5.

1 Needs Assessment
Candidates conduct Needs Assessments to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level,
and subject area strengths and weaknesses to inform the content and delivery of
technology-based professional learning programs. (PSC 5.1/ISTE 4a)
Reflection
This artifact is a technology Needs Assessment that I conducted to determine schoolwide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area technology strengths and weaknesses. I
conducted this Needs Assessment to inform the content and delivery of technology-based
professional learning. This Needs Assessment was focused on a colleague in my schools
science department. The assessment was conducted prior to beginning a professional
learning program designed to develop the colleagues skills with technology.
The completion of this artifact demonstrates my ability to conduct a Needs Assessment
to determine school-wide, faculty, grade-level, and subject area strengths and
weaknesses. In order to inform this Needs Assessment I administered a LoTi
questionnaire as well as an adopter survey. In addition to assessing the technology skill
level of the colleague, I analyzed the results of the two instruments to determine the
technology strengths and weaknesses of the colleague. I also assessed the school-wide
strengths and weaknesses to ensure that the professional learning program being designed
would be feasible. I used the Needs Assessment to inform the content and delivery of the
technology-based professional learning. The professional learning program that was
designed was on the topic of implementing the Flipped Classroom model. I determined
from the Needs Assessment that my colleague needed to develop skills related to website
construction and video editing. The professional learning program took place over a
three-week period. The culmination of the professional learning was a flipped lesson
taught by my colleague that I coached.
Conducting this Needs Assessment has given me a better understanding of how to use a
Needs Assessment to inform the content and delivery of the technology-based
professional learning program. In the future when I conduct Needs Assessments I will
improve the instruments used. I believe that the instruments used in this assessment
provided good data but there were areas that could have been improved by being more
focused on particular technology skills.
The creation of this Needs Assessment impacted faculty development by informing
the content and delivery of a technology-based professional learning program that was
implemented. The impact of this Needs Assessment can be measured through the
evaluation of the success of the professional learning program implemented specifically
looking at the effectiveness of the implementation of the Flipped Classroom model in my
schools science department.