What Is It?

This workshop provides the knowledge and skills necessary to be able to select an optimal needs assessment/analysis strategy and to use necessary associated tools to carry out each strategy. The workshop will use a case study approach and includes participants working on a project of their own in which they will develop a plan for their own needs assessment/analysis, and present the findings. Each participant receives a personal copy of the 116–page The Needs Analysis Workshop binder, which thoroughly documents each topic for future reference.

Specific Objectives

• Define and distinguish between needs analysis and needs assessment.
• Identify how needs analysis fits into the instructional development process.
• Use a list of standard questions that will help to identify which of four cause categories individually or in combination may be causing a performance problem.
• Given a customer request, determine when needs analysis studies should occur and when they should not.
• Explain the reason for each of the primary steps in a needs assessment and needs analysis.
• Identify discrepancies that can be addressed through training and those that can not.
• Describe each of four data gathering approaches in your own words.
• Given case projects from the class, select an optimal data gathering approach and related tools to use in the needs assessment/needs analysis process.
• Given an analysis situation where an interview is appropriate to use, be able to write the questions you will use and sequence them in a logical way.
• Given a performance discrepancy (gap), use a checklist of various causes of performance problems to guide your diagnosis of the root cause of the discrepancy and cite probable solutions.
• Match generic solutions to performance problems and causes.
• Explain the differences in the overall goal you have when analyzing performance problems from a performance analyst’s point of view and your goal when primarily developing/designing training.
• Through an experiential activity, identify barriers and ways to respond to them related to implementing needs analysis in all appropriate situations.
• Recognize the impact of implementing needs analysis on yourself and your organization, view this change as an opportunity, and take active steps to comprehend and welcome the change.