Where Can IDers Get Help with Project Management?

Where can Instructional Designers (IDs) go to get help?  Some of it depends on the type of help we are looking for.  There is a multitude of sites to provide help on specific topics.  This week I am looking for help in managing a project for ID.  Many sites offer help in this, articles and books, even ads for training courses.  I narrowed the search to listservs and blogs because I want sites that can be updated with new information as it becomes available.  There are many blogs and listserv sites for Instructional Design.  Most of them had info on ADDIE and how to incorporate technology into course design.  When I clicked on them and tried to draw information pertaining to project management (PM), the list narrowed dramatically. 

I’ll start with an excellent ID site called canvas – All Places > Instructional Designers (https://community.canvaslms.com/groups/designers).  The opening screen states “This is a group for teachers and instructional designers to help each other, collaborate, and discuss elements of course design in Canvas.”  There are four buttons on the screen that provide links to site areas: Ask a Question, Start a Discussion, View All Resources and View All Members.  There is also a search bar, which I used to ask for information on “project management”, (must be in quotes to narrow the search). I was led to three sites. “Project scheduling” led me to none.  From a PM side, there was some information but I expected more.  From an ID side there is plenty.  I found the search feature to be the most useful item to start with.  The Ask a Question area would be next.  Before using it you must open an account, which I did.  They will send me info shortly.  More to come.

The next blog I looked at is The Rapid E-Learning Blog, where I found Managing E-Learning Projects (http://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/managing-e-learning-projects/).  This site opens with a bold-lettered sentence in the first paragraph reading “The success of your elearning course starts and ends with project management.”  I was excited when I read it because the site showed promise.  There is a list of posts that can be clicked to give PM tips below the second paragraph.  To the right of these is a resource list and a search box.  I scrolled through the list of posts and chose “The Project Management Tip You Can’t Ignore.”  The post mentioned a video which was titled,  “You Don’t Know How to Email.”  It was an interesting video on some of the foibles we are all guilty of in our busy emailing day.  I encourage you to check it out.

The last site I checked out is iddblog (http://www.iddblog.org/?p=2888).  It starts with an article by Veronica Johnson titled, “Organization or Bust? Project Management Tools for Success”.  It lists several tools to help the ID get organized when it comes to PM.  Veronica touts a program called Asana, which she says has been a lifesaver for both her and her teammates.  Asana has a free version but if you want the real power of it you need to spend about $10.00 a month.  Not wanting to buy another software program just yet, I continued reading.  Gaantt Project will lay out your project in a PM format and help you keep track of it.  But again there is a monthly fee.  I really enjoyed the next section of the article because it is titled “More Free Project Management Tools:  She includes links to a few of them. 

These sites offer information and help on Project Management.  Depending on what you are looking for, some are more helpful than others.  Please check them out and judge them for yourself.  Thanks for viewing my blog.

 

Effective Communications

     This week’s blog is about how to communicate effectively with others.   I visited a website from the Walden University site which presented examples (Laureate Media, n.d.).  The site presents Jane, who is trying to communicate with Mark, a coworker, concerning information she needs from him in order to finish an assignment she is working on.  She has obviously been in contact with Mark about this previously, as there is some urgency in each of the three different communications, but it varies depending on the modality used. 

     The first was through email.  It was straightforward.  Jane started by acknowledging Mark’s busy schedule but reminds him of her need for the report he failed to give her earlier.  She says that, if he can’t send the report in a timely manner, she would be satisfied with the data he included in it.  She is grateful for the help she anticipates from Mark.  The message was repeated three times.  It was clear.  The purpose of the email was stated up front and included possible solutions – either send the email or send the data contained in it.  Jane followed Dr. Stolovich’s advice well (Laureate Education (Producer), Communicating with stakeholders, n.d.).

     Jane’s voicemail message says the same thing as the email but I can hear some anxiety in her voice.  She sounded a little frantic at the beginning.  The last sentence sounded grateful, but also pleading. 

     Her face-to-face meeting with Mark showed how she felt.  There was emotion on her face.  She is leaning over the cube wall.  Her eye contact was there but she would look away frequently, as if she was very uncomfortable having to talk with Mark this way.  Jane starts out smiling, saying she understands how busy Mark has been.  When she gets to the part of the message about Mark’s email containing data she needs to finish her report, the wording changes from the email and voicemail versions.  It is more personable and less formal.  Jane uses hand gestures, pointing to her left to emphasize her need for the data.  It’s almost as if she doesn’t know she is pointing, as if she may not be doing it on purpose.  This form of communication best conveyed the meaning of the message, as it showed her anxiety about needing Mark to get the email or data to her right away. 

     Effective communication conveys the message to the person in a way where they understand the message as we want them to.  Often face-to-face is the best form for this.  Sometimes face-to-face is not the best method, though.  Face-to-face communication may, in some emotional situations, promise to lead to a confrontation that won’t end well for either party.  An email or voicemail may work better.  This would be one of the situations Dr. Stolovich meant when he was addressing communication concerns and recommended asking for advice (Laureate Education (Producer), n.d.).  It may also be better to communicate with a different person, one that the other person trusts (Laureate Education (Producer), Practitioner voices: Strategies for working with stakeholders, n.d.).  Sometimes communication is easy but there are times it is very difficult.  This is the reason we need to strategize how best to get our message across.

References

Laureate Education (Producer) (Director). (n.d.). Communicating with stakeholders [Motion Picture].

Laureate Education (Producer) (Director). (n.d.). Practitioner voices: Strategies for working with stakeholders [Motion Picture].

Laureate Education (Producer) (Director). (n.d.). Project management concerns: Communication strategies and organizational culture [Motion Picture].

Laureate Media. (n.d.). The Art of Effective Communication. Retrieved from Laureate-media.com: http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6145/03/mm/aoc/index.html

 

Project Post-Mortem Reflection

Project Post-Mortem

     The project I was working on involved a new product being made by a company I was working for.  Most of our product team (including the Project Manager (PM)) was new to project management so there was a steep learning curve.  I supported the project by providing technical advice to ensure it could be serviced by a technician with the least time and cost to service, repair or replace components.  When reviewing the Generic Project Life Cycle Phases (Greer, 2010),(pp 42-43).  Phase 1 passed the first question because it was determined that there was a need and the project was feasible.  It failed the second question.  In the beginning of the project there were no unnecessary deliverables, but that changed after launch.  Phase 2 was to Create a Project Plan.  This company wanted estimates to be realistically close to what the team thought actual costs would be.  Since most of the team was new, we complied. 

     This is where Phase 2 started to fall apart.  The product manager wanted to add items after launch that should have been stopped.  If they had been part of the original plan, money could have been incorporated in the estimate to cover them.  I learned from this that there is almost no way to stay on budget if the PM doesn’t stop scope creep.  Scope creep is very common (Laureate Education (Producer), n.d.).  There were several times the group let scope creep in because each idea sounded good and would have benefitted the project.  Add to this, people from senior management wanted some of the scope creep items added to the project.  We were new to this and thought the ideas would benefit the project and the company.  Some of them made the project more successful but added a few months to the project and about $20,000 dollars in extra cost.  Fortunately, senior management approved this because they had asked for the extra items to be added to the project. 

     Phase 3 also started well in that product specifications were detailed in the beginning of the project.  The different departments involved in the project were represented and the different players provided valuable input into the project.  We could have improved the work process by meeting with senior management and the product director at the same time and asking about any added features they wanted.  We could have then discussed the ramifications of adding features and how they should be documented and approved by the team and by senior management using a document called a Change of Scope document (Laureate Education (Producer), n.d.).  This would have kept us on track because the time and cost would have been changed and approved by all involved in the project.

     Phases 4 (Create Deliverables) and 5 (Test and Implement Deliverables) followed the path of scope creep.  As parts of the project were completed, additional features were added due to scope creep.  These features needed to be speced, added and tested.  This is where time and money were added to the project.  The outcome was a project that worked well and fit a market niche.  It has sold well, so the company was able to recuperate the money spent on the extra features, which is fortunate.  The project taught all involved a valuable lesson about adding features after a project has been scoped.  They started using the Change of Scope document more and more.

References

Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist:Just Enough PM to Rock Your Projects! Retrieved from michaelgreer.biz: http://michaelgreer.biz/?page_id=636

Laureate Education (Producer) (Director). (n.d.). PM Concerns: Scope Creep [Motion Picture].

Distance Learning Reflections

     This has been an interesting course and has taught me a lot about different aspects of distance learning.  This blog deals with the future of distance learning and how Instructional Designers can impact it.

 

     Dr. Siemens talked about the reasons for the growing acceptance of distance education and its future (Laureate Education, n.d.).  One of the biggest reasons, he says, is because of the increase in online communication around the world.  People in many countries communicate with friends by texting, so they are used to being online and talking with others.  This is just a short hop away from online discussion in a class.  Their classmates may either be or become their friends, as many people “friend” strangers on social media.  Currently, more and more people are accepting online education as a new norm so that perception should grow as technology improves.  One of the problems with it now is that learners need good Wifi connections to be able to take classes.  It isolates those without good Wifi (Naidu, 2014).  Yet people can communicate with others around the world on smartphones without the use of Wifi.  Within 5-10 years, I think this will be normal for computer communications also.  You’ll be able to connect the computer/laptop to other laptops through phone towers instead of Wifi.  This will open the doors to many more people and even allow them access to free education sources, such as massive open online courses (MOOCs). 

     Virtual reality is still in its infancy and is growing in popularity.  I’d like to think that it will be available and popular enough to be a normal part of online training around the world, but I think it will not.  The main reason for this is the same reason online courses aren’t more popular around the world, the lack of availability to countries that do not have good Wifi.  So what will online education look like in 10-20 years?  I think it will be more popular than classroom training.  More and more Ivy League universities are offering online courses and degree programs today (Naidu, 2014).  If more students start taking online courses, colleges will spend more time and effort in developing and improving them.  Traditional classroom instruction may become a thing of the past.

     Instructional designers (IDs) should be proponents for improving how society views distance learning.  One of the ways IDs can help is to design and develop courses that meet the needs of the students.  When they learn the material in an online environment, are able to communicate and discuss the material with people from all walks of life in far-away countries, and feel challenged but not overwhelmed, they will spread the word about the experience.  Word of mouth advertising is the best kind because the people they spread it to will tell others and so on.  The same holds true for negative experiences.  The problem is that positive experiences tend to spread far slower than negative experiences. 

     Working in a corporate environment affords me more opportunity to have a positive impact on distance learning than many who work in the school education field.  The reason for this is simple economics.  Schools are much slower to spend money on changing course development or on technology because there are other more pressing concerns.  Corporations look at the bottom line, ROI.  They will spend money on course development and technology if it looks like the ROI will be substantial enough.  Have students take courses online at their locations and save the money in travel, hotel and meals for them to travel to a different location.  The technicians’ time away from billable work remains the same. 

References

Laureate Education,  (Producer). (n.d.). The future of distance learning [Motion Picture].

Naidu, S. (2014). Looking back, looking forward: the invention and reinvention of distance education. Distance Education, 263-270.