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Needs assessments: Internal and external
Abstract
There are two possible overarching referents for needs assessment: one which looks at needs from the point of view outside
of the organization doing the study, and one which looks at needs from within that organization. The external view is here
called, unsurprisingly, “external needs assessment” and the other is termed “internal needs assessment”. Most current activities
in needs assessment are of the internal variety.
The external needs assessment is suggested as a rational and logical starting place for organizational effort (including learning
design) in that it studies and identifies the skills, knowledges and attitudes which are important outside of the school (or
organization) and uses that information as the basis for educational design and effort. The internal needs assessment goes
from that point forward to identify internally useful and worthy goals, objectives, methods and means to meet those required
and desired outcomes. Most current effort in needs assessment is of the internal variety, and it is strongly urged that this
referent be augmented with the external needs assessment data and information.
... He proposed that those needs at more basic levels are required for the upper level ones to be met, and all of these needs affect human performance. Dewey (1933Dewey ( , 1939 and Kaufman (1977) are theorists that also emphasized determining learner needs prior to designing instruction (Rossett, 1982). Fervent debates regarding what needs are and what constitutes needs assessments emerged in the 1960s and 1970s (Watkins & Kavale, 2014). ...
... Fervent debates regarding what needs are and what constitutes needs assessments emerged in the 1960s and 1970s (Watkins & Kavale, 2014). Kaufman (1977) has been instrumental in this area and is credited with establishing needs as nouns, gaps in results, and not verbs (Leigh et al., 2000;Watkins & Kavale, 2014). He firmly posits that needs should be identified first. ...
... Any combination of recommendations that emerge from needs assessments may not reflect what preconceived solutions clients and stakeholders had in mind (Kaufman & Guerra-López, 2013). When recommendations counter the expectations of the clients or stakeholders involved, "cognitive dissonance" often ensues, as in cases where major shifts are required (Kaufman, 1977). The degree to which there is cognitive dissonance can impact perceptions of burden in terms of implementing the recommendations. ...
Needs assessment is a valuable tool in the instructional designer and performance improvement practitioner toolbox. However, it is often avoided due to perceived burdens associated with the needs assessment process. The current research explores needs assessment participants’ perceptions of four proposed components of burden, including: 1) duties, obligations, and responsibilities; 2) cost; 3) needs assessment facilitator skills; and 4) needs assessment facilitator systemic sensitivities. The researcher also developed and tested a Perceived Burden for Needs Assessment Participants Survey (PBNAPS) as a potentially reliable and valid measure of this phenomena. The PBNAPS proved to be both internally consistent (a= 0.86) and applicable across organizational contexts, constituent types, and lengths of affiliation. The majority of participants reported low levels of perceived burden (M = 2.97, SD = 0.88), suggesting that perceived burden in needs assessment is not as high as anticipated. Finally, an exploratory factor analysis yielded 1) a four-component model accounting for 52.27% of the variation on the concept of perceived burden, and 2) several implications for practitioners and future iterations of the PBNAPS.
... When it comes to duties, obligations, and responsibilities, NA participants can be tasked in various ways. They may 1) provide project scoping or oversight (Altschuld & Kumar, 2010;Kaufman & Guerra-López, 2013;Witkin & Altschuld, 1995); 2) supply various extant data sources, serve as the gateways to other data forms (Kaufman, 1977;Kaufman & Guerra-López, 2013;Rossett, 1982); 3) provide data themselves via focus groups, interviews, or surveys (Altschuld & Kumar, 2010;Leigh et al., 2000;Stefaniak, 2020;Watkins et al., 2012); 4) or otherwise remain involved over time. Coming from expectancy-value models, cost is "what an individual has to give up to do a task, as well as the anticipated effort one will need to put into task completion," (Eccles, 2005, p. 113). ...
Needs assessments are avoided due to perceptions of burden associated. While most research focuses on the facilitators, this research leverages the Perceived Burden in Needs Assessment Participant Scale (a= 0.86) to explore the participant perspective. Most participants reported low levels of burden (n = 244, M = 2.97, SD = 0.88), debunking the myth of severe levels of needs assessment burden. The results also yielded implications for NA practice, including that practitioners should: 1) make use of extant data, 2) ensure tasks and recommendations are reasonable, 3) minimize what participants must give up, 4) remain flexible, and 5) seek understanding.
... At first "celiac application" is designed by our research team based on analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation (ADDIE) model [31]. For this, we reviewed the published articles, various health, and diet-related applications and interviewed patients with celiac disease to gather the relative information to define the education scopes and purposes of the application and create the main contents and subcontents of the application. ...
Introduction:
Considering the lack of inclusive Persian application for celiac patients that covers all aspects of the GFD, we developed a Persian-language application for patients with CD and assessed the effectiveness of a three-month educational intervention delivered via smartphone application compared with standard care on gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS) score in patients with celiac disease.
Methods:
In the present parallel randomized controlled clinical trial, 60 patients with CD were assigned randomly to receive education through a smartphone application (n = 30) or conventional clinical education (n = 30). The patients were asked to use it for getting the required information for three months. We assessed the gastrointestinal symptoms using the gastrointestinal symptom rating scale (GSRS) questionnaire at baseline and three months after interventions. The GSRS total score, celiac disease GSRS (CD-GSRS) score, abdominal pain, reflux, diarrhea, constipation, and indigestion scores were calculated.
Results:
Out of 60 randomized patients, 58 patients completed the study. In comparison to baseline, the mean score of CD-GSRS score (p = 0.001), and indigestion subscore (p < 0.001) were significantly decreased in the intervention group. The results of the between-group comparisons showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups only in the mean score of indigestion (p = 0.002).
Conclusion:
According to the results, using a smartphone application for providing information to patients with celiac disease had a significant positive effect on indigestion symptoms compared with routine clinic education. Trial Registration. This trial is registered with the Iranian registry of clinical trials (IRCT code: IRCT20170117032004N2; trial registry date: 2019.6.26).
... When it comes to duties, obligations, and responsibilities, NA participants can be tasked in various ways. They may 1) provide project scoping or oversight (Altschuld & Kumar, 2010;Kaufman & Guerra-López, 2013;Witkin & Altschuld, 1995); 2) supply various extant data sources, serve as the gateways to other data forms (Kaufman, 1977;Kaufman & Guerra-López, 2013;Rossett, 1982); 3) provide data themselves via focus groups, interviews, or surveys (Altschuld & Kumar, 2010;Leigh et al., 2000;Stefaniak, 2020;Watkins et al., 2012); 4) or otherwise remain involved over time. Coming from expectancy-value models, cost is "what an individual has to give up to do a task, as well as the anticipated effort one will need to put into task completion," (Eccles, 2005, p. 113). ...
Whereas it is a valuable tool for instructional designers and performance improvement practitioners, needs assessment is often avoided due to perceived burdens associated with the process. Given the lack of study of perceived burden within the literature, there was no known existing scale to measure perceived burden. This article describes the process of conceptualizing perceived burden in needs assessment and developing the first scale to measure that construct: the Perceived Burden in Needs Assessment Participants Survey (PBNAPS). Through examining the performance of a pilot instrument, the authors explored the validity and reliability of the PBNAPS. The instrument was found to be reliable (α = .86) across four factors: (a) duties, obligations, and responsibilities; (b) cost; (c) needs assessment facilitator skills; and (d) needs assessment facilitator systemic sensitivities. Ultimately, the final revised PBNAPS instrument demonstrated both internal consistency and applicability across organizational contexts, constituent types, and lengths of affiliation.
While we usually discuss multimedia in the context of frameworks such as Mayer’s theory of multimedia learning, our frameworks for multimedia lack a contextualized approach that recognize other dimensions and impacts of the work we do with mediating artifacts. Educational technology at its core centers around the introduction of mediating artifacts into learning and performance environments. Shifting from an emphasis on media (i.e., things) to mediating allows us to differently frame the work we do and the artifacts we introduce into systems, emphasizing not merely the nature of the things but the impacts of them as well.
The overarching goal of this paper is to promote a systemic approach toward needs assessment that enables inclusive learning design. We intend to foreground the importance of inclusive needs assessment and analysis to mitigate social inequities in educational and learning environments. This paper will explore instructional needs emerging because of social injustices and inequities and introduce heuristics to guide educators and learning designers to integrate inclusive needs analysis strategies.
Early career academic nurses can struggle to meet the demands of career development due to feelings of being overwhelmed. Studies indicate that programs targeting these challenges are often sporadic and inconsistent, leading to dissatisfaction and missed opportunities.This paper reports on findings evaluating a program designed to build career-resilience in a group of early career academic nurses who, through the provision of a structured program of support, were enabled to succeed and thrive in the academy. This six session program was informed by Knowles' adult learning theory, Mezirow's transformational learning theory and Lord's reliance on critical transactions.This study was undertaken in a large metropolitan university in Sydney, Australia. Participants included nine early career academic nurses. All had been full-time academics from one to six years. A qualitative descriptive design was employed using Braun and Clarke's six stage process for data analyses. Three themes emerged: the program fostered connections, strengthened expertise and clarified directions. This analysis provided deep insights into the value of collegial relationships to galvanise career success. The program's strength was its ability to lessen participants' feelings of isolation and to develop behaviours that enhance career-resilience.
While ethics has been an under-researched area in educational technology, it is receiving current recognition as a critical focus for inquiry and development. In this chapter, we review the contribution of ethics as part of the history of professionalization of the field, the development of a code of ethics for the profession, and contemporary ethics issues like cultural competence, intellectual property, accessibility and universal design, critical theory in educational technology, system ethics, and social responsibility of professionals. In addition, this chapter presents major theoretical and philosophical models for ethics that pertain specifically to technology in educational systems along with implications of research from other fields exploring the integration of ethics into policy, standards, and higher education curricula. Existing research on ethics in educational technology programs suggests a very low level of integration in such domains at present; findings from a survey of the curricular landscape and implications for future research and development are discussed along with consideration of ethics as a foundational component not only to professional standards, practices, and leadership, but also to education policy, as we highlight the role of faculty and graduate programs, practicing professionals, and scholarly associations in shaping future directions and research in this emerging domain.
This paper presents the results of a beta needs assessment of the agricultural safety and health educational needs of seven groups of agricultural professionals (equipment dealers, cooperative extension agents, secondary agriculture teachers, agri-chemical/fertilizer dealers, insurance company representatives, grain/feed dealers, and farm animal veterinarians). The results of a mail survey of a proportional random sampling of 826 professionals provides a framework for the design, development, and evaluation of future national and state educational programs on agricultural safety and health. This will increase sharing of agricultural safety information with farmers and ranchers through knowledgeable professionals within agriculture.
The educational design and development process begins with external considerations--the requirements, current and future, for individual and collective self-sufficiency in society. A model is presented. (Author/MLF)
Although ethics are commonly regarded as an important characteristic and performance attribute, they are also regarded as a slippery or ill-defined topic leaving practitioners and faculty flat-footed in how to teach and assess ethics. This article reports part of the findings from an investigation on deriving an empirical definition of ethics, namely social responsibility, focused on faculty perceptions of whether a set of ethical outcomes identified as “social responsibility” is relevant to the profession of educational technology and human performance technology and therefore ought to be part of graduate curricula. Findings focus specifically on faculty perceptions of the role of educational technology and human performance technology in society and its impact on society. Although other professions have increasingly identified their responsibilities to society and integrated content into curricula, early findings indicate a lag in the instructional design and human performance technology community.
Educational technologists have moved from a unique concern with the how-to-do-its of behavior change (such as television,
computers, and instructional delivery systems) to the inclusion ofwhat to teach. This expanded scope was encouraged and made possible by the pioneering work on measurable objectives.
As soon as consideration of not onlyhow andwhat were part of the technologist’s repertoire, the consideration ofwhy was upon us. Tools and techniques, including needs assessment, needs analysis, system analysis, and systems analysis, were
all moving us not only toward doing a more efficient and effective job of changing (or maintaining) behavior, but also toward
determining why something should be taught and why behavior should be changed (or maintained) in the first place.
The formal consideration ofwhy is a growing and thriving area of educational technology and is seen as possibly having several layers, including considerations
of results both within and external to an organizational context.
A suggested relationship is presented between several possible layers or organizations, with the ultimate referent for planning,
doing, and evaluating being the individuals’ abilities to survive and contribute in society when they legally leave our educational
agencies or training establishments. It is suggested that in the future, in order to relate the various factors of production
of behavior change and/or maintenance, we reserve the terms “input,” “process,” and “output” for activities and results within
an organization, and the term “outcome” for the results external to the organization.
The technologist’s world has indeed expanded from the sole consideration ofhow to teach better to the inclusion ofwhat to teach better, andwhy we should teach what we are teaching in the first place. As we grow more inclusive and responsive in our planning and doing,
as we grow more holistic and humanistic, our risks grow—but so do our responsiveness, responsibility, and satisfactions.
Predictions that technology will soon bring about a revolution in teaching are now common. Some see this occurring as an inevitable
result of the information storage and processing capabilities that new technologies possess; others believe that changes in
values and technology application strategies will be more significant factors. This article argues that technologies affect
education greatly by shaping attitudes about the nature of teaching and learning, and presents a simple model to illustrate
this process. Also, it suggests that, to be effective advocates of the new technology, instructional developers must address
the ideological dimensions of learning system design and make deliberate decisions regarding the educational values these
designs are to embody.
There are many techniques available to the developer who is attempting to understand a performance problem. Needs assessment
is one of those techniques. The developer can interview, distribute questionnaires, ponder extant records... But what questions
does the developer ask? Which behaviors should be observed? What feelings and priorities are sought? The challenge for developer
is in the conception of the substance of individual items and groups of items. This article presents a typology which guides
the developer in creating needs assessment items, the building blocks of front end analysis.
Organization development and improvement models, like the people they intend to help, come in a bewildering array of sizes, shapes, types, and intentions. Many have been developed, but few seem to do the job for which they were intended. This paper and the conceptual model it offers help to identify the major varieties of models and methods and analyze the characteristics of some of the best understood and recognized among them. The author proposes that most models are only descriptive and fail to offer predictive and control aspects that are considered to be central to success. A predictive "synthesis" termed "Transactional Life-Cycle Theory" is offered: a combination of existing models, including selected aspects of Hersey and Blanchard's Life-Cycle Theory, some role behavior aspects of Transactional Analysis (but not the whole therapy model) and aspects of Greenwald's Direct Decision Therapy. Some additional consid erations of this model are presented, including one relating to sexism and sex-role stereotyping.
This report is intended primarily for educators who have the responsibility for conducting or managing a needs assessment at the school or district level. Although most of the material relates to local assessments in the elementary and secondary schools, some information has been included on statewide assessments and on emerging efforts in community colleges and universities. The information was gathered from published and unpublished reports of needs assessments, examination of models, kits, and various instruments, and the (limited) theoretical and research literature in the field. The report is organized in three parts: Part 1, "The State of the Art," an overview of trends and major approaches; Part 2, "Needs Assessment Models," descriptions of the most widely available and characteristic models, together with some case studies of their application; Part 3, "How to Do It," management, some communication and other strategies, strengths and limitations, and social fairness issues. (Author)
Discovering Educational Goals
- R Gagne
Identifying and Solving Problems: A System Approach
- R Kaufman
- R. Kaufman
Needs Assessment Materials: An Annotated Bibliography
- Michael R Knight
- W Breivogel
- J Pyatte
- Michael R. Knight
Toward a Possible Taxonomy of Needs Assessments.”Educational Technology (Special Issue on Needs Assessment)
- R Kaufman