[MUSIC] So the third case is a case when the college, the school, wants to create a new program, which can be a certificate, a regular program, or a MOOC-based specialization. In this case, you may find the college administrator approach you, and say the college wants to create a new program, can you help us? And because it is a program, exploring the Burton and Mary's categories of needs and data sources used for planning and conducting needs assessment, will help you define and find information to carry on that program that has already been decided. You have to carry it on. But you need information to make sound decisions. It is important to find out specific needs or resource that lead to the creation of the program. But it is also important to understand if there are regulations and norms that will rule the program, what is the environment, are there other programs like this in the college, in the school, in the campus, in other places. And also, what is this program going to be measured against, and what metrics will determine the program's success? One of the categories in the norms and regulations that I explained before are those, it may be those professional standards or certifications. For example, is there a body that regulates standards for this discipline? AACSB, for example, regulates standards or rules for colleges of business. CPA regulates standards for accountants in the US. There are professional associations that regulate standards for other certifications. So what are the norms, and are there universal norms, or are their difference in different states, countries, or regions for specific certifications or programs. That information, those are normative needs. What are the normative needs that you need to know, to create this course, to make this course smooth, and to make this course, or this program consistent with what is expected in, by the organizations and in the industry. There are also other needs. For example, comparing the program to other programs will also help you identify important elements for this program that you are developing. The comparative needs required that the instructional designer identify the areas of comparison, and understand how is the profile of a learner taking this certification in other school or organization? And how can the program in our school target a similar learner? What is the value that the certificate of program will bring to the peer school? If the program exists somewhere else, what can it bring to this school that will make a difference? How can the program, even if there are 100 programs similar in other schools, in other parts of the country, or the world, how can we put the zeal of this school into the program that we are creating? What, in business schools, they like to call branding. Those are called comparative needs. Now, we will also see that there are other needs in these categories. There are the felt or expressed needs. In some cases, and it is not uncommon in online programs, that they are created to fill a gap between what currently exists and what is actually a need in the field, or in the society. These are called felt, or expressed needs. Felt needs is when there is that intuition that there is something missing in the current programs, there is a gap. And so, another program or certificate is created, and when this felt need is made a proposal, then it becomes an express need. So there is no longer the perception of the need, but it's also expressed and explained. And it is explained why there is a need to do this program now. What are the concerns and motivations? And this is another one of the categories that is also very important in the need assessment. There are also the ones called, Anticipated Needs. Is the college or department trying to anticipate the trend by offering this certificate or the program? Or is the college or department reacting to a need? For example, the only MBA at the University of Illinois that I helped create, was created because of an anticipated need. The understanding of creating a program for that professionals, who needed business knowledge, but would not move to [INAUDIBLE] to take a program, show that the need for an online MBA was important. So what the college decided to do, was to create an online MBA that would reach the world at an affordable price. Therefore, we created this online MBA trying to anticipate the needs of a larger population, the one that we were originally serving. In some cases, programs are created because of the existence of a critical need. For example, there are specific types of professionals that are the market. And right now, how many courses, certificate, or specializations on the use of big data and analytics have we seen appear lately? It's happening because of that need, that organizations have to manage data, and there is lack of this skills. So a certificate program could be enough to prepare someone to be ready to work with big data in his or her specific field. That is a critical need. Understanding or educating learners on issues that are needed now. And so, programs may be created for a critical need. So understanding these categories is important, because that is going to give you the basis to understand what are the things this program is going to be responding to, what metrics are going to be used to measure the success of this program. But now, you need to identify where you're going to collect data to better understand and respond to these needs. Where and how you collect data to identify these possible responses, depend on the different needs. For example, for normative needs, you can look at documentation in professional associations, graduate colleges, your school, or the university system. For the comparative needs, or for what we call analyzing the peers scores, you can look at their websites, you can learn this in conferences, you can find in research papers, information that will give you more data, about how other peer institutions are approached in a similar case or a similar program. For the felt and expressed needs, interviews or focus groups with faculty, alumni, the industry, or the government, can help you understand if there is a felt or expressed needs for a program. Similarly, to anticipated and critical needs, reading the press, the media, understanding through interviews with focus groups. Also with faculty, with alumni, with the industry, and the government, is going to give you information about that case. So again, for your data collection, use interviews, study documents, explore and do research in what has already been investigated about that. So that it gives you a base to set the starting point of the design of that program. So for the last case, it is important to make ideological decisions that will meet the program expectations, the audience needs, and the standards. And understanding the metrics will determine the program's success. In this case, the instructor or the administrator that wanted to create the program or certificate, found that the need assessment by the instructional designer help them identify elements for a consistent pedagogical design that matched, not only the program expectations, but also, the audience needs and the industry standards. So in a time when data is king, and is available even when you did not mean to collect it, you will find it in databases, in learning management systems, in research boards, in the news. Data is everywhere. We give you the information that you need to suggest, recommend, and develop a course assigned that will represent what your clients want to achieve. Do not skip the need assessment moment, because it seems that the decision was made for you, and that the instructional designer is the executor. It's not that the case, nobody but the instructional designer will be able to ask the specific questions that have not been considered before. The need assessment is what will give you and your client a clear picture of what is wanted, and what questions need to be answered to meet those expectations. [MUSIC]
