Adult Education Planning And Assessment

By Author: Henry Ford
Total Articles: 189
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Planning and assessment forms the cornerstone of effective adult education. They form the base under which the success or failure of higher education can be assessed. Planning and assessment can be considered as the base for implementation of strategies in higher education. However, the complexity of programs that ran concurrently and the needs of adult learning make planning in higher education a difficult task. Planning is closely related to assessment. Assessment monitors how the program goals and objectives are being met. Recent literature has emphasized on creating a link between assessments and planning (Jones, 2009; Imel, 1996; Middaugh and Sibolski, 2009). Different education models including Malcolm Baldrige framework recognize an important point of intersection between planning and assessment to ensure organizational effectiveness (Middaugh and Sibolski, 2009).
According to Jeffrey Shields, Vice President of NACUBO, “strategic planning in higher education clearly articulates a proven methodology that will yield strategic thinking from groups and move organizations in an innovative direction. The exercises ...
... at each step of the process are quite useful and I plan to refer to them often in the future to help reinvigorate the planning process” (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010, p. 1)
From the quote, it is evident that planning is an integral part of any education system. Planning is the first step towards provision of education services to adult learners. With the changing education environment and the growing demand for higher education, it has become necessary to plan how to deliver services in their education to ensure that the country is producing learners who fulfill the social, political, and economic needs of the country (Heilich and Norland, 1994; Middaugh and Sibolski, 2009). Failure to plan is preparing for a total failure of the education process. Adult learning is goal oriented and therefore before any students are brought into the class, there must be a plan in place that outline the learning process they will be taken through from the time they enter into the class up to the time they graduate (Jones, 2009). Without such an effective plan, it will be difficult the education needs of the country as more and more people come seeking to be granted a chance to pursue higher education.
Basically, there are three typologies of planning process. These include (Black, 1993):
a. Long range planning
b. Strategic planning
c. Tactical planning.
Long range planning mainly looks at all the facets of the education institution. This looks into the student life, administration, facilities available and others. This occurs within the context of drafting organizational mission and in formulation of the direction the organization is like to take in the future (Jones, 2009). A series of goals and objectives which are clearly tied to the mission of adult learning entails long range planning. This kind of planning is participatory in nature (Heilich and Norland, 1994). It is time frame and implemented over several years.
Strategic planning mainly focus on planning goals and objectives which are considered to be a higher priority to the institution. Strategic planning is opportunistic in nature since it considers the opportunities arising in learning and plans it in advance (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010; Jones, 2009). This kind of planning is highly tied to the goals and objectives of learning in view of the available resources. Although this planning is also participatory in nature, this participation is tied to constituencies like faculties which are meant to facilitate the implementation of the plan. This planning is also tied to a time frame which may vary from months to years.
Tactical planning is mainly directed at implementation of long range and strategic planning goals and objectives. This planning identifies the main resources which are required to carry out higher learning programs, including human and fiscal resources, and provide a direction that will be employed in deploying available resources (Heilich and Norland, 1994; Jones, 2009). This planning is also time framed but unlike other planning, it does not take years or months but it is implemented immediately.
Strategic planning has been found to be the most effective kind of planning in higher education. Strategic planning begins with setting out organizational objectives and goals which are based on seven-step blue print that can be used by any education institution in setting out educational priorities (Heilich and Norland, 1994). The seven-step blueprint approach mainly emphasizes on the strategies that are meant to create effective leadership, communication, and assessment. The seven steps mainly include:
Mission, vision, and values – This step is important since it integrates the needs of the country from the education system and the resource capability of the nation. This step manly involves reviewing the organizational guiding principles and the general needs of the country. Education is meant to foster growth and development in the country and therefore it should assess the extent to which the education institution can fulfill the needs of the country (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010). However this should be tailored to the needs of the organization. The organization guiding values becomes the reference point for planning especially in determining the way resources are going to be allocated.
The second step involves identification of collaborators and beneficiaries. This will mainly take into consideration critical stakeholders. Stakeholders involve all the people who are involved in the implementation of the plan (Jones, 2009). For example while deciding on the number of adult students to be admitted to a learning program there should be a consideration of the stakeholders to be included in the program (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010). For example if the student will require going for work placement, there should be identification of the stakeholders who can assist the faculty get student placement. This means that apart from school administration, other stakeholders like employees, trustees, and others will also have to be considered.
The next step involves the environmental scan. Under this step, the planning process should take a close examination on issues like cultural issue, resources, and others in the operation environment which are likely to impend on the effective implementation of the plan. It is important to come up with mitigation strategies to reduce the impact of such factors (Heilich and Norland, 1994; Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010). For example, when designing an environmental program in higher education, there should be consideration of environmental factors which will support or inhibit the effective implementation of the program.
Setting goals is the next important step in the seven-step strategic planning. This step involves identification of organizational aspirations in achievable, measurable, and tangible terms. Goals are mainly based on the institution, faculty, and on the specific subject under study (Jones, 2009). While the organizational goals outline the expected achievements of the whole organization, faculty goals identify specific program goals. In advance, every subject under study has set goals which guides learning (Center for Organizational Development and Leadership, 2010). It is on the bases of these goals that learning and assessment will take place.

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