Photo of Ryan Watkins

Ryan Watkins, PhD, is a Professor at the George Washington University in Washington DC. His teaching and research focus on needs assessment, instructional design, and organizational learning in workplace and international assistance contexts. Watkin’s recent books include A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results, published by the World Bank and available online for free. He is also an author of the world’s top-selling book on e-learning, the E-learning Companion: A Learner’s Guide to Online Success, now its 4th edition. His other books include the Art of Knowledge Exchange, 2nd edition (also published by the World Bank and available for online for free), the Handbook for Improving Performance in the Workplace – Volume 2, Performance By Design: The Systematic Selection, Design, and Development of Performance Technologies, and 75 E-learning Activities: Making Online Courses Interactive. The Handbook for Improving Performance in the Workplace won a 2011 Award of Excellence from the International Society for Performance Improvement. In addition, he has written more than 100 articles on instructional design, strategic planning, needs assessment, distance education, and performance technology. His articles are frequently cited in the performance improvement literature, making him the 4th most cited author of journal articles in the field. Watkins is an active member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), the American Evaluation Association (AEA), and has served as a vice president of the Inter-American Distance Education Consortium (CREAD). In 2005 Watkins was a visiting scientist with the National Science Foundation, and he routinely works on projects with the World Bank on applying needs assessment, instructional design, and performance improvement to international assistance programs.

Ryan developed and maintains the websites: www.NeedsAssessment.org and www.WeShareScience.org.