What is a needs analysis?

Needs analysis is an element of designing (or reviewing) a curriculum. Its purpose is to establish key learning outcomes and requirements in the design and delivery of a course or learning activity. The needs relate to the characteristics, concerns and potential constraints of the students (or any other relevant stakeholders). The analysis seeks to match possible or proposed techniques and materials to these needs and thus identify whether the design is appropriate to the intended goals. Good course design should separate ends from means. “We are constantly making the mistake of specifying the means of doing something rather than the results we want. This can only limit our ability to find better solutions to real problems.” (Gilb, 1988) In most cases, reviewing a course and responding to current need is perhaps something done intuitively and without formal procedures. However, there is increasing pressure to update curriculum purposes and methods in response to changing government requirements (such as accessibility, employability and information and IT skills agendas). Developing a new course or changing an existing teaching approach is likely to feel daunting, time-consuming and risky, especially when technology is involved. These risks and concerns are likely to be significantly diminished if a more explicit approach is taken to evaluating needs. There is certainly the usual need to justify limited time available and to be aware of likely technical requirements.

How it aids design and planning

A needs analysis is an effective means of identifying objectives and requirements for e-learning development. Understanding students’ needs (not to mention your own!) is crucial to the successful design or redesign of any course or learning activity. Needs analysis for learning is also one of the most difficult things to do well. The use of templates or models, as well as availability of training and support in e-learning, can reduce the risk and isolation of trying out new methods. If needs or requirements are unclear the ‘specification’ for what you are developing will be wrong. If the specification is wrong then the design will be wrong. If the design is wrong … the students will be dissatisfied or not achieve what you/the course intends. These four ‘real world’ scenarios have common features
– aside from ambiguity.
– The University is concerned about equal opportunities in the curriculum. The present induction course is out of date. As a result, a working group is established to ‘rejig’ the existing awareness programme for departments.
– At a departmental meeting, the Chair says: “We have all these new skills policies. We need to make sure all curricula are explicit about what employable skills are being developed by our students. We need all tutors to review their courses in terms of using e-learning to support skills development.
– A lecturer has just been given a set of multimedia web materials that support students’ in critically evaluating X (problem/issue/topic). S(he) is now tasked to ensure they know how to use it and what to do with it.
– A course team are keen to use e-learning to encourage collaborative learning. They are planning to use online discussion tools to support an existing course taught with face-to-face lectures and web resources. A needs analysis will assist in all of these scenarios in terms of identifying/clarifying staff or students needs and producing clear and measurable outcomes as indicators of success of the (e-learning) development. Further aims of a needs analysis are to support the selection of approaches that achieve one or more of the following: – are likely to save time or costs
– are valuable and viable
– are scalable and sustainable. It is fairly well accepted that e-learning developments that are valuable and sustainable in the longer term are those based on the use of small-scale, incremental, non-revolutionary technologies, i.e. mainstream worldware tools (Ehrmann, 2000).
These require far lower investment in terms of cost, maintenance, updating and skills. In today’s climate, the Web is the ultimate worldware tool; this includes web-based communication tools, but also analysis type applications, such as spreadsheets, maths tools, design software etc.). The challenge to the lecturer then is to package these basic tools in pedagogically viable ways. This is where needs analysis can assist in providing diagnostic evaluation
– that is, scoping out the objectives of what your development seeks to achieve against the requirements of the intended end-users.

What should be considered

A needs analysis is worth spending some time on so you go about things in a systematic manner. Evaluation should ideally be planned at the outset of any new development or modification. Your initial plan is likely to include aims, questions, tasks, stakeholders, timescales and instruments/methods. It should define “that which you are trying to investigate but also how you are going to go about it” (Crompton, 1997). Generally speaking, the areas to consider in embedding e-learning effectively into a course include issues around:
1. Learning- is the pedagogy appropriate?
2. Infrastructure – will the environment support my needs?
3. Technology – is the technology appropriate and can I/students use it? Identifying and analysing preconceptions and assumptions prior to use can ensure potential barriers to access or effectiveness are accounted for appropriately in development design and planning A preliminary review is likely to include: – Student and curriculum needs analysis tasks
– Constraints, resources and costs
– Identifying one’s own professional development needs
– Identifying evaluation criteria (indicators of success)
– Creating a statement of purpose (for the development project)

Addressing stakeholder needs

Needs analysis is closely linked with evaluation and dissemination. Firstly, it is the crucial ‘diagnostic’ part of an effective evaluation (see CAP e-learning guide “Evaluating e-learning developments”). The purpose of evaluation is to offer a means to investigate, provide evidence, learn, share and make judgements about what we do and how we do it. Secondly, there are inevitably links with feedback gathered from dissemination activities, as you may engage with stakeholders who can inform the choices you make in your development. A needs analysis is the starting point for defining the criteria against which judgements about success can be made. It will include a close scrutiny of the pedagogical rationale and outcomes of the curriculum and assessment design, which the planned e-learning (activity or environment) is intending to support or enhance. Some of the areas your needs analysis should address may be determined by your stakeholders (those who are influenced or benefited by the development). Primarily, this is most likely to be your students (whose learning you are aiming to enhance), it may be yourself in terms of developing your own skills. However, there may well be other, perhaps departmental, concerns or questions which you might choose to include for others treading a similar path.

Involving students

Involving students in the needs analysis process helps you to engage with them as the main beneficiaries (or sufferers!) of any new e-learning approaches you put in place. It can encourage more active participation in the development process. You might consider holding an initial focus group with students explaining your aims and the e-learning being developed and ask for their ideas and feedback as things progress. The students can also propose areas for investigation and can give feedback on the effectiveness of your evaluation questions. Many techniques are available for eliciting student (user) needs. One problem is that students often do not know or cannot articulate what they want in the course context For example, new students who have not studied a subject beforehand may not have the necessary language/terminology. They may lack the knowledge that comes from experience of using technology: selecting those that have experience of e-learning activities. Often students who volunteer for focus groups or interviews or return questionnaires are the technophiles, the technophobes not wishing to publicise their lack of skills. This can skew your analysis considerably. Selection of students to involve in a needs analysis therefore requires careful thought, to ensure you obtain responses that are reasonably representative of the whole student group. You may have to use elicitation techniques that build knowledge as well as keep a focus on the users own needs.