Mod2 Discussion; How canyou Improve this Needs Analysis?

Needs Assessment New members in the Fraternity of Delta Tau Delta at Southwestern Illinois College (SWIC) are required to learn information to pass a national test at the culmination of their pledge period. The test requires them to know history of the fraternity from the time it was founded. Students receive information from the active members of the fraternity. New information is added each week, and continues to add for about 6 weeks of the 8 weeks of pledging. I, being one of the leaders of the fraternity, as well as an instructor for the new members, feel that there is a need to provide better instruction so that the new members will have relative information when it comes to the final exam. Problem-Solving Model Step 1: Determine where there really is a problem To answer the questions provided in this needs assessment I decided to interview three members of Delta Tau Delta who have already completed their pledge process. To make the information I gathered as relevant as possible I decided to interview three members who finished pledging last semester. I thought this would be the best since the information and pledge process is still fresh in their minds. I randomly picked the three that were chosen from the previous pledge class. Each of the interviews that were conducted was conducted with the member and me only so as to ensure original answers from each person. The three members were asked the following three questions: 1). Do you think there is a problem; (pledges have been scoring low on the tests and need more information from the actives to complete this test)? Each of the three members interviewed thought that there was a problem with the instruction. Each thought that they were receiving some information that was not relevant to the test, and that this was causing the major problem for them. They had some relevant and some non-relevant information and this was not enough to give them the desired results to pass the test. 2). Why is there a problem? One of the interviewee’s stated that he thought the problem was that they were receiving the information from more than one person. Some of the information would come from one new member educator, and the rest of the information would come from another. He indicated that this became confusing towards the end of the pledge process. The other two that were interviewed stated that the information is too random. The way the information is presented to the pledges is in no specific order, so the information doesn’t build on itself, thus making it harder to string events and dates together. 3). Who is affected by the problem? All the new members are affected by this problem. Since the new members are the only ones required to take this test, the information for that semester will only pertain

to them. Also all active members have already passed this exam so they are exempt as well. Step 2: Determine whether the course of the problem is related to the employee’s performance in training environments or to learners’ achievement in educational environments. I have concluded that the cause of the problem is in the new members ability to unsuccessfully complete the final test on their first attempt. The new members are able to complete the bi-weekly tests because it applies only to the information that they received that week. Once a test of a comprehensive nature is administered the new members cannot complete the task. After this conclusion the three same members of Delta Tau Delta, who were interviewed for the previous questions, were asked the following two questions. 1). How does the new members lack of organization in their information, relate to them not being able to pass the final exam. According to the three members interviewed, the new members are not able to pass the test at the end of the pledge period with the way they are currently receiving the information. They need additional weeks, and an additional time taking the test in order to pass it. 2). Does performance appear to be impacted by another factor, does the information provided relate to how the new members perform on their final exam? The members believe that it does, that the information they are getting is not enough to help them pass the final exam. Step 3: Determine whether the solution to the achievement/performance problem is learning. The following question was asked of the three members of Delta Tau Delta. 1). Can the new members pass the test at the end of the pledge period; with the current information they are receiving. They did not think that the new pledges would be able to achieve a satisfactory score on the exam with the current information they are receiving. Step 4: Determine whether instruction for these learning goals is currently offered. The answer to this question is yes. As mentioned earlier in this report, the students are given all the information that they will need to complete the test. Despite this, the information is not given to them in the correct manor.

Discrepancy Model Step 1: List the goals of the Instructional System 1). There are two major goals: A). The students will be able to pass a bi-weekly exam from the information they are given at the beginning of the week. Passing will require the new members to answer 8 of the 10 questions correctly. B). New members will be able to pass the final exam (on their first attempt) that is given by the national Delta Tau Delta fraternity. The passing score on this exam is an 80% or higher. The students will only have thirty minutes to complete this exam. Step 2: Determine how well the identified goals are already being achieved. Rather than giving a questionnaire and trying to track down members that have left, I received a passing rate for our fraternity for the last 5 years. This percentage will be the amount of new members who have passed on the first attempt taking the test. This percentage only pertains to our specific chapter, and does not include all chapters of Delta Tau Delta throughout the United States. The national quote says that 38% of our new members have passed the test on their first attempt. In order to get a sense of what that means I was also given another percentage. This second percentage is what the national average is for new members who pass the test on their first attempt. This percentage was 58.7%. So our fraternity is 20% below the national average. Step 3: Determine the gaps between “what is” and “what should be” For goal number one, the students are currently passing the exams but achieving only the minimum of an eight out of ten. We would like to see this number become higher and see more students with nines and tens. For goal number two there is a twenty percent difference between what our house should be achieving and what we are actually achieving. That is because 38% of our house passes on the first attempt, and 58.7% is the national average of new members who pass on their first attempt. Step 4: Prioritize gaps according to agreed-upon criteria. The most critical goal for the new members to achieve is the second goal. This is the most important because only our chapter grades the tests that are bi-weekly, yes they are important, but not as important as the final exam. This is also the most important because this is where the most improvement is needed. There is a 20% difference in where we are, and where we should be.

Step 5: Determine which gaps are instructional needs and which are most appropriate for design and development of instruction. After all the investigation, and the interviews with the three members of Delta Tau Delta I would say that the problem is going to need some design and development of instruction to help the new members pass this exam. The new members were completing the weekly tests, but were not able to complete the final test. This was furthered by the percentages that were given to me by the national fraternity. Being one of the lowest scoring fraternities, and being a little more than 20% off the national average, is a cause for some concern.