
At ACER, Hanne works across livestock sectors on projects involving applied research, stakeholder engagement, and knowledge mobilization. She is passionate about connecting research with the people who can use it and looks forward to supporting participants as they hone their own knowledge mobilization skills.
Steven Roche, PhD
Dr. Steven Roche is the Founder and CEO of ACER Consulting, a veterinary epidemiologist, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Population Medicine at the University of Guelph. For more than 15 years, his work has focused on applied agricultural research, extension, knowledge mobilization, and science communication, with a particular interest in understanding how people make decisions and how research can be translated into meaningful action. Steven holds a PhD and MSc in epidemiology and a BSc in zoology from the University of Guelph.
Steven founded ACER around a belief that producing high-quality research is not enough to create change. It also needs to be relevant, accessible, and useful to the people who can put it into practice. He is excited to share the lessons ACER has learned from more than a decade of helping agricultural organizations turn complex science into practical communication, and to help participants apply those same principles to their own work.