Blog #1 week ending Sept 6, 2007

Entry #1

The book defines needs assessment as the systematic process of determining goals, identifying discrepancies between actual and desired conditions, and establishing priorities for action. The book list a number of data-collection techniques.

Which technique do you like most? the least?

The data-collection technique I like the most is e-mail. I like the e-mail approach because you will be able to reach a large number of people and expect a nice return. People check their e-mail multiple times a day. Conducting an e-mail survey is an easy and inexpensive way to gather information.

The data-collection technique I am least in favor of is the phone interview. Phone interviews seem to happen at the wrong moments (i.e. phone call at dinner time). Most of the time you end up hanging up on the interviewer because the interview takes too long. Phone interviews take time to conduct and can be difficult to get the right number of responses to make a good enough conclusion.

Entry #2

Question: Why is the most common delivery system still the physical classroom?

The physical classroom is the most common delivery system for many reasons which include:

- cost effective because technology can be expensive and there could be a lack of funding

- resistance to change because some people have a fear of technology

- face-to-face communication because people enjoy the community aspect of getting to "know" everyone

Overall the classroom delivery system is more common because you can pull in the best aspects of different teaching styles i.e face-to-face, web, etc.