NEEDS ASSESSMET Primary Data for Needs Assessment

Objectives  Needs Assessment  Recap needs assessment  Differentiate between primary an secondary data sources  Conduct a needs assessment within a given population  Acquiring Needs Assessment Data

Face-to-Face Interview  Small sample size, but rate of participation is generally high (especially if given incentive)  Time consuming, may require not only time for the actual interview but also travel time to interview site  Interviewer must be carefully trained to conduct the interview in unbiased manner  Taking notes of everything that took place during the interview (including respondent’s emotional reaction)  Allows the interviewer develop rapport with the respondent  Availability of visual cues  Can gain more complete data from respondents

Key Informant Interviews  Key informants are strategically placed individuals who have knowledge and ability to report on the needs of those in priority population  Key informants can include:  Human resources department personnel  Owners and managers  Union representatives  Senior-level employees  Employees with relevant experience

Key Informant Interviews Procedures  Specify characteristics of key informants.  Develop questions and pretest them.  Recruit key informants.  Schedule and conduct interviews.  Summarize results.  Arrange additional interviews, if needed.

Focus Groups  Planned discussion groups designed to collect information and opinions in a controlled setting.  Two types of focus groups are common:  Concept development - focus groups  Product review - focus groups

Focus Groups  Usually include 8 – 12 people  Best to have group of people who do not know each other so that their responses are not inhibited by acquaintance  People are invited about 1-3 weeks in advance of session. At the time of invitation, they receive general information about the session, but are not given any specifics  Helps ensure that responses will be spontaneous yet accurate

Focus groups  Focus groups are typically more dynamic than interviews.  Researcher takes role of moderator, posing questions or topics for discussion, but then lets group members discuss the question or topic among themselves.  Participants may ask each other follow-up questions, agree or disagree with each another, display body language that tells something about their feelings, or even come up with questions not previously conceived of by researcher.  Researcher conducting focus groups collects data on more than people’s direct responses to her or his questions; group interaction is key point. Due to the nature and unpredictability of group interaction, and the fact that focus group researchers generally want to draw out group interaction, focus groups tend to be qualitative rather than quantitative. 

Focus Groups  Recruitment of participants  Trained moderator  Prepared guide for the moderator  A facility to conduct groups  Effective interpretations of results  Reward for participation

Observation  “notice taken of an indicator” (Green & Lewis, 1986)  Not only people can be observed, but the environment (things around the priority population)  Is generally more accurate than self-report, BUT the presence of the observer may alter the behavior of people being observed (obtrusive observation)  Having someone observe smoking behavior may cause smokers to smoke less out of self-consciousness due to their being under observation  Unobtrusive observation: people being studied are not aware they are being measured, assessed, or tested  Provides less biased data  Some question weather unobtrusive observation is ethical???

Surveys  Single-step or Cross-sectional surveys (point-in- time)  Self-reported data Written questionnaire (mailed, online or telephone surveys)  Response rate for mailed questionnaires can be low  Make sure to provide a pre-paid return envelop  Appearance of the questionnaire should be attractive, easy to read, understand and complete

Survey Questions are close-ended

Online Surveys  Survey Monkey  Qualtrics  Google forms  Zoomerang Advantages: reduced response time, reduced cost of material, ease of data collection, can download responses into an excel or SPSS very easily

Online Surveys: Advantages over mailed surveys  Reduced response time  Reduced cost of material  Flexibility in design and format of questionnaire, can make appealing design  Ease of data collection  Can download responses into an excel or SPSS very easily

Online Surveys: Drawbacks over mailed surveys  Not everyone has access to using the Internet (BUT the access keeps increasing even for older people)  Obtaining addresses of respondents can be difficult  You don’t know WHO exactly completed the survey  sometimes people may complete the survey multiple times if there is incentive offered  people who are not eligible may complete)