Darlene F. Russ-Eft

A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment, Third Edition For fifteen years, A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment has been the go-to text for those who are seeking useful, systematic approaches to needs assessment. Needs assessment is the first step in training, performance improvement, and community development projects. This thoroughly revised and updated edition contains a treasury of resources including a toolkit of ready-to-use templates and job aids that you can customize for your own use. Illustrative case studies and tips show how to assess needs for individuals, teams, organizations, government agencies, and communities. This book combines a how-to text and reference tool for trainers, performance improvement professionals, and students. Managers and community leaders use it to get to the root of their learning and performance problems, make effective decisions, and obtain support for their most pressing issues. Updates to the third edition include: Links to online resources, including a needs assessment book that you can download for free, ethical guidelines, and vendors who assess individual, group and organizational needs.A new chapter on the complex needs assessment approach with new toolkit forms.A summary of the recent advances in our knowledge about learning, training, and performance that you can use to quickly prepare for client meetings.Guidelines on workforce surveys, such as employee engagement surveys.An Instructor’s Guide that contains discussion questions, assessments materials, and new exercises for each chapter. You can use this book to quickly access up-to-date information on the fundamentals of needs assessment including current models, theories, and resources. You can also learn how to manage and report a needs assessment project and access professional ethical guidelines. Learn five approaches to needs assessment: knowledge and skills analysis, job and task analysis, competency-based needs assessment, strategic needs assessment, and complex needs assessment.

The book, Evaluator Competencies: Standards for the Practice of Evaluation, details the development and validation of evaluator competencies by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (ibstpi). Developing an understanding of the ibstpi Evaluator Competencies may not be sufficient for individuals to determine how to improve their, or their colleagues', competencies. This Fieldbook provides additional information, resources, and tools to assist those who want to improve their own competencies or those who want to help other individuals improve. Thus, the goals for the present companion volume are: • To provide additional practical information in each of the four evaluator domains (i.e., professional foundations, planning and designing the evaluation, implementing the evaluation plan, and managing the evaluation). • To present practical tools and resources that support specific evaluator competencies, whether as an internal or an external evaluator. • To offer practical insights on the evaluator competencies from experienced evaluators. • To provide practical evaluation exercises and resources that can be used with undergraduate and graduate courses.

The book, Evaluator Competencies: Standards for the Practice of Evaluation, details the development and validation of evaluator competencies by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (ibstpi). Developing an understanding of the ibstpi Evaluator Competencies may not be sufficient for individuals to determine how to improve their, or their colleagues', competencies. This Fieldbook provides additional information, resources, and tools to assist those who want to improve their own competencies or those who want to help other individuals improve. Thus, the goals for the present companion volume are: • To provide additional practical information in each of the four evaluator domains (i.e., professional foundations, planning and designing the evaluation, implementing the evaluation plan, and managing the evaluation). • To present practical tools and resources that support specific evaluator competencies, whether as an internal or an external evaluator. • To offer practical insights on the evaluator competencies from experienced evaluators. • To provide practical evaluation exercises and resources that can be used with undergraduate and graduate courses.

This book provides the most current and complete version of statements defining a competent instructional designer, for those who are or aspire to practice in virtually any context, anywhere in the world. The research conducted to update and validate these standards included obtaining feedback from over 1000 senior to novice practitioners and scholars working in the North, South, and Central Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and African nations.This book is intended for those who hire, train, and prepare instructional designers and those who work (or plan to work) as instructional designers. It provides an updated description of the profession. It lays out the most critical competencies (e.g., knowledge, skills, and attitudes) of the successful instructional designer, regardless of the context in which they work (e.g., K-12, higher education, business and industry, government and military, private consultancy, informal or formal), the location in which they practice (e.g., the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia), and the type of delivery for which they design (e.g., face-to-face, paper-based, digital, blended).There have always been questions about what instructional designers do… such questions led to the creation of ibstpi more than 30 years ago. Yet, this questioning is especially true today with the growing call for developers of e-learning and other technology-supported instruction. The term ‘instructional designer’ seems to have become a generic phrase that now lends itself to a broad range of meanings, and yet, it is a definitive profession with a specific scope and focus. The more widely the label ‘instructional designer’ is used, the more room there is for misunderstanding about what is called for in skills, behaviors, competencies, and outputs. What is called for in the midst of this learning boom is clarity, direction and uniform expectations. With a common understanding, we can help avert poor design, especially in e-learning and technology-supported instruction, which often fails learners or has high attrition rates.Grounded on rigorous research, consulting hundreds of practitioners around the world, this book articulates and explains what is required to be a competent instructional designer. It includes the set of standards that clarifies the profession and provides a set of competencies for creating hiring schemes, professional development guidelines, performance assessments, work plans, and curriculum to prepare instructional designers.The instructional designer profession continues to grow in wake of emerging technologies, new pedagogies, and virtual learning environments.However, many educators, instructors, and even training specialists often lack the competencies to design, develop, implement, and evaluate these newer types of instructional solutions. This book articulates and explains the competencies that are required to be a competent instructional designer.

This book provides the most current and complete version of statements defining a competent instructional designer, for those who are or aspire to practice in virtually any context, anywhere in the world. The research conducted to update and validate these standards included obtaining feedback from over 1000 senior to novice practitioners and scholars working in the North, South, and Central Americas, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, and African nations.This book is intended for those who hire, train, and prepare instructional designers and those who work (or plan to work) as instructional designers. It provides an updated description of the profession. It lays out the most critical competencies (e.g., knowledge, skills, and attitudes) of the successful instructional designer, regardless of the context in which they work (e.g., K-12, higher education, business and industry, government and military, private consultancy, informal or formal), the location in which they practice (e.g., the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia), and the type of delivery for which they design (e.g., face-to-face, paper-based, digital, blended).There have always been questions about what instructional designers do… such questions led to the creation of ibstpi more than 30 years ago. Yet, this questioning is especially true today with the growing call for developers of e-learning and other technology-supported instruction. The term ‘instructional designer’ seems to have become a generic phrase that now lends itself to a broad range of meanings, and yet, it is a definitive profession with a specific scope and focus. The more widely the label ‘instructional designer’ is used, the more room there is for misunderstanding about what is called for in skills, behaviors, competencies, and outputs. What is called for in the midst of this learning boom is clarity, direction and uniform expectations. With a common understanding, we can help avert poor design, especially in e-learning and technology-supported instruction, which often fails learners or has high attrition rates.Grounded on rigorous research, consulting hundreds of practitioners around the world, this book articulates and explains what is required to be a competent instructional designer. It includes the set of standards that clarifies the profession and provides a set of competencies for creating hiring schemes, professional development guidelines, performance assessments, work plans, and curriculum to prepare instructional designers.The instructional designer profession continues to grow in wake of emerging technologies, new pedagogies, and virtual learning environments.However, many educators, instructors, and even training specialists often lack the competencies to design, develop, implement, and evaluate these newer types of instructional solutions. This book articulates and explains the competencies that are required to be a competent instructional designer.

Evaluator Competencies, based on research conducted by the International Board of Standards for Training, Performance, and Instruction (ibspti¨) identifies the competencies needed by those undertaking evaluation efforts in organizational settings. Classified into domains, these evaluator competencies have been rigorously validated, and are accompanied by practical descriptions in the form of performance statements associated with each competency. The authors discuss the challenges and obstacles in conducting such evaluations within dynamic, changing organizations, and provide methods and strategies for putting these competencies to use.