My Garden of Thoughts: Reflection #5 -- How to Implement Plans for a Needs Assessment

 

        In class, not only are our readings informative, but they incorporate practical skills that will help us in our future careers. Today, the reading was short and focused out outlining an implementation plan for a needs assessment. The article broke the topic down into a table of information that was divided into 3 categories:  Preassessment, Assessment, and Postassessment. Alongside each of these categories a series of sample activities are listed as options that could be completed. However, the article made it clear that this table of categories and activities within their needs assessment could be rearranged or custom tailored to any organization's preferences or specific concerns. 

    I thoroughly enjoyed this reading assignment because I feel that it will not only benefit my class group and I on how to proceed in making our curriculum, but it will also give me a personal guideline on how to start and finish a needs assessment in any future organization that I end up working at after I graduate. What I loved most about this article is that they set up an assessment that required a plethora of teamwork and collaboration. I could tell that it is important to include the opinions and ideas of others in every Needs Assessment because the assessment is addressing a "gap" in the organization that needs to be fixed. Many employees might have varying opinions on how to meet this need or what must change in order to fix it. Thus, I think it is essential to outline a Needs Assessment similar to the article's assessment that can allow a number of people to work on it together and use their specific skills. 

    From what I can tell, the most crucial pieces of a Needs Assessment that my project group and I will need to address will be the item listed as #4 under the Preassessment section of the article: Creating a Management Plan. Since this class is online and there are several parts of the curriculum assignment we must do individually, I think we will need to implement a form of organization to stay on top of deadlines and communication. Creating a management plan will also enable us to make sure our part of the project that we do on our own will form a cohesive curriculum once we piece it all together. We'll need to identify the roles of each group member (researcher, summary writer, editor, etc.) and we'll need to identify the responsibility of each group member too. This week, I plan on bringing up the link to the checklist for needs assessment management plan activities that is listed in the article to my group. That checklist might be able to give us further help in this area of the project.

    I am excited to begin implementing some of the material we have read this week into the projects I am doing for this class!

- E.