Running Head: NEEDS ASSESSMENTS AND PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION

The Use of a Needs Assessment in the Implementation of WebPath at Lane State West
University

Allison Brisman, Laura Buscemi, and Stephen D. Rountree

Towson University

ISTC 667

Dr. Sadera

March 27, 2016

Introduction:
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While much of the conversation regarding education reforms and accountability

measures have been focused on secondary school systems across the country, postsecondary

institutions have been quietly changing to effectively meet the needs of their students. The rise in

tuition rates in post-secondary schools, societal and technological advances, and responsibility

for the education of future citizenry that can make a positive contribution to societal goals has

led government officials, as well as, students to ask colleges and universities to justify and

account for monies that they charge. Just like secondary schools, postsecondary institutions of

higher learning are dealing with issues of identifying, implementing, monitoring, and assessing

the changing needs of all stakeholders in a fashion that will all to share in the benefits of changes

proposed and implemented thus far. The case under discussion this week, Ross Caslon:

Supporting Faculty Use of a Course-Management System is a perfect representation of what

happens when new programs are being implemented within large institutions.

Ross Caslon, staff member at Lane State West (LSW) was charged with the development,

implementation, and training in the use of the WebPath course-management tool to support web

based instruction at the school. From the beginning Ross was presented with a multitude of

challenges that would invariably inhibit his ability to successfully implement the program. While

the WebPath program may have had its own drawbacks; the inability of Ross Caslon’s leadership

to move the implementation program forward lied in his lack of detail in detailing and thus

managing the needs and expectations of stakeholders that would be instrumental in Web-Paths

successful rollout. A true analysis of the case will reveal that one of the problems from the very

beginning was the lack of guidance and support from school leadership regarding the mission

and vision they had regarding the implementation of faculty technology use in its future plans.

As Kotter (1996) points out, “in a change process, vision serves three important purposes. First,
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by clarifying general direction for change it simplifies hundreds of more detailed decisions.

People can figure out for themselves what to do without constantly checking with bosses.

Second, it motivates people to take action in the right direction. Third, it helps coordinate the

actions of different people in an efficient way. One question-‘Is this in line with the vision’- can

help eliminate hours of torturous discussion” (pp. 68-69). In this case, the job of Ross would

have been taken more seriously by all stakeholders if he had the unyielding support of school

leadership; support that would have held all members ‘accountable’ for their actions, or lack

thereof, in the implementation of the WebPath program. So what could have university

leadership did to demonstrate their commitment to the programs implementation and success?

According to DuFour, et al (2010), these activities could have included:

1) Initiating structures and systems to foster qualities and characteristics consistent

with the school organization they are trying to create; i.e., development of strategic plan

for technology integration

2) Creating processes to monitor critical conditions and important goals; i.e., the

establishment of indicators of progress to be monitored, the process for monitoring them,

and the means of sharing with people throughout the organization

3) Reallocating resources to support the proclaimed priorities; i.e., the temporary

addition on new staff to implement the program and training with fidelity

4) Posing the right questions; i.e., proper use of needs assessment to guide the

implementation process and evaluation

5) Modeling what is valued

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6) Celebrating progress; i.e., when benchmarks are met, celebration is in order

7) Confronting violations of commitments; i.e., leadership could have been involved

to make sure those on the team were working to fulfill the mission and vision of the use

of technology. This could have limiting the impact of Zinny Welch and his unwillingness

to work with team members in the improvement process” (pg 28-29).

So, what could have Ross Caslon done to improve the process of the implementation of

the WebPath program at Lane State West University? Well, by effectively and efficiently

carrying out a needs analysis, Ross could have truly ascertained the needs of all stakeholders and

developed a plan that would have taken all stakeholder concerns into account. From a leadership

perspective, Ross should have considered the basic tenets of a needs assessment that would of

made his task more productive including, “

• Understanding the value and necessity of broad-based participation by stakeholders.

• Choosing an appropriate means of gathering information about critical issues and other

data.

• Recognizing core values in the group whose needs are being assessed.

• Needs assessment is a participatory process; it is not something that is "done to" people.

• Not ignoring political factors. Some people may view the process as causing a loss of

control. The priorities derived may be counter to entrenched ideas in the system” (Witkin,

1995).
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Moving forward Ross can get the implementation of the WebPath program back on track

by conducting and utilizing a needs assessment in his plans for the future. While this process will

take time and delay the implementation of the program across the institution, not performing one

will truly spell an end to WebPath.

Model:

Smith and Ragan’s Discrepancy-Based Needs Assessment Model will be used to

conduct a needs analysis for this case study. Smith and Ragan’s model is used primarily, “when

learning goals have already been identified and instruction is being offered related to these

goals” (Brown & Green, 2015, p. 52). Based on the description of the case and Smith and

Ragan’s model, they should work well together. In the case study, Ross Caslon previously

created some learning goals as well as some instruction to support the goals. The pilot program

has been implemented and offered to a variety of faculty members for just about a year. The five

steps that are needed in order to complete a needs analysis utilizing this model (Brown & Green,

2015, p.52), are:

1. “List the goals of the instructional system”

2. “Determine how well the identified goals are already being achieved”

3. “Determine the gaps between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be”

4. “Prioritize gaps according to agreed-upon criteria”

5. “Determine which gaps are instructional needs”

Step 1: “List the goals of the instructional system”

Based on the case, the ultimate goal of the instructional system is to train the faculty at

Lane State West on how to use the course management system called WebPath. The purpose of
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the WebPath is for the faculty members at Lane State West to utilize WebPath in order to create

and implement online instruction for their students.

Generally, there are a wide range of attitudes among the faculty members. Some faculty

members are excited to learn about how to use and implement WebPath and others do not have

much interest in the training, and do not see the purpose of WebPath and how it will be

beneficial implementing it in their classrooms.Therefore, it is imperative for Ross to increase the

motivation of the faculty members and the benefits of the WebPath management system.

Step 2: “Determine how well the identified goals are already being achieved”

Due to the fact that there are goals that were set some were partially met. The data

collection tools will be determined such as surveys, observations, and interviews in order to meet

the goals of the instructional material. The pilot team and full staff will both be surveyed, but the

full pilot team and select other staff will be interviewed. Based on the case, it seems as though

the pilot staff and tech staff did not receive training in how to actually use the software to be

relevant to specific classroom content.

The overall goals of the instructional material have not been met. This is due to the fact

that only some of the faculty members have been trained to use WebPath and are most likely

using it incorrectly. On the other hand, some of the faculty members have only posted minimum

materials on WebPath such as the syllabus or other related materials for their classroom and

course.

Overall, the faculty from the pilot program who tested out WebPath for the current school

year had positive reviews about the product, but on the other hand the majority of faculty

members who have not had a chance to use WebPath have a negative attitude.
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Based on the case and the lack of meeting the needs of the program, Ross needs to gather

more information to determine as to why the first round of training was not successful in relation

to implementing WebPath and changing the motivation and attitudes of the faculty members.

Step 3: “Determine the gaps between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be”

Based on the information gathered in step two, more data collection will be needed in

order to determine what the proper steps to take in reference to where all the faculty members are

at in the learning process of WebPath. This will then allow the instructors of the training to

determine the gap of where the faculty members currently are and where they should be in their

learning process.

With the information provided, it seems as though the faculty members are lacking in the

overall knowledge of WebPath as well as the implementation of WebPath in their courses. There

may be multiple reasons as to why the faculty members are not using WebPath. It may be

because they feel as though they do not have enough knowledge of the program, it may be too

difficult to use, or just technical issues in general. With information from the case, faculty

members are reporting that there are multiple technical issues with WebPath such as the program

freezing, security issues and different features not working properly which can cause distress to

the faculty and students. This may result is the faculty members not using WebPath and causing

a negative perspective of the program causing lack of interest to learn more about it in order to

implement it properly.

Another gap that Ross mentioned was that he could not provide an authentic learning

environment for the faculty to see how WebPath can be used effectively. The faculty tends to

have a difficult time during instruction due to the lack of technology. It is stated that all

classrooms should be wired with Ethernet connections, but it is not successful.

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Step 4: “Prioritize gaps according to agreed-upon criteria”

Based on the gaps that were determined, the priority would be to train the faculty

members according to what they need in order to be comfortable with WebPath and can

implement it successfully for their courses. Ross stated that he needs to develop a series of

faculty training sessions and include the technical support staff in the academic departments. The

idea is for them to help relieve the calls to the Help Desk.

An information session the is strictly visual and auditory is not appealing to the faculty.

The faculty is frustrated with WebPath and its’ operations. Ross stated that he will create demo

course accounts to the faculty and Help Desks to use in order to play and experiment with.

Overall, getting a training together is the main priority.

Based on the training session, Ross will then be able to allow the faculty to give him

feedback in order to troubleshoot any of the technological issues they are facing with the

program. This will allow Ross to fix any kinks that are causing lack of interest or distress to the

faculty members.

Step 5: “Determine which gaps are instructional needs”

Overall, the case requires mainly a training session involving a decent amount of

instruction for all faculty members. The faculty members are frustrated with the technological

issues that are arising when using WebPath. Due to the fact the the tech support faculty need

more training in order to assist the faculty in troubleshooting issues is an instructional need that

needs to be addressed. The training needs to be addressed since the pilot program and first

training was not successful.

Data collection:
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In order to implement effective instruction, Ross will need to collect a variety of data on

the teaching and technology staff members of Lane State West. These stakeholders are all

coming with different perspectives, subject areas, and technology backgrounds, so it is important

to collect and analyze data. This data will help determine what type of instruction will be user

friendly and beneficial to the wide range of faculty. Through effective use of surveys, interviews,

and observations, Ross will be able to identify the problems facing the execution of WebPath,

and eventually, possible solutions.

In this case, it is especially important to look at what training and information has been

received up until this point when collecting data. A training program has already been carried out

for a small pilot group of staff members, but the majority have received no instruction or

introduction to WebPath. For the pilot group and technology professionals, an interview would

be a great way to gain rich information on the inner workings, uses and pitfalls of using the

WebPath program. These interviews can also offer insight into the training itself, and allow Ross

to retain what the staff members found useful, and change what they didn’t. Staff members in

this group have also already used WebPath to instruct their students, so records from this online

learning environment can also provide great insight into how the technology was used within

each classroom. Reviewing this information prior to interviewing each staff member will help

Ross understand and check the responses he receives.

For the full 750 faculty members, interviews may not be so easy or time efficient to

conduct. A survey sent out to all faculty members would still help Ross gain information about

the buzz surrounding the WebPath program. This data will also give Ross a look into what each

faculty member would be able to gain from WebPath, their willingness to jump on board, and

their prior tech knowledge.

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Pilot group interview

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to talk with us about your experiences with
WebPath.

● How would you describe your opinion of using technology in the classroom prior to

using WebPath?

● Have your opinions changed? If they have, please give me one or two reasons why.

● When participating in the training for WebPath, what was the most helpful piece of

information that you learned?

● What do you wish your training focused more on?

● If you had a problem in WebPath during your use, how long did it take you to solve it?

● Did you ever need to contact outside assistance to solve problems? If so, who, and was it

helpful?

● When using WebPath with your students, what did you ask them to do?

● Were there any other ways you could have asked your students to interact with the

software?

● In a perfect world, what capabilities would you like to see WebPath contain that would be

relevant to your curriculum?

● Describe the change in students’ grades following the implementation of WebPath.

● If you plan on using WebPath next semester, what would you like to see in order to make

it more successful?
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Full faculty survey

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Tech department interview

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to talk with us about your experiences with WebPath.

● How would you describe your opinion of our professors here at LSW using technology in

the classroom prior to witnessing the pilot of WebPath?

● Have your opinions changed? If they have, please give me one or two reasons why.

● Did anyone contact you for help during the pilot process? If so, for what?

● Did you feel confident in your ability to troubleshoot problems? If not, why?

● Describe the average time and process it took to troubleshoot problems.

● Were there common problems that you felt training should have addressed? If so, what?

● If the problems were not training related, how should software glitches be addressed?

● What glitches or problems do you anticipate having once WebPath goes faculty wide?

● Can you identify any security risks facing WebPath? If so, what are they, and how severe

are they?

● Describe your feelings in moving forward with the faculty wide training of WebPath.
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References:

Brown, A. & Green, T. (2015). The essentials of instructional design: Connecting fundamental

principles with process and practice (3rd ed). Boston, MA: Pearson.

DuFour, et al. (2010). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at

work (2nd ed). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Witkin, B and Altschild, J. (1995). Planning and conducting needs assessments: A practical

guide. New York, NY: Sage Press.