Collaborative work 2 Part 1
- 1. SOCIO-EDUCATIONAL PROJECT Book Report: Part I. Needs Assessment Carvajal Cajas, Fabiola Germania Chulde Cabrera, Sandra Valentina Alvear Zambrano, Roberto Sofomias
- 2. WHAT IS A NEEDS ASSESSMENT? It is the effort to assess the need for a project or other activity. An education needs assessment establishes the need for a particular project by systematically examining audience interest and knowledge, agency mission, authorities and capability, and the significance of particular environmental conditions or issues. NEEDS ASSESSMENT: Identifies and determines the scope of the social, economic, and environmental conditions or issues that need improving. Gathers information/data about the gap between the current and desired level of audience knowledge, attitudes, skills, aspirations, and behaviors.
- 3. Helps confirm or negate assumptions of audience characteristics and appropriate content; defines goals and objectives; ensures goals and objectives are aligned with the agency’s strategic plan and other planning documents; and identifies stakeholders and potential collaborators. WHY IS NEEDS ASSESSMENT IMPORTANT TO PROJECT DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION? Conducting a needs assessment allows project managers to take a step back and systematically consider whether or not there is a gap in existing services or materials. SERVING THE AUDIENCE: Education services are more targeted and delivery systems are designed better to reach their intended audiences when founded on data.
- 4. SETTING PRIORITIES: A needs assessment helps project planners to systematically describe the audience impacted by the issue and their relationships to the issues as well as the underlying causes. RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL: A needs assessment will determine if materials or projects developed elsewhere can be adapted or adopted to the new situation.
- 5. RESOURCE ALLOCATION: Administrators will want documentation to substantiate decisions about which proposed projects should be fully funded, postponed, or rejected. COALITION BUILDING: Participation can demystify a project and help ensure greater buy-in from agency personnel, partners, and potential audiences. The needs assessment must be open and welcoming of ideas and not designed to validate a pre-determined course of actions
- 6. STRATEGIC PLANNING: Needs assessment focuses project planners’ attention on the end goal. By mapping out the current situation systematically, planners have the data to make decisions about realistic and meaningful goals. PLANNING A NEEDS ASSESSMENT Project team members begin to identify problems, opportunities, strengths, challenges, and priorities. The needs assessment process can be time consuming and, as with most processes that involve multiple stakeholders and multifaceted issues.
- 7. PLANNING Steps 1. Set the focus , refine the issues(s) and identify the stakeholders 2. Establish the planning team 3. Draft a plan for carrying out the needs assessment 4. Use the TOP model to direct data collection efforts 5. Gauge the likelihood of project success through opportunity assessment 6. Define participants in the needs assessment 7. Design data collection strategies
- 8. Step 1. Set the focus, refine issue(s) and identify the stakeholder(s). Conditions of SEE (social, economic or environmental) Needs assessment is established The key stakeholders are identified Conducting the needs assessment is secured Decision makers (receive the results) are identified Step 2. Established the planning team All stakeholders in process get critical thinking which will help to focus in the needs assessments Build credibility inside and outside the agency Planning team members Expectations and responsibilities should be established early on.
- 9. Step 3. Draft a plan for carrying out the needs assessment Be all inclusive becomes overwhelming Purpose: Help the education coordinator design and appropriate project Planning team Determine the scope f needs assessment Determine the type, breadth, and depth of information Step 4. Use the TOP model to direct data collection efforts SEE : how are SEE compared to the desire conditions Practice and behaviors: What practices or behaviors must be adopted to affect the desire SEE Knowledge, attitudes, skills, and aspirations: Level to change in KASA and how to compare the levels.
- 10. Step 5. Gauge the likelihood of project success through opportunity assessment Opportunity assessment occurs at the lower four levels: 1. Reaction: Program activities and promotional strategies 2. Participation: participants in the intended program 3. Activities: Activities for audience and its needs 4. Resources: time, staff, expertise, money Step 6 Define participants in the needs assessment • Identify the stakeholders inside and outside • Types of data needs to be collected and from whom Step 7 Design data Collection Strategies Identify the proposed participants Use key question sin each participant group The process matches the participants with an appropriate instrumentCollecting data often takes the project public and requires a new commitment of funds and others resources
- 11. Data collection Step 8 Determine sampling scheme Step 9. Design and pilot data collection instrument(s) Step 10. Gather and record data Step 8 Determine sampling scheme To draw a sample that accurately reflects (sample must give to the population an equal chance of being selected) Error of sample: Size is increase (time and other cost) Step9 Design and pilot collection instrument (s) Ask to participate in: Focus group or complete survey Decision that need to be made Design question to be asked and how
- 12. Step 9. Design and pilot data collection instrument(s) It is designed using the Key questions in steps 4 and 5 Questions will be answered in a focus group or completing a survey What to do with the questions or results will be previously established Each step will be articulated in the data collection Once the data collection design is done it should be pilot tested Pilot testing can help find misleads or misinterpretations Planning committee must determine that the instruments are valid and reliable.
- 13. Step 10. Gather and record data Orchestrating the data gathering process requires substantial planning and day-today You may find a master calendar helpful to plot each point The planning team will need to determine who will collect the data and what will be done with it Once data are collected, the data will need to be recorded or entered into the appropriate format for analysis. Survey data will need to be entered into a database. Interviews and focus group sessions will need to be transcribed
- 14. Step 11. Perform data analysis The type of data analysis will depend on both the instruments used and the study questions being answered. there is a consistent relationship between the size and/or cost of the program and the rigor and amount of data gathered education coordinators gather data for their needs assessments using: telephone, face-to-face contact, mail or e-mail, online surveys, mail surveys. Once data are collected, the data will need to be recorded or entered into the appropriate format for analysis. Survey data will need to be entered into a database. Interviews and focus group sessions will need to be transcribed
- 15. Step 12. Determine priorities and identify potential solutions Once the data analysis is completed, the team is finally in the position to articulate the results in terms of needs Then you systematically describe the discrepancy between what is and what should be. education coordinators gather data for their needs assessments using: telephone, face-to-face contact, mail or e-mail, online surveys, mail surveys. The team must evaluate the list of identified needs and prioritize them. Sork’s Priority Setting Criteria: importance criteria, feasibility criteria.
- 16. Step 13. Synthesize information and create a report Administrators will need a report for approving the onset of the design phase of the project. Designing Needs-Based Action Plans: After sorting through priorities and determining potential solutions or strategies, the planning team will have considered numerous alternatives When hiring a consultant you need to assess: relevance, workload, workstyles