Blog Posting #2

Technology analysis is a critical portion to instructional design. Seven critical processes must occur to fulfill and properly analyze the available technology. When one looks over the communication availability, making sure that employees are competent in areas such as telephone operation, email operation, etc will be necessary. While your instructional time may be dedicated towards a particular subject, the subject matter will fail to be understood unless proper communication lines can be established. Using technology that is overall understood by everyone may be wiser than teaching people how to use list-server technology or newsgroups.
The instructor's job is to of course properly direct and educate people on the subject matter, but having available references such as websites or help files is beneficial. When it comes time to test and quiz people, security/confidentiality of test-taker responses is a priority. Determining the proper method to test the students is equally important.
Making the class available not just on corporate intranet, but accessible by the employee outside the workplace may provide beneficial to the company as well as the employee. Of course proper analyzing and reflection of your methods will help determine what to do in the future.

The State of Maryland has an interesting PDF out about Technology Assessment in the Adult Education environment http://www.umbc.edu/alrc/Standards/Texts/TechnologyStandards.pdf

Blog Post #1

Needs assessment is a critical first step process. With 5 sub categories, each one must be clearly understood and met to properly fulfill the design of the instructional period. A company may have a set of standards that must be met by its employees. This "normative need" must be incorporated into the plan. The "felt need" may incorporate part of the normative need, but really takes into account the feelings and thoughts of those stakeholders in the instructional period. Once again, the Expressed/Demanded need may related back to a felt need but is really setting the stage/standard for results that must be met/achieved by the individuals. One must examine the comparative need: taking a look into how one person performs over another. They must figure out how to make everyone perform on the same level, at a better rate. Projection of future requirements or demands is critical to success.

Some website that provide additional insight or information:
http://www.healthpromotion.act.gov.au/c/hp?a=da&did=1007037&pid=1153987049

While this is more economics related, it provides an excellent explanation:
http://www.sra.dst.tx.us/srwmp/comprehensive_plan/final_report/html/Section5/Section5.htm