Module 2: Milestone One “Needs Assessment” (you can make up the topic, but make sure that it is about a topic that you can add on from week to week.

Module 2: Milestone One “Needs Assessment” (you can make up the topic, but make sure that it is about a topic that you can add on from week to week.  This is the first one, and I will also pay you for the second and third one.

Here are examples of what it is supposed to look like from week to week.

Josh’s Milestones, Annotated Bibliography and Final Project Materials

Milestone 1 Materials: OGL 554 Needs Assessment.pdf I attached separately

Milestone 2 Materials: OGL554 Milestone 2 Curriculum and Learning Outcomes.pdf I attached separately

Milestone Check-in Learning Design: Josh.pdf I attached separately

Annotated Bibliography: Annotated Bibliography Minzer.docx.pdf  I attached separately

Final Project: OGL554 Final Project.pptx I attached separately

·        Due June 7 by 11:59pm 

Milestone One: Topic and Rationale (100 Points Total) 

This milestone sets the stage for your final project. Please think it through carefully. This project includes students developing a comprehensive needs assessment. In order for training and development to be comprehensive and strategic, and for organizations to supply the necessary capital to support it, there must be a demonstrated need that aligns with the mission and vision of the organization. This is the assignment where you develop (and administer) the needs assessment.

In addition to the actual needs assessment and results, students will need to verify that the needs assessment aligns with the overall mission and vision of the organization. If you are not currently at an organization, please note that you may select an organization where you would like to work. 

In order maximize the points for this assignment, students will need to analyze the mission and vision of the organization, develop a needs assessment, administer the needs assessment, report the results, and report how the assessment aligns with the overall mission and goals of the organization. Documentation needs to be provided that each component was addressed. In addition, students will then situate or contextualize their results within the frame of the strategic needs of the organization. Students will provide support based upon the organization’s mission, vision, and resources. Lastly, students will detail the three layers of needs analysis, (organizational, person, and task) and why each one was used and important in aligning with the strategic mission and vision within the organization.  Please review the rubric and the details in Module 2 BEFORE starting this milestone.

Details

This assignment should be organized in a manner that highlights each component was completed: 

1. Statement of mission and vision of organization;

2. Needs assessment rationale and actual needs assessment distributed; 

3. Results of needs assessment in graph, chart, or table format; 

4. Alignment of plan based upon results with the mission and vision of the organization; 

5. Three components of needs analysis.

This assignment should be viewed as something you would provide your executive leadership team.  It should be polished and professional. Students need to use APA citation, graduate school writing conventions, and should be well-designed.  Students should include a table of contents, clear report sections, and appendices (if necessary). This report should be about 10-12 pages in length including the charts/graphs/tables of the needs assessment.

** Review the following:

METHODS USED IN NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Various methods may be used to collect information. No one method is necessarily superior to another. There are strengths and limitations of each, and each may be more relevant in some contexts than others.

Observation

Advantages: relevant data; minimizes interruption of work

Disadvantages: requires skill in observation; employee behavior may be affected by being observed

Survey

Advantages: inexpensive; can collect data from a large number of individuals; data easily summarized

Disadvantages: requires time; potentially low response rates; may lack detail; only provides information directly related to questions asked

Interview

Advantages: good at uncovering detail; can explore unexpected issues; questions can be modified

Disadvantages: time-consuming; difficult to analyze; needs skilled interviewers; can be threatening to SMEs; difficult to schedule; SMEs provide only such information they think you want to hear

Focus groups and crowdsourcing 

Advantages: useful for complex or controversial issues; can explore unexpected issues; reduces risk that training based on needs assessment will be rejected by stakeholders

Disadvantages: time consuming to organize; group members provide only information they think you want to hear

Documentation

Advantages: good source of information; objective; good source of task information for new jobs and jobs in the process of being created

Disadvantages: may be difficult to understand; potentially obsolete

Technology

Advantages: objective; minimizes work interruption; limited human involvement

Disadvantages: may threaten employees; managers may use data to punish versus train

Historical Data Review

Advantages: provides data related to performance and practices

Disadvantages: data may be inaccurate, incomplete, or not fully reflective of performance

Many companies are also using information about other companies’ training practices (benchmarking) to help determine the appropriate type, level, and frequency of training.

**Students should explore free survey tools such as Survey Monkey or Google Forms. Both allow you to create simple graphs, charts, and tables. Any tool is fine but, because of time constraints and expense, I recommend using a tool that can auto-generate your data. Remember if you are unable to execute an actual needs assessment and are going to develop one that you think you would like to complete, you will still need to generate data. Please email me on how to go about this! 

Rubric

Needs assessment