Introduction

The purpose of this survey is to assess the technology needs and interests of the teachers, library media specialists, and counselors of Oakville High School in St. Louis, MO through the use of a Google Form. Oakville High School is a Google school, and all teachers are proficient in Gmail, Google Classroom, and the basic functions of Google Drive. Out of a staff of roughly 125 members, 52 teachers, one library media specialist, and one administrator responded to the survey.

Analysis of the Results

Interpretation of the Results

Due to the current COVID-19 global pandemic, the greatest amount of need and interest to teaching professionals are online teaching tools. Therefore, we chose to offer professional development training in Nearpod, Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, Kami, Google Rubrics, Google Meet, Google Forms, Choose Your Own Adventure in Google Slides, HyperDocs within Google Docs, Virtual Classroom within Google Slides, Google Sheets, Google Drive, and SmartBoard.

The most popular training opportunities amongst the participants are those whose main goal is student engagement (Nearpod, Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, and Kami), something that is always in demand, particularly now that students are forced to make use of virtual learning. There is not as much interest in the trainings for Google for Education Suite tools. Because Oakville High School is part of a Google school district, most participants are already familiar with these tools. Therefore, it is assumed that it played a role in the participants' lack of interest for further training in such tools. Perhaps it would be more useful to provide the staff at Oakville High School recurring refresher courses in these Google for Education Suite tools to help them stay up to date and, at that point, reuse the Needs Assessment Survey to determine their needs and interests in student engagement tools. Another thought is to offer trainings on Google for Education Suite tools but focus on how they can be used for activities that increase student engagement.

The data also makes it clear that high school teachers are not interested in SmartBoard training. Perhaps that training would be best suited for elementary faculty and staff.

Recommendations

Based on the results of the survey, we will offer a combination of trainings. Most participants prefer either asynchronous training videos or workshops during an early dismissal school day (last Wednesday of the month). Because most staff members are proficient in Google tools, we will create training videos for the most popular Google for Education Suite tools options: Rubrics in Google Classroom, Breakout Groups in Google Meet, Choose Your Own Adventure with Google Slides, HyperDocs with Google Docs, and Virtual Classroom with Google Slides.

There was an overwhelming amount of interest in the Nearpod, Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, and Kami professional development. Because those are new to most teachers, we will offer live early dismissal PD workshops for those options over Google Meet. Our priority will be Nearpod and Pear Deck, as those garnered the most interest. The second round of PD will offer workshops on EdPuzzle and Kami, as those did not garner as much interest as the first two but still had a significant amount of interest amongst the participants.

Summary

In summary, the technology needs of the Oakville High School staff are mainly focused on student engagement. Because of virtual learning due to the pandemic, this makes much sense. Based on the results of the survey, we will offer live PD sessions for Nearpod, Pear Deck, EdPuzzle, and Kami during the Oakville High School early dismissal PD time. Nearpod and Pear Deck will be offered first, followed by EdPuzzle and Kami. We will also begin to create and roll out training videos for the most popular Google for Education Suite tools based on the survey results: Rubrics in Google Classroom, Breakout Groups in Google Meet, Choose Your Own Adventure with Google Slides, HyperDocs with Google Docs, and Virtual Classroom with Google Slides. Virtual Classroom with Google Slides was the most popular option amongst these tools with the participants; therefore, that will be the first training video offered with the others - in order from most to least popular - to follow.

Because the staff at Oakville High School is proficient in many Google tools, future needs assessment surveys will focus on more student engagement-specific activities that incorporate Google tools.

Print Version of Needs Assessment Report