BENEFITS AND USE OF NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND IMPACT ASSESSMENT FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF ELEARNING PROGRAMS: CASE STUDY ON A LARGE ELEARNING PROJECT FOR TEACHERS

Nowadays available ICT and e-learning technologies transform the way educational processes takes place and require constant upgrades. This fast pace creates challenges with regards to the extent to which educational programs and the technologies employed by them are effectively responding to users' needs. Designing effective e-learning tools and educational programs requires the contribution of social science research tools. In the context of designing, monitoring, evaluating e-learning instruments, social research could boost effectiveness and reduce risks, by providing a better fit to their social environment. Questions with regards to: functionalities, skills, attitudes, behavior, usage, educational content, features of communication with target group could be properly addressed by employing research tools such as need assessment and impact assessment. This paper argues in the favor of the use of social research to support and improve management processes for e-learning projects and presents the benefits of using such tools. Throughout the paper the benefits of using social research will be illustrated through a case study (e-learning project). The case study, used as illustration, refers to a nationwide strategic e-learning project, co-financed by the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Romanian Government, under the Sectorial Operational Program Human Resource Development (SOP HRD) in Romania. The project implementation partnership was made of University "Politehnica" in Bucharest (partnership leader), the Technical University "Gheorghe Asachi" in Iasi (the first two technical universities from Romania accredited for research and advanced education), Pythia International (a technical and management consultancy company in Bucharest), and CSI Piedmonte (a public consortium in Torino, Italy, specialized in IT for public administration). The main objective of the eProf project was the training of 2000 secondary education (ISCED 2-3) teachers in using interactive methods of e-learning, successfully completed in July 2013. The need assessment undertaken within this project was designed mainly to inform management, the course curriculum and content creation, but also supporting other broader activities and objectives of the project such as informing the strategy for communication with the target group. The relevance of this research goes beyond eProf project, as this was the first publicly available representative survey of the secondary education teachers in Romania concerning their ICT skills, access, usage behavior and attitudes. Within the final months of the project an impact assessment has also been undertaken.