Project Management 6145 Week 2-Learning from a Project Post-Mortem

Greetings All,

Well I am definitely a person deeply rooted in pattern and routine…as a result of assuming my blog had our “typical” due date of Sunday I am totally late with this posting.  Alas, it’s a lesson learned and one that I will not repeat next week…moving on J

This week, as the blog title eludes too, is learning from a project post mortem.  It’s nowhere near as dreadful as it sounds, it’s simply a “way to learn best practices and avoid mistakes on a future project [by] review[ing] the results and activities from a project that you have completed”. Outlined below is the assignment as provided by our professor:

To prepare for this assignment, recall a project that you worked on in the past, either personal or professional, that was not successful or did not result in the desired outcomes. You may be creative and use an example from your personal life that may not relate to your job. Using the Project “Post Mortem” Review Questions found on pages 42–43 of The Project Management Minimalist, recall your experience with the project and jot down answers to as many of the questions as you can (you do not need to submit these responses). Then, reflect on the following:

• What processes, project artifacts, or activities did you include in the project that contributed to its success?
• What processes, project artifacts, or activities did you not include in the project that might have made the project more successful?

Hopefully everyone is familiar with this document, if not I have hyperlinked a copy using Google docs for your reference.

The project that I commonly refer to is one with my previous employer, and I was the project lead.  Sadly and incidentally, it is a perfect example of almost everything NOT to do on a project. As I’ve mentioned in several class discussions, the project was the conversion of an in-person training course to an online format to be deployed overseas.

Contributions to Project Success:

The one activity that I feel I did a good job on (and I had control of) was my communication with my team.  As the lead, I stayed in constant communication with my manager regarding the status of the project, as well as my team regarding the status of their tasks. I utilized emails, in-person meetings, as well as conference calls to make sure we were all on the same page.  I also effectively communicated with the client regarding our status on the project and our timeline for completion of specific tasks.

Room for Improvement:

Aside from the client and their differing visions for the project, there were several things that we as a team could have done differently.  A key factor is in training and familiarizing the team with the ADDIE model. Due to the client, and our lack of formal training, the project was never rooted in grounded principles.  For example learner analysis was not performed, objectives were not specified in the manner in which they should have been, there was little time given to truly analyze, design, develop, implement, or evaluate the project.

An important factor that Dr. Stolovitch provided for successful id projects, is the let the instructional design process guide the work.  I feel this factor was missing from the beginning that caused a already volatile project to be more stressful than need be.

References

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Project Management

Hello everyone!


Welcome to my page and the continuation of my Walden University adventure in a M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology!


After an entirely too short break I'm back in class and this portion of the semester will be spent on Project Management in Instructional Design.  We're definitely getting to the serious, nitty-gritty, portion of the degree program now.


I'm definitely interested in learning as much as I can so that I can hopefully avoid many of the pitfalls I've seen in project management-I'm sure you know what I mean ;-)
Seriously though, as an instructional designer we are often expected to also be a project manager of our portion; but sometimes the overall project itself.

I'm hoping that after this course is over I will be motivated to purse a PMP or CAPM certification...or maybe I'll be smart and weight until I'm closer to the completion of this program before I start another project.

Again, thanks for following me and I hope that we learn a lot from one another this semester

Distance Education Blog—Final Reflection

“The number of students participating in college-level online courses has out-distanced all other forms of distance learning, in a remarkably short amount of time” (Gambescia, Paolucci, 2009). This trend and increased attendance in college-level online courses will gain momentum in the next 5-10 years and the next 10-20 years.

Distance education has many benefits that we have explored over the last eight weeks in this course. These benefits are why so may students and business have chosen distance-learning platforms to educate students and employees respectively. “There are many reasons for this [increase]: convenience, older and more technologically-savvy students who hold a job and have a family, and students looking for a particular curriculum they can't find locally (What is the Future of Distance Learning, 2011). Growing acceptance of distance education is fueled by several factors as explained in our course resources this week:

·      The Increase in online communication

·      Practical experience with new tools

·      Growing comfort with online discourse

·      Ability to communicate with diverse and global groups (Siemens, n.d.)

Distance education will be impacted by new communication technologies, contributions by experts around the world, and increased used of multimedia, games, and simulations (Siemens, n.d.). If distance learning can continue to grow in these impact areas, and continue to extend its many benefits it can become a key and primary method of educating students of all ages.

An instructional designer can be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning by assisting in the analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation of appealing and effective training. In many cases the work of the instructional designer may not be noticed by the learner, as the learner is not involved in the entire ID process, they typically are only able to observe the work of the implementation and/or evaluation phases.  So in many cases it is the id’s role to ensure their role is done to the best of their ability and their portion is a seamless part of the final product.

I feel the way that I can be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education is first in understanding the field and all that it entails. The next way that I feel I can be a positive force is in educating my various clients/employers of the pros and cons of distance education, and assist them in creating training that best meets their needs.

References

Gambescia, S., & Paolucci, R. (2009). Academic fidelity and integrity

            as attributes of university online degree program offerings. Online Journal

            of Distance Learning Administration, 12(1). Retrieved from

             http://www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/spring121/gambescia121.html

Siemens, G. (n.d.). Facilitating Learning. [Video] Available: Laureate Education, Inc.

What is the Future of Distance Learning? (2011). www.waldenu.edu.

Retrieved August 21, 2011 from http://connected.waldenu.edu/curriculum-resources/technology-in-the-classroom/item/772-what-is-future-of-distance-learning

Distance Education Blog—Converting to a Distance Learning Format

This week our application assignment was to consider the following scenario:

A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment. In addition, he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

• With this scenario in mind, and taking into consideration your Learning Resources, reflect on the following:
• What are some of the pre-planning strategies the trainer needs to consider before converting his program?
• What aspects of his original training program could be enhanced in the distance learning format?
• How will his role, as trainer, change in a distance learning environment?
• What steps should the trainer take to encourage the trainees to communicate online?

So I created a Best Practices Guide and have a few of the important points/factor outlined below:

1. There is no standard approach to a hybrid course-there is no magic formula or format, the instructor will have to create the course based on the needs of the course, the students, and instructor preference. 

2. It takes time to redesign a traditional face-to-face program into a blended format-the redesign may be very effective but the proper amount of time should be taken to fully design, develop, and implement this new course/platform. 

In addition to the 2 key considerations above the trainer should utilize the following steps:

Click here to read the entire document

Distance Education Post: The Impact of Open Course

This week our application project is to select a course from a free Open Course site and answer the following 3 questions:

1. Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance-learning environment? How so?
2. Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook?
3. Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?

As our Professor pointed out- do not confuse the terms “Open Course (Open Courseware)” and “Open Source (Open Source- ware)”, they are not one and the same.  Granted Wikipedia is not a scholarly resource, its definition works well here:

Open Courseware (OCW) is a term applied to course materials in a virtual learning environment created by universities and shared freely with the world via the Internet (Wikipedia, n.d.).

Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is available in source code form: the source code and certain other rights normally reserved for copyright holders are provided under a software license that permits users to study, change, improve and at times also to distribute the software (Wikipedia, n.d.).

So I visited the Open Yale courses and selected an interesting psychology open course titled PSYC 123: The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/the-psychology-biology-and-politics-of-food. The content of this course is very interesting, and the information is presented in an interactive fun manner!

Question 1: Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance-learning environment?

Yes, this course appears to be carefully pre-planned; however I do not feel it was initially designed as a distance-learning course.  Upon entering the course you are brought to the About the Course and About the Professor, where it details the course structure as follows: “This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 75 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Fall 2008”(Brownell, n.d.), this is the primary reason I feel this course was not originally designed to be a distance-learning course. Though the course content appears well designed, it was not created solely as a online learning course. 

Question 2: Does the course follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in your course textbook?

No, this course does not appear to follow the recommendations for online instruction as listed in our course textbook.  Again, this could partly be due to the fact that the course was not originally designed for an online platform. Our course outlines the following categories for the unit-module topic model for delivered distance instruction:

• Organizational Guidelines
• Assessment Guidelines
• Content Guidelines
• Instruction/Teaching Guidelines

Organizational Guidelines

When course are planned the designer might want to use the Unit, Module, and Topic approach or model (UMT approach) as follows:

Assuming this course is a typical 3 credit course it should contain 3 units, 12 modules, 48 topics, and 48 learning outcomes (Simonson, et al., 2009) however the course appears to simply be comprised of 23 class sessions with no mention of units or modules.

Assessment Guidelines

“Assessment is directly related to learning outcomes. Normally there is at least one learning outcome for each topic...[with] 1 major assignment per unit and 1 minor assignment per two to three modules” (Simonson, et al., 2009).  Though the course does not appear to have specific units and modules the course does contain several assessment components as described by the syllabus.  The syllabus outlines the following components for grading:     

Content Guidelines

The course does a great job in outlining the required readings for each class session and providing streaming video of the professor and/or guest speaker giving lectures. All of the class sessions are available for download as well as two supplements. Students are required to purchase other text, as it is not provided. The Open course does not contain a method to conduct synchronous chats with content experts.  All of the course content appears to be delivered in the same manner, the professor/speaker being recorded while lecturing to the class.

Instruction/Teaching Guidelines

“The pace of instruction for learners is a critical concern to the distance educator” (Simonson, et al., 2009)

The course was not created as an online distance-learning program so many of these guidelines were not followed.

Question 3: Did the course designer implement course activities that maximize active learning for the students?

There appear to be many exercises incorporated into each lecture that causes in class interaction, dialogue, and active learning. It is hard to know if a course designer was involved with this process though.  This Open Course was not designed with the purpose of being an online course so much of the text and activities are unavailable.

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References

Brownell, K. (n.d.). The Psychology, Biology and Politics of Food. Yale.edu. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from http://oyc.yale.edu/psychology/the-psychology-biology-and-politics-of-food

OpenCourseWare. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare

Open-source software. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-source_software

Recommended Guidelines for structuring your online course. (2011, February 8). Valencia Learning Technology. Retrieved July 31, 2011, from http://vcclearningtech.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/recommended-guidelines-for-structuring-your-online-course/

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education. (2009). Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson

Distance Education Blog—Selecting Distance Learning Technologies

This week our blog assignment was to choose one example on which to focus and, in a blog post, identify one to two distance-learning technologies you think provide the best solution for the given challenge. Support your decision with information and rationale from the Learning Resources. In addition, provide examples of the use of these technologies by searching the Internet for two external resources that showcase how these technologies have been successfully used in distance learning.

I selected example 2, the Interactive Tours-
A high school history teacher, located on the west coast of the United States, wants to showcase to her students new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums. The teacher wants her students to take a "tour" of the museums and be able to interact with the museum curators, as well as see the artwork on display. Afterward, the teacher would like to choose two pieces of artwork from each exhibit and have the students participate in a group critique of the individual work of art. As a novice of distance learning and distance learning technologies, the teacher turned to the school district’s instructional designer for assistance.

Question:

In the role of the instructional designer, what distance learning technologies would you suggest the teacher use to provide the best learning experience for her students?

Answer:

Prior to answering the question lets detail below the objectives the teacher would like to complete:

1.     Students to tour museum
2. Students to see displayed artwork
3. Students to interact with curator
4. Students to participate in a group critique on two pieces of artwork

Objectives 1, 2 and 3:

As an instructional designer I would suggest the two-way audio/video communication of videoconferencing. “Videoconferencing programs provide meaningful, interactive learning experiences, connecting the visual arts with all areas of classroom curricula. Videoconferencing lessons are a great way to bring the Museum's collections and special exhibitions into your classroom—as a stand-alone lesson…(Philamuseum.org). In today’s day and age many museums have lessons anywhere from 40-60 minutes for grades K-12 for very little cost (compared to the cost of visiting the facility in person). In contacting the museum the teacher can inquire about pre-recorded lessons that may be helpful in preparing the student for the content presented during the videoconferencing. In addition the teacher can inquire to having a curator available for possible questions later.

A great example of a museum that uses videoconferencing to facilitate distance learning is the Philadelphia Museum of Art, one of my personal favorite museums! The museum offers several lessons that are linked to Pennsylvania standards as well as teacher programs.

Objective 4:

For this objective the teacher will need to advise if they are looking for a synchronous or asynchronous platform for the course discussion. In the case of a synchronous platform it would need to contain a “chat” function that can support a high amount of user traffic and interaction.  I would advise the teacher to speak with the school administration in the use of Blackboard or Desire2Learn as a CMS, more than likely the school will already have an account set up which the teacher could use. In using a CMS the teacher can have an organized location of the materials and other course related item for this particular project that students could use and access as needed (i.e. promoting self directed learning). If an asynchronous platform is acceptable for the course discussion then the teacher could still use almost any available CMS as most of them have forum and blog capabilities. For example EctoLearn claims to be “the world’s first complete Web 2.0 solution for the wired classroom [as well as] the first true online networked personal learning environment” (Ectolearning.com) providing the power to network with classrooms across the hall, across town, or across the world and allowing users to create, collaborate, and learn, plus EctoLearn is a free Web 2.0 tool! With EctoLearn you have the ability to create blog posts in which students can respond, a Q&A section, Assignment section that includes completion dates, a discussion forum, as well as a content section in which you can add materials students should review.

References:

Ecto. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from http://www.ectolearning.com/FlatPage.aspx?p=iinozqvdbi

Philadelphia Museum of Art - Education : Schools : Distance Learning. (n.d.). Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved July 17, 2011, from http://www.philamuseum.org/education/32-128-195.html

Simonson, M. Smaldino, S., Albright, M., Zvacek, S. Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education. (2009). Boston: Allyn & Bacon/Pearson.