Assignment 101: Assess Learner Needs

1. Identify a group or a selection of individuals

For the purpose of this exercise I will use an IT Essentials II course that ran from the 7th of September 2004 until the 21st of December 2004, this course had a mixture of students from different ethnic backgrounds and had equal male and female participants.

The IT Essentials II course runs for 96 hours and is taught over 16 weeks, the course is taught using theory and practical assignments.

The student group consisted of:

Category / Profile / Possible issues / Impact on learning
Class Size / 10 Adults / Students need to allocate about 6 hours per week in order to meet the IT Essentials II study requirements.
Employment Status / 6 students are in full time employment, 1 student has a part time job and 3 students are unemployed. / The employed students lack the study time available to the unemployed students. The unemployed students lack the professional support of the employed students.
Age Group / The clients ranged in age from 20 to 60. / The learning styles between the older and younger students seemed to differ a lot.
Sex / 4 Females, 6 Males. / Gender specific issues can be numerous. Equal opportunities information and guidelines are distributed to all new students.
Ethnicity / 1 Iranian
1 Jamaican
3 Indian
1 Pakistani
4 British White / Tutors must be aware of cultural issues when teaching students. Some students may not speak English clearly.
Disability / 1 Wheelchair user. / Building access. Classroom equipment.
Ability / All the clients had completed the IT Essentials I course, as this is a requirement for the IT Essentials II course. One student was enrolled on a open university course, several students had also completed ICT courses. / Some learners may complete some aspects of the course quicker because of a better understanding.

2. Describe the initial assessment required to ascertain their previous learning and experience

Experience is the richest resource for adults learning; therefore the core methodology of adult education is the analysis of experience (the adult learner – Malcolm S Knowles, chapter 2, page 11). Learning as acquisition of knowledge that can be retrained and/or utilized in practice (Philip C Candy – Self-direction for Lifelong Learning 1991). Effective adult learning entails an active search for meaning in which new tasks are somehow related to earlier activities. Prior learning experiences have the potential to enhance or interfere with new learning. (Knox, 1977 as quoted in Brookfield, 1986).

When individual wish to attend a course at Tritec they are required to complete an enrolment form. Listed below are the details that are required on the enrolment from.

  1. Personal details, i.e. name, address, status, gender etc.
  2. Qualifications at entry.
  3. Relevant experience.

Once an enrolment form is complete the client is given an initial interview, at the initial interview the client can raise any issues and discuss all aspects of the course that they wish to attend. An initial assessment also takes place during the initial interview this gives the tutor further information and insight regarding the client such as course suitability, relevant experience and/or qualifications and it also gives the tutor an accurate basis on which to build a learning and development plan.

During the initial assessment process clients are required to complete a basic skills test for literacy and numeracy, the results of this are fed back to the client and where necessary they are offered help and support to improve these skills.

The basic skills test are administered by dedicated basic skills tutors and should the client require help and/or advice regarding basic skills they would be referred to the basic skills tutors who would then make any specific arrangements. The basic skills tutor would feed any information regarding the client back to the tutor.

Once the clients have started on the course formal and informal discussions take place and a range of activities and practical tests take place in order to assess their ability and provide further information that may be used to improve the learning process.

Students are encouraged to give feedback during the duration of the course this could be given direct to the tutor or if the student preferred another staff member. The students are also asked to complete a feedback form when the course has completed, any issues identified from the student feedback is taken seriously and may be used to further develop or improve the course.

The tutor is required to have a plan for each teaching session. The tutor should reflect on each session and document any issues or comments on the session plan, in the case of negative comments or issues arising the tutor can then modify the session plan in order to address the issues.

3. Discuss ways of using the results to inform the learning programme

Initial assessment is essential in the development of learning plans but students are individuals and some individuals may develop and learn at a different rate to other individuals this means that a learning and development plan needs to be a dynamic document that can incorporate change if and when the need arises. The student should have pre-arranged learning reviews. The results of these reviews should provide the tutor with the information necessary to ascertain if any change in the learning and development plan is needed.

Initial assessment identifies a clients current level of knowledge, it also gives an accurate representation of the level of support that they may need.