Includes a review of the elements of ideal project contracts, some suggestions concerning contract negotiation, and a sample contract from a recent development project. (Author/JEG)

Reviews needs assessment history and extant techniques and offers a model for generating needs assessments based upon five general purposes of front-end analysis and their corresponding types of items--problem finding; problem selecting; knowledge/skill proving; finding feelings; and cause finding. Thirty-three sources are appended. (EJS)

This "final" list of 16 core competencies for instructional/training development professionals was developed over a three-year period by a special task force appointed by the Board of Directors of the Division of Instructional Development within the Association for Educational Communications and Technology. (Author)

Explains and differentiates among several types of needs assessment, recommends one type, the external needs assessment, and presents the steps for implementing this and other types of needs assessments. (Author/CHC)

Presents rationale and guidelines for assessing audience needs before workshops are planned. An initial checklist of appropriate information to gather is presented, and strategies for obtaining information are discussed. (BK)

Describes functions comprising task analysis process--inventory, description, selection, sequencing, and analysis--and reviews distinctions between the micro/macro level, top-down/bottom-up, and job/learning task analysis processes. These functions and distinctions are combined into a quasi-algorithm suggesting which of 30 task analysis procedures…

Reviews problems involved in analyzing data on educational or training needs and details use of the proportionate reduction in error (PRE) approach (Hildebrand, et al., 1977), which predicts the probability that certain combinations of a joint distribution will occur, then tests to see how closely the prediction matches the observation. (MBR)

Examines the need for integrating assumptions about learning processes with the decisions typically made when designing instructional systems. The relationships between learning theory and instructional design are discussed, and suggestions offered for improving the design process. Extensive references are included. (Author/BK)

Compares the process of instructional development (ID) in the corporate environment with ID in the educational environment. Needs assessments conducted by professional associations are reviewed, a critical incident survey to assess local training needs is described, and an outline for a graduate instructional technology program to prepare…