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Homework answers / question archive / Using the information obtained from the various analyses (needs assessment, gap, task, and target population), you will design a professional development plan to assist stakeholders in making the necessary changes in the adult education program selected in Module 1
Using the information obtained from the various analyses (needs assessment, gap, task, and target population), you will design a professional development plan to assist stakeholders in making the necessary changes in the adult education program selected in Module 1. You then will reflect on the importance of using evaluation to determine the strengths and challenges confronting adult education programs.
Using the information obtained from the various analyses (needs assessment, gap, task, and target population), design a professional development plan to assist stakeholders in making the necessary changes in the adult education program specifically related to instructional approaches and engagement strategies.
Follow these steps to design the professional development plan. Use a format of your choice to organize the components.
When adult education programs are outcomes-based and aligned to performance measures, participants are more likely to develop a love of learning to last a lifetime.
Reflect on the importance of using evaluation to determine the strengths and challenges confronting adult education programs.
Adult Education Program 2 Palm Beach State College (PBSC) Palm Beach State College (PBSC) is one famous public college in the US that produces skilled graduates. Currently, the institution enrolls approximately 49,000 students and offers more than a hundred programs of study, including an associate in science, associate in arts s, bachelor in applied science, and others. Besides, the program offers short courses in management, certificates, vocational courses, and continuing education. The institution was established in 1933 as Palm Junior College, and it was the first public junior college in Florida. Although the institution offers other causes, it is committed to adult and community education programs. With the growing increase in the number of adults without necessary work skills, technological skills, and other vital knowledge to help them in their lives. To help people aged 19 years and above, the institutions have collaborated with the Florida state government to provide Education Opportunity Center (EOC). Through this program, PBSC equips knowledge and relevant skills to individuals aged 19 years and above. Palm Beach State College Education Opportunity Center PBSC is among the institutions in the United States that focuses on providing adult education programs. According to the institution, the EOC program is 100 percent funded by the US department of education at PBSC. Through this adult education program, PBSC focuses on providing a second chance for disadvantaged or poor people and have lost education access for other reasons to achieve equal access to education or social justice. The program focuses on providing the following roles. First, it offers assistance with applying for financial aid. Therefore, this area focuses on helping adult people understanding the process of financial aid. Secondly, it helps them learn more about government loans, scholarships, and grants. It also focuses on helping 3 the client complete the free application for federal student Aid (FAFSA). Lastly, it helps the adult students in reconciling the defaulted student loans. Besides, the program helps the learners with career counseling. It offers an opportunity for adult learners to identify their passion and the career they are more likely to pursue. It allows adults to determine careers that are growing in job availability. It will enable the learners to evaluate minimum educational requirements. Thirdly, the program equips adult learners with financial and technological literacy. Ideally, most adult’s patient lacks economic and technical skills. Therefore, the program offers short courses aimed at improving adult’s ability to work with modern technology. It also focuses on improving their financial management strategies and ways to manage money as college students. Besides, the program aims to equip adult learners with budgeting, investing, and credit knowledge and skills. Also, the program focuses on equipping adult learners with soft and communication skills. It focuses on helping those who want to learn English as their second language. It enables nonEnglish speakers to gain confidence in their English communication. It concentrates on building and polishing the learners' resume, gain interviewing skills, and learn about professionalism and work prepared. Also, the program offers undergraduate, master's, and Ph.D. programs. Student and Program Outcomes Student learning outcomes comprise the skills, behaviors, and knowledge that a program’s students should demonstrate after completing the course. They identify what the learners should know and able to do at the end course, including attitudes, values, knowledge, and abilities that 4 establish the integrated learning needed by a learner after completing the course. Some of the student and program outcomes are as follows. First, At the end of this topic, the student must understand the financial aid process. One of the program’s goals is to help adult learners with how they go about applying for financial aid. Another program’s outcome is that learners must have an understanding of scholarships, grants, and loans. Also, the learners must know how to find passion about their career and understand careers growing in job availability. The program helps the learners with career counseling. It offers an opportunity for adult learners to identify their passion and the career they are more likely to pursue. It allows adults to determine careers that are growing in job availability. It will enable the learners to evaluate minimum educational requirements. Students must manage their finances and demonstrate budgeting, credit, and investing skills (Knowles, Holton III, Swanson, & Robinson, 2020). The Instruments Used to Measure the Outcomes One of the instruments used to measure the program's outcome is the student evaluation instrument (SEI). The instrument evaluates whether the learners achieve specific competencies. Some of the students' key competencies must show by the end of the program are as follows. First, they must score higher in communication, both orally and written. Arithmetic skills are another competence that learners must demonstrate. The learners must show their ability to solve problems they do encounter. Numerical Data Which Can Be Used To Determine The Need 5 The need in the adult education program can be determined by identifying the average score per competency. Also, a survey or interview can be undertaken to determine areas where they to be strengthened. Competency Score Communication 5 Problem-solving 3 Decision Making 2 Arithmetic 4 Steps to Use to Carry Out the Program Evaluation Various steps can be used to evaluate the adult education program. The first step involves identifying and defining the general objectives of the adult education program. In other words, it should evaluate skills and abilities that should be developed when a learner studies. The second step involves identifying and defining specific objectives. The next step consists of evaluating (Petty & Thomas, 2014). In this step, an individual needs to assess changes in learners’ behavior, attitudes, knowledge, and skills. The other step involves planning suitable learning activities. Conclusion PBSC equips knowledge and relevant skills to individuals aged 19 years and above. PBSC focuses on providing a second chance for disadvantaged or weak people and has lost education 6 access for other reasons to achieve equal access to education or social justice. Some of the outcomes that learners are expected to show after completing the program include mastery in communication and problem solving and communication skills. 7 References Petty, T., & Thomas, C. (2014). Approaches to a successful adult education program. College Student Journal, 48(3), 473-480. Knowles, M. S., Holton III, E. F., Swanson, R. A., & Robinson, P. A. (2020). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/student-development/TRiO/eoc.aspx 1 Determining Gaps 2 Determining gaps Introduction The professional development programs are set for the adult learners to achieve particular results according to an organization or the individual under consideration. Although, the need for such programs can be achieved more accurately by executing a gap analysis on top of assessing the conditions. A gap analysis is concerned with the comparison of the current reality with the projected future reality. They are also referred to as performance analysis since they are meant to analyze the recent performance with the perfect future. The ideal future can also show the best practices in the given industry or field. For the case of schools, the gap analysis incorporates best practices in teaching and learning focused on achieving a perfect outcome for the student's achievement. The gaps in performance occurring in the adult learning program For this case, the gap is represented by the variation between the degree to which the teacher employs the best practices in-class lessons and those best practices on the quantifiable student outcome. A gap could be positive or negative and indicate the actual performance exceeding the expected perfect results. Such an example shows a positive gap (Cummins, 2009). However, such a case is rare because the gaps typically reflect underperformance compared to the future outcome, which helps the stakeholders identify the professional development needs. The stakeholders of the American College of Education have indeed pointed out the gaps in the numerical data. They have gone beyond stating the learning outcomes in terms of organizational output and designed and evaluated a professional development program to cater to this need. The stakeholders have identified that the numerical data concerning the student outcome will only show the quality and rigor of a given professional development program. It 3 is crucial to maintain a continuous and keen planning system in measuring evaluating the outcome. Carrying out a gap analysis helps ensure constant evaluation of the variation between the current knowledge and skills of the students and the purported student learning outcomes. When locating gaps, the first step involves assembling all possible gaps by asking for feedback from the stakeholders concerning the organization's performance on significant outcomes. This is followed by listing the potential gaps, comprising of the gaps that have limited information. The focus is now the third step, and this is concerned with identifying the triggers; the detectable triggers consist of the events, then activities and outputs that could signal gaps in the future (Livingstone, 1999). They are evident through the SWOT analysis since they are made of external factors. It can be projected that when there is a trigger trip, there exists a close gap between the performance of the institution and its intended outcome. After identifying the triggers, it is vital to be aware of the significant trends in the marketplace or the industry. The more crucial movements to the gap analysis cause the most significant effect on the intended outcomes. They usually rise to become the potential triggers to the popularity of the institution. The marketplace trends comprise the physical barriers, for instance, inadequate skilled personnel and lack of governmental support toward the process. Other factors that created the gaps When locating the gaps, it is imperative to consider the other factors that lead to the gaps. Such factors are related to equity, social justice, and ethics. The main aim of adult education is to address social inequality in the broader context, particularly the professional development concerns. Adult education focuses on defeating oppression and assisting the adults in coming up with their missions in life according to their own experiences. When an adult learner gets motivated, they will feel as though they have been empowered as individuals to proceed with personal and professional growth. Such a need is so vital since it intrinsically 4 motivates the adult students to learn and overcome all forms of barriers towards their performance in the system (Falasca, 2011). Such a gap will incorporate other factors like motivation and engagement since when they are solved, the student gets motivated to be engaged in achieving the learning outcomes. Offering the learner's career counseling is vital to these factors. The social inequalities will be eliminated whenever the students have been provided with the opportunity to identify their passion and career aspirations. The adults will be sure of finding a job that has growing viability. Adults seeking education typically aim to find the best opportunity to help them recover the lost opportunities in life. Obtaining information on perceived needs in adult education Various techniques can be employed in evaluating the adult education program. Obtaining data can go beyond a number to get the information concerning the perceived needs in the adult education program. The techniques are designed to measure engagement and motivation in the organization. Engagement can be defined as the cognitive-affective link between a person's inner life and the outside world of the environment. In a school setting, an adult student can be engaged by going beyond passive experiences and actively seeking them to generate meaning out of the mentioned experiences in techniques that can impact the dayto-day life of the learners (Petty & Thomas, 2014). Engagement can be measured using quantitative and qualitative connections that the adult students perceive they have achieved between their inside and outside worlds. This type of measurement is best done by using an interview with the stakeholders to determine the impact they have made towards achieving the metrics for student performance. The discussion that is used in this case is presented in the appendices. 5 Motivation is the other vital factor in adult education. The adults have to be motivated just like the young students. Compelling motivation takes the form of intrinsic as well as extrinsic forms. To obtain inherent motivation, the adult is generally observed in terms of personal growth that comprises short courses on the topics that the adults are personally interested in. On the other hand, extrinsic motivation is also an essential aspect of adult education. It is related to the primary to observable rewards and consequences. Such data cannot be obtained through numerical, and it might be an interpersonal connection with the learner. The needs assessment report. The Palm Beach State Education College education Opportunity Center is achieving various goals toward adult education. The instructional approaches involve helping the learner with career counseling, help them when applying for financial aid and equip them with relevant soft communication skills. These needs can be achieved if the student can understand the process of financial assistance. The students should also have passion in their respective careers and determine the job with growing viability. It is helpful to decide on the objectives of the adult learning programs, and these can be achieved through an assessment (Knowles et al., 2020). Besides, the engagement strategies are also vital to consider when conducting the evaluation. They typically comprise aspects like the connection between the inner lives of the learners and the outside world. The table below shows the elements that can be considered when arriving at the assessment report. Question Percentage outcome Does the learner know to manage finances? 80 Do they have passion in their careers? 75 Are the learners motivated to get engaged in learning activities? 60 6 Table 1: Assessment report for student learning outcome The table shows that the student learning outcomes are excellent since there is a high percentage of performance. The assessment report indicates the instructional and engagement approaches employed in the learning process. The areas that have recorded the least rate have to be improved. Conclusion. A gap analysis is instrumental in professional development programs for adults. Then gap shows the current situation and the anticipated future situations. Identifying a gap helps the organization put effective strategies that help improve the student learning outcome. It is essential to maintain a continuous and keen planning system in measuring evaluating the result. Identifying gaps involves assembling all possible gaps by asking for feedback from the stakeholders concerning the organization's performance on significant outcomes. Other external factors lie equity and social justice have to be considered because they also create gaps. Obtaining data can go beyond a number to get the information concerning the perceived needs in the adult education program. The techniques are designed to measure engagement and motivation in the organization. 7 References Cummins, J. (2009). Transformative multiliteracies pedagogy: School-based strategies for closing the achievement gap. Multiple Voices for Ethnically Diverse Exceptional Learners, 11(2), 38-56. Falasca, Marina. "Barriers to adult learning: Bridging the gap." Australian Journal of Adult Learning 51, no. 3 (2011): 583-590. https://www.palmbeachstate.edu/student-development/TRiO/eoc.aspx Knowles, M. S., Holton III, E. F., Swanson, R. A., & Robinson, P. A. (2020). The adult learner: The definitive classic in adult education and human resource development. Livingstone, D. W. (1999). Exploring the icebergs of adult learning: Findings of the first Canadian survey of informal learning practices. Petty, T., & Thomas, C. (2014). Approaches to a successful adult education program. College Student Journal, 48(3), 473-480. 8 Appendices Interview schedule for stakeholders 1. Opening A. My name is Atilla Kaya, I am a researcher, and I would like to interview you to understand the needs and gaps in the instructional and the engagement strategies you employ in determining the needs and gaps in achieving performance in adult learners. B. I want to ask you questions about current practice in this institution concerning the instructional approaches you employ in determining the student needs; besides, I would wish to know about the other factors that play a role in creating the gaps. C. The interview shall take around twenty minutes, and you are to respond to the questions according to your perception of these gaps. 2. Approaches in determining the student needs and gaps a. How to do to you tell the students have gained then skills to manage their finances b. If a learner has gained passion in a given career they are being trained on, how would you detect this? c. How effective are your instructional strategies in meeting the needs of adult learners? d. What other technique don use in determining the adult student gaps. e. How do you tell if a gap is positive or negative? 9 f. What methods do you use to motivate adult students to get more engaged in learning activities? 1 Feasibility of the gap closure 2 Feasibility of the gap closure Introduction Besides the assessment for needs and performance analyses, the evaluation of adult learning programs can also be done with the help of feasibility analysis. Feasibility is concerned with the level to which the adult learning program is workable. The same concept of feasibility indicates that not all programs are doable due to insufficient resources and human capital. Additionally, since all programs are not feasible, it is also vital to keep in mind that all programs don't have to be done because they do not effectively utilize the organization's resources, even if they are done using the best technology. Cost and the deliverable value are the main factors that are used to determine if a given program is deliverable or not. Costs are indicated in many forms other than resources; for instance, some costs to morale or compromise of founded procedures, legal constraints, and policies ate intangible (Bowen et al., 2009). Similarly, the deliverable value is also not focused on monetary improvement, but it considers other aspects like compliance to the policies, legal requirements, and procedures. Types of feasibility analyses The first feasibility study is the financial feasibility that seeks to determine the costs and benefits of the adult learning program according to the organization's financial constraints. The economic feasibility study aims to assess the worthiness of the investment. In this case, the financial feasibility study is typically termed as the cost-benefit analysis (Kirkwood & Kirkwood, 2011). Additionally, the operational feasibility analysis aims to determine if an organization is capable of solving the problems and taking advantage of the opportunities as an outcome of the adult learning package. It comprises the organization's policies, guidelines, and the processes supporting or hindering on evaluation and execution of the program. On the 3 contrary, it is vital to determine if the adult learning program supports or inhibits the policies, methods, and procedures (Rossiter, 1999). Moreover, cultural feasibility analysis aims to determine the effect of adult learning programs on the culture of the organization and the social setting in general. Also, the study seeks to find out the impact of the culture on the implementation of the program. In case the culture of the organization or that of the social environment conflicts with the purported results of the learning program, it is deemed not to be feasible (Wagner & Kozma, 2005). The other forms of feasibility analysis comprise legal and ethical feasibility, the marketing and schedule feasibility. The range of feasibility analysis has to be endorsed to make sure that the cost, constraints, and the deliverable worthiness are considered according to the organization's needs. Quantitative data collection and feasibility analysis The data collected for this case is quantitative and involves scales and measures. The evaluation and assessment of programs require data collection that consists of soliciting information from the stakeholders to come up with knowledgeable decisions about the organization's results, gaps, and requirements. The process of collecting such data has to adhere to the ethical guidelines and policies to ensure that the contributors have protection and that personal info is not conceded. The table below shows the information concerning the feasibility analysis that aims at determining how the Palm Beach State College strives to enhance the feasibility of adult education. The results are aimed at evaluating three metrics; financial, operational, and cultural feasibility. The current state, then ideal state, and the deliverable values have also been indicated in the table. Feasibility Current state Ideal state Deliverable value 4 Communication 5 10 7 Problem-solving 3 10 5 Decision Making 2 10 4 Arithmetic 4 10 6 Table 1: The feasibility analysis for the adult learning program of the Palm Beach State College Recommendation and ranking of the analysis To the Palm Beach Education College, the communication feasibility metrics indicate that the institution has achieved 5 of the anticipated 10 of the program's cost-benefit. The investment in adult education is indeed worthy to proceed with as it is clear that the program is worth the investment. The institution can meet most of its financial requirements, ranging from economic, technical, legal, and scheduling deliberations. However, the program is not sufficiently sustained because some of the areas are not efficiently funded; according to the findings indicated in the table shown above, the institution is only capable of delivering only 6 out of the total 10 that is required to fund the critical aspects meant to sustain the adult education program. The institution should strive to ensure it finds alternative sources to fund its project concerning adult education. On the other hand, the problem-solving feasibility indicates that the institution has achieved only 3 in taking advantage of adult education opportunities. The organization's policies, procedures, and processes are pretty supporting the execution and evaluation of adult education. The funds allocated toward the operations of the programs are not sufficient, which means that the Palm Beach Education College has to restructure its budget process to make sure that the funding is adequately allocated. To sum up, the cultural feasibility rankings are not sustained in the institution. It has the highest ratings of 5 of the anticipated 10, which 5 highlights good metrics. The financial requirements to support cultural aspects towards adult education are met mainly by the institution. Conclusion. Feasibility analysis is focused on determining the level at which a given program is workable. There are three significant metrics used in feasibility analysis, that is, the financial feasibility that is concerned with costs and benefits of the adult educational program, the operational feasibility that is focused on solving problems and taking advantage of the opportunities as a result of the adult education program and the cultural feasibility that aims at determining the effect of adult learning program on the culture of the organization. All these forms of feasibilities have to be taken into consideration for effective program execution. Any organization has to analyze the effectiveness of the feasibilities in terms of its current state, ideal state, cost, and deliverable state. 6 References Bowen, D. J., Kreuter, M., Spring, B., Cofta-Woerpel, L., Linnan, L., Weiner, D., ... & Fernandez, M. (2009). How we design feasibility studies. American journal of preventive medicine, 36(5), 452-457. Kirkwood, G., & Kirkwood, C. (2011). Living adult education: Freire in Scotland (Vol. 6). Springer Science & Business Media. Rossiter, M. (1999). A narrative approach to development: Implications for adult education. Adult education quarterly, 50(1), 56-71. Wagner, D. A., & Kozma, R. B. (2005). New technologies for literacy and adult education: A global perspective. Unesco. 1 Additional Analyses and Assessment 2 Additional Analyses and Assessment Task analysis Task analysis is carried out in the workplace setting to determine the processes, skills, and procedures needed to complete a particular task. Task analysis will help the organization identify the requirements of adult learners during the process of designing professional development programs particularly aligned to enhancing performance. Task analysis will also help the organization identify the skills and depositions relevant to performing specific tasks. Thus, identifying the learning outcomes will enhance performance if the tasks are associated. When completing a task analysis, one has to identify the individual or person who completed the task or met the performance aims. The participant can be used as an illustration for best practices associated with the task. The next step consists of shadowing the individual or the team during the workday. One has to record the steps, procedures carefully, and habits the person or team follows (Crandall et al., 2006). During this period, the assumption is not supposed to make concerning the procedure or habits that lead to high performance. The step that follows is identifying the outcomes and performance objectives linked with the steps that are involved in the talks. One has to describe the expectations in terms of optimum performance. From the past feasibility analysis for Palm Beach Education College, the communication feasibility metrics showed that the school only achieved 5 out of 10. The school has to invest more toward this program through adequate scheduling deliberations. It was clear that the program was not sustained according to metrics that the institution only manages to deliver 6 out of 10 in funding the communication strategies amongst the adults. Palm Beach Education College has to find a way of funding the program entirely to achieve the needs of the adult education program. 3 The knowledge and skills connected to the task based on the observation are also what follows. One has to categorize the observations and determine the individual or team's knowledge and skills to offer the outcomes or finish up the underlies. This is followed by aligning the knowledge and skills to the anticipated outcomes. It is done by finding the connection between knowledge and skills and optimal performance. Lastly, task analysis incorporates aligning the steps, processes, procedures, and habits of the person or team to the knowledge, skills, and results. The final step makes a connection between the observations, the knowledge and skills that are useful and the skills needed, and the student learning results of the adult learning program. The communication feasibility follows an instructional design in achieving it. Task analysis should define what the program expects of learners and how they are supposed to perform as far as communication is concerned. The illustration below highlights the steps involved in task analysis and the outcomes associated with the process. Identify the individual or team Shadow the individual or team Identify the outcomes and perfomance Identify the knowledge and skills associated Align knowledge and skills to ecpected outcome Align styeps and processess to knowledge and outcomes Fig 1: The steps involved in task analysis Population analysis A target population analysis will help the stakeholders ensure that they have understood the population of the learners that are supposed to benefit from the professional development program in place. The adult education program may fail if the stakeholders don't understand 4 the target population that has to benefit from the program. Population analysis aims to understand the need of the learners instead of the needs assessment that focuses on identifying the needs of the organization and the clients that the learners will serve; comprises of the present and future needs. From the metrics above, the Palm Beach Education College will have to understand that the communication need of the adult students is only met halfway. (Hoffman & Medsker, 1983). The institution will know the relevant inputs it has to utilize to meet the learners' communication requirements. Populations are never static, and they will always be dynamic and ever-changing. The main factors that have to be considered in demography consist of size, range of age, language, composition, and socioeconomics. The demographics will describe the given population that determines the forms of professional development programs relevant. Additionally, population analysis helps carry out gap analysis since, in most cases, there are openings between the target population and the participants that the population is serving. During planning for a professional development program, population analysis helps predict future population changes and the trends as well as the resulting variations that are needed in the program. For instance, if a given population is anticipated to become more sundry, diversity exercise may be essential in the future. One can retrieve the population data from census data, doing research in the market, and conducting internal and external survey research. Credible sources will always provide the most accurate data, comprising the predictions population trend instead of retrieving such information out of the internal analysis. However, all the sources are helpful. The Palm Beach Education College stakeholders have to appropriately collect and analyze the user demographic information by identifying future trends and diverse plans. The process seeks to ensure that the dynamic nature of populations has been put into the relevant considerations and that the development program is agile for responding to the unpredictable changes in the future. 5 What assessment will meet participant needs? Commitment to the adult learning theory is helpful during the process of engaging the learners in the learning process. The stakeholders to the learning process should always assume that adults already know what they want and that they need to take responsibility for their learning. Besides, the stakeholder should also assume that the adults will always bring their own experiences to learning; they always learn whenever the need arises and are task-oriented (Jonassen et al., 1998). From the needs and performance assessment to the task and skill analyses, a robust toolkit has been designed to assist the stakeholders in meeting the learning needs of adults in the setting of an organization. Conducting a task analysis is the best way of meeting the needs of the participants because it helps in defining the expectations from the adult learners and how the learners are expected to perform. The learning outcomes of a learner have to be connected to a single task or skill; for this case, the communication skills among the learners will best show an indication of the learner outcomes in other factors since the learning outcomes are closely linked. The stakeholders can carry out an authentic assessment to determine how a given learner can apply the knowledge and come up with something. This is possible through task analysis as it will show the ability of the learner to perform certain functions. Conclusion Task analysis helps determine the processes, skills, and procedures that are useful in completing specific tasks in the adult learning process. The analysis helps identify the skills and depositions relevant to performing a particular task and enhancing the performance of the associated tasks. Palm Beach Education College can determine the efforts it has to employ in reaching the communication needs amongst adult learners. The learners can be deemed to have gained the skills relevant to adult learning by observing them. Task analysis has to define the expectations of learners towards achieving specific tasks. 6 On the other hand, population analysis will help the stakeholders determine the exact population to benefit from an adult learning program. The program might not be successful in case the stakeholders don't fully understand the target population. Task analysis is the best assessment that will meet the needs of the participants because it will fully define the expectation from the adult learners and relate how it is connected to the participant expectations. 7 References Crandall, B., Klein, G., Klein, G. A., Hoffman, R. R., & Hoffman, R. R. (2006). Working minds: A practitioner's guide to cognitive task analysis. MIT Press. Hoffman, C. K., & Medsker, K. L. (1983). Instructional analysis. Journal of instructional development, 6(4), 17-23. Jonassen, D. H., Tessmer, M., & Hannum, W. H. (1998). Task analysis methods for instructional design. Routledge.
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