| Session Title: Setting Those Needs-based Priorities |
| Skill-Building Workshop 202 to be held in Panzacola Section F1 on Thursday, Nov 12, 9:15 AM to 10:45 AM |
| Sponsored by the Needs Assessment TIG |
| Chair(s): |
| Hsin-Ling Hung, University of Cincinnati, hunghg@ucmail.uc.edu |
| Presenter(s): |
| James Altschuld, The Ohio State University, altschuld.1@osu.edu |
| Jeffry White, Ashland University, jwsrc1997@aol.com |
| Yi-Fang Lee, National Chi Nan University - Taiwan, ivanalee@ncnu.edu.tw |
| Abstract: Many evaluators, while familiar with what needs are and procedures for assessing them, are much less knowledgeable about ways to formally establish priorities in situations where many needs exist. This short workshop will begin with questions asked of participants as to how they work with organizations to select priority needs. From that starting point a short overview will be given of criteria commonly used to prioritize needs (importance, feasibility, risk factors, etc.) and methods (weighting criteria, screening needs candidates, variations of rank ordering techniques, and so forth) employed. Participants will apply some of the methods on typical scenarios that might occur in needs assessments. The workshop concludes with a group discussion of perceptions of the prioritizing process and what might work best in different settings and why it is important to fully consider the nature of how final needs are chosen. |