Needs Assessment

What It Looks Like

The type or method of learner needs assessment depends on your organization, systems, and preferences, and may be a formal or informal process. Needs assessment informs course content by determining where gaps in knowledge exist. Completing this assessment early in the course development process allows Providers to align their learning outcomes with their audience's needs.

Potential Options for Determining Needs:

1. Survey a sample population — Organizations can simply ask learners what they need and use these expressed needs to shape their course. This could be an email survey, a poll on social media, or any other method of survey. Consider who may respond to the poll and why their input might be valuable.
2. Interview content experts — Content experts often have a clearer understanding of where non-experts have knowledge gaps. They can offer insights on learner and community needs.
3. Conduct focus groups — Like a survey, an organization could conduct a focus group to hear from a specific group (learners, community stakeholders, patients/clients, etc.) about what they want or need to learn.
4. Solicit ideas and input — An open call for ideas would be a less formal way of understanding what learners need.
5. Review previous course evaluation forms — At the end of the course, learners can provide insights into what they feel they still need to learn, or where gaps exist in the course they just took. This is a valuable way to understand what learners still need.
6. Review new findings or regulations — The three methods below are excellent for new course content development. The material will be brand-new to learners, which means that the content is necessary.
   • New, revised, or updated clinical practice guidelines
   • New research findings
   • New, revised, or updated regulatory requirements (federal, state, or other regulatory body)
7. Consider emerging or ongoing individual, group, or population needs — The need for a course may exist because patients/families, communities, or the greater population have a problem or issue that learners are not aware of or need to know more about. An example is the onset of COVID-19 and the rapid need for information about the virus and expected outcomes.

The list above is not exhaustive; there may be other ways of doing a needs assessment that work best for your organization.

When It Happens

Needs assessment is one of the first steps in developing a course. However, it’s also a fluid process. Course evaluations and feedback can be part of or inform needs assessment, too. Different methods will make sense at different stages of course development. It may happen with each course, or less frequently. Consider the following questions:

1. Does your organization conduct a needs assessment for every course?
2. What does your organization do with needs assessment information?
3. Who do you share this information with?
4. How do you use this information to make decisions about courses?
5. What’s the best way to solicit opinions or evidence that informs course development?

How It Supports Compliance

Standard 2 discusses the vital role of needs assessment in planning continuing education courses. Providers must identify and use learner needs to inform the educational design of their courses.

Standard 5 discusses the quality of the educational design, noting that this design should facilitate the translation of new knowledge, skills, and competencies into practice.

Through a needs assessment, Providers can identify where gaps exist within competency areas and design the course to address these gaps. This supports compliance by ensuring learner needs are accounted for and built into the course design.

Why It Matters

Continuing education courses should be designed to meet the needs of their learners. As such, it is critical to identify the current state of the target audience’s knowledge, competence, or performance – and gaps that may exist in these areas. Conducting a needs assessment is a vital part of the course development process, which allows Providers to identify and prioritize their audiences’ needs and gaps in continuing education.

Needs assessments play a pivotal role in informing the course content, learning outcomes, and evaluation to ensure that the learners have an effective and meaningful educational experience. Not only does having regular assessment positively impact learners, but it also helps Providers by analyzing areas where there is a demand for continuing education training.

Bottom Line

Quality needs assessment ensures that learners are getting course content they need, and Providers are offering fresh, in-demand content. You’ll need a way to determine these needs – but choose the best process for your organization. This may be as formal or informal as you need it to be; ultimately, you’ll have valuable data to inform the content of your next course.