Justify, Focus Planning, and Clarify Intentions

This assignment should distinguish between the following two ideas:

· process (a needs assessment) and

· the products of that process (PCs, DCs, program goals, learning objectives).

I. Consider Your Reflections:

What are your reflections on and revisions for Assignment #1?

II. Justify and Focus Planning:

a. What is the general strategy you would employ to assess the needs of the learner community identified in Assignment #1, and how do you justify this/these strategies over others (explain specifically referring to the factors in your context that make this a good choice).

1. Are your descriptions and rationale thorough, clear, and justified? Why you have chosen this particular approach over other possibilities?

2. What characteristics of the organizational context and learner community are especially important to consider in developing your needs assessment? What factors in your context affected your choice of strategy? Are there any ethical/political/social ramifications?

3. Determining the present capabilities (PCs) - questions to consider:

· What are the sources of information you will access? Explain your choices.

· How appropriate are the collection procedures you have chosen for your context/ learner community?

· Have you considered how the data will be used and whether it is necessary?

4. Determining the desired capabilities (DCs) - questions to consider:

· What are the sources of information you will access? Explain your choices.

· How will the desired capabilities be determined and by whom?

· Have you considered and made explicit the underlying value / power systems influencing decisions about DCs?

· How do you prioritize your list of needs statements?

c. Provide a comprehensive set of need statements (pairs of PCs / DCs)

1. Are they explicit, clear, in accordance with guidelines and did you consider ascribed versus felt needs?

2. Who will be responsible for writing the set of need statements?

3. Is the timing to achieve DCs appropriate and justifiable?

4. How will you manage disputes over either PCs or DCs?

III. Clarify Intentions - Develop Goals and Objectives:

a. What are your general goal statements? These are "broad statements of purpose or intent" for the entire program - focus on learning, not program operations or instruction.

b. What are the specific learning objectives that support your goals? Use the Worksheet 2 below. (Please post your list of learning objectives along with the title of your program and a two or three sentence reminder of what you're planning. You post this to the discussion forum: Developing your needs assessment and learning objectives.) Doing this ahead of the assignment deadline means more opportunity for feedback.

c. Have you drawn the links (relationships) between and among the objectives (i.e., which ones must be achieved first); also between the needs you have identified and the intended outcomes of the program? That is, have you shown how the objectives clearly address the identified needs?

d. Have you made explicit and justified the objectives format you chose? (e.g., Mager, Caffarella, Gronlund, etc.)

e. Have you identified the types of domains of learning your program will foster - cognitive, affective, psychomotor - and explained your reasoning? It is a good idea to note the domain represented by each learning objective on your objectives summary.

IV. Summarize Needs and Objectives:

See worksheet later in this file for a suggested format.

V. State Your Conclusions:

a. What are your concluding reflections on this assignment?

1. How does this unit justify and focus your planning?

2. What insights have you gained from developing units one and two of your program plan?

3. How have these influenced each other, and your preliminary thinking for the rest of your planning?

4. What resources have been most helpful in the development of your ideas?