NGT versus Delphi method

The NGT is a research tool that was originally developed by by Delbecq et al in 1971 to gather consensus on planning activities within organizations and help in prioritizing those activities. One of the characteristics of the NGT method is that it’s an iterative process that enables group participation and feedback about specific issues. It helps gather feedback from groups of 5 to 10 participants within a short period of time. It also allows individual participants to voice their opinions and ideas about issues thus preventing the discussion to be dominated by a single participant. The other characteristic or benefit of this research tool is that it allows individual group members to present their own judgments and make group members feel the value of their viewpoints and input. This in turn, can also encourage even the shyest members to provide input and feedback without being constrained with a prescribed thought from the researcher or moderator. Another characteristic of this technique is that it can produce a large number of thoughts or answers in a very timely manner which could ultimately help meet the research objective or purpose. 

The Delphi method was developed in the 1950’s with the aim of gathering opinions and feedback to reach consensus on a research topic. This research technique best fits research topics where future predictions or forecasting is required. It aims at collecting expert knowledge and thoughts from subject matter experts in a domain and uses that knowledge to reach a consensus on the underlying research topic. The other characteristic of this research method is that it attempts to answer questions about what could or should happen in a field within a time frame so that a future prediction or forecast can be made. 
The main different between the two research methods is that the NGT can generate results and consensus with a short time period such as an hour or two hours whereas the Delphi technique can take days to solicit input and ideas of participants. And because of this time frame difference, the NGT can be used as an effective real time research tool to determine a future trend or prediction within a short time frame whereas the Delphi technique needs much more time to gather the opinions and feedback of experts of pressing research issues and use that knowledge to make decisions about future trends and forecasts. 

One force that could affect the success of those methods is the ethical aspect of group participation. How sincere are the participants when they provide input and feedback can impact the quality of the results obtained from either technique. The other force is the technology force; which technology do we use to gather expert opinion of research topics. Are we using surveys, face-to-face interviews of e-mail communication to communicate with participants? If we use face to face interviews, then we may get more candid answers and solutions of the underlying research issues. 


references
http://www.stfm.org/fmhub/fm2004/June/Alison402.pdf
VargaAtkins,T;withBunyan,N.;McIsaac,J;Fewtrell,R(2011)Usingthenominalgrouptechniquewithclickerstoresearchstudentexperiencesofe learning:aprojectreport.WrittenfortheELESIGSmallGrantsScheme.Liverpool:UniversityofLiverpoo

Collaborative and active learning will dominate the educational world

Innovation #1: Collaborative and active learning will dominate the educational world
educational institutions around the world are realizing the importance of teaching students projects that are based on collaborative learning styles and involve active learning. this is because many business organizations are demanding workers who can collaborate and participate to achieve business projects. to further support and enforce this idea of active and collaborative learning methodology; schools have started utilizing open source software tools that students and their respective teachers can use to implement the theories and practices. open source tools are becoming an integral part of many schools curricula because they have proven to be useful in preparing students for jobs that require practical knowledge and experience. for example, in Pen. State University, they offer a software engineering degree that uses open source software tools to teach project management, software development, and other software engineering practices. other Universities are teaching web development technologies using free open source software such as word press. 


Innovation #2: People expect to be able to work, learn, and study whenever and wherever they want to: I do believe that this key trend will become a reality in the next five to ten years due to the fact that we live in an increasingly interconnected world that removes all the geographical barriers to both work and school. access to higher education is no longer a challenge to busy working professionals as they can do their homework assignments from the convenience of their finger tips. furthermore; the asynchronous nature of the online education allows people from around the globe to participate in online forums and contribute to teaching and learning in an unprecedented manner. by the same token, people can work from home or anywhere with an internet connection thus eliminating the transportation barriers and enabling the workforce to become more productive and more efficient in the way the conduct daily business operations.

One force that could enhance or further define the two key trends is the Technological one which is the Internet. with this revolutionary technology, people can communicate and share information instantly and stay up to date with the latest news that concern their business or education. 
The other force is the economical force, as we continue to live in a global economy, business increasingly require their units to be geographically dispersed and yet still be able to communicate with other units in a timely manner. with the new networking technologies such as VPN, employees can stay connected to their business resources using the Internet as a tool to keep them productive no matter where they are. 

I think the effect was that they were able to ensure that they obtain a fresh and realistic perspective from educators and teachers around the globe. Those participants came from diverse backgrounds and held particular interests and expertise in the focus areas of the Horizon report. I think their goal was to produce a very inclusive and realistic report that can serve as an authoritative educational resource for educational community. 
.

Word Press. the world's best blogging platform. (http://www.socialbrite.org/2010/07/16/12-open-source-tools-you-should-be-using/)