Project Management - Crash Course

Managing a Project

A project is any piece of work designed to deliver a change - such as a business product according to a specific Business Case.
Types of projects vary from developing something new, improving something existing and problem solving to 'fix' a scenario- get back to what it was like before.

Important project variables that need to be considered are: Cost - Qaulity and Time

It is important to distinguish between a project and business as usual (BAU)and we define Key characteristics of a project as:

• Unique


• Brings about change


• Defined goal or outcome


• Has a clear start, middle and end


• Requires planning and coordination

The agents of a project may vary but usually centre around:

1. The Sponsor = power. The sponsor is usually in control of the project, funding, approval, overseeing and delegating work
.

2. The project Manager


3. The team members


4. The key players (i.e. the stakeholders)


5. Specialists (i.e. specialist knowledge)

When putting together a business case it will be helpful if you address the following questions:

1. Why is the project needed?


2. What other options were considered?


3. What are its objectives?


4. What are the benefits? Do they outweigh the costs?


5. How will success be measured?


6. What are the cnstraints (time, quality, cost)?


7. How much will it cost and how long will it take?


8. What are the risks and can they be managed?


9. Who needs to be involved?


10. Conclusion?

The Process:

1. Conception: The idea has been conceived, justified and initiated.


2. Definition: team meeting to discuss and clarify


3. Implementation


4. Handover and Close


5. Review

Putting together your business case:
Develop your own key headers to suit your project, however you might like to use the following as a starting point:

• Sponsor (name) /Contact


• Objectives


• Team members


• Stakeholders


• Timelines


• Scope


• Risks


• Resources


• Deliverables/Milestones


• Constraints


• Benefits

Effective Project Meetings have an agenda, a purpose and have a clear start and end point. The person chairing the meeting should deliver actions and not activities and should ensure everyones contribution is heard and should check against progress.

Setting SMART Objectives:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic
Time bound

Finally, lets look into some reasons as to how and Why Projects fail?

• poor scheduling


• over ambitous purpose


• lack of clarity


• failure to allow enought ime to plan properly


• not aligned with business needs


• poor leadership


• unclear lines of authority


• insufficient resources


• unclear objectives


• failure to monitor progress


• failure to evaluate results


• failure to close?

Talis Aspire

Talis Aspire is a UK-wide resource management tool that improves access to eresources.
Talis Aspire (compared to the Talis List) focuses more on the student experience - provides a much better student interface, with browse and search functions. The student view supports the inclusion of information, such as a brief introductions to book, publisher details, notes added by the academic, links to the library catalogue and provides students with info on the items availability while it also offers information on where to buy the book.
Students logging in via Schib can make their own notes on the resources and can also offer feedback re: the book to the academic. Also, the reading list can be exported to excel(csv).

In contrast to TL < Aspire aims to encourage academics to create their online lists giving them complete control, by offering them a simple, navigable (collect -edit -add) resources interface with drag and drop functions of building and managing a reading list.
The resources can be categorised and managed easily and the table of contents are navigable by students to any portion of the reading lists. Currently, you cannot import or export from any other application i.e Endnote, delicious, etc however this is smth that will be developed in the near future.

Finally, it works with any library catalogues and DOY such as Science Direct and IngentaConnect!

Further information can be found on the Talis website at http://www.talis.com/aspire/
There is also a useful video tour at http://blogs.talis.com/aspire/

Generating Learning Objects

Generating Learning Objects and GLO Maker

Last week, I attended a seminar provided from CEEBL (Centre for Excellence in Enquiry Based Learning) at the UoM on Generating Learning Objects (GLOs).
The seminar demonstrated and investigated the flexibility and pedagogical richness of GLOs and some of the ways in which they may be used to support personalised learning.
Learning Objects are defined as reusable digital educational resources with a clear learning objective, aim or goal.
They are basically small chunks of digital material specifically designed to engage and motivate student learning. The key is to describe in what context a user might learn something from the particular learning object. LOs are grounded in the object-oriented paradigm and they can be used for quick instruction and can be incorporated into online education curricula.
A learning object usually includes content presentation, activities, assessment practices, a glossary and multimedia – all centred around a particular learning aim.

Characteristics of Learning Objects are:

1. Digital and web based


2. Flexible and content is highly adaptable


3. Reusable pedagogical designs


4. Self contained, granular


5. easily searchable – metadata tags


6. Multimedia content - for example graphics, text, audio, animation, interactive tools


7. Smaller, portable material


8. support and increase student learning


9. Productivity ( easy to create)


10. self contained smaller reusable learning items

The biggest benefit in GlOs that I witnessed from an elearning technologist perspective is that I saw pasionate academics engaging in elearning activity, excited for their creations and enthused to share good practice amongst their colleagues.

The examples of GLos presented at the seminar ranged in disciplines and were primarily used as student preparation for weekly lectures, establishing prior knowledge and self testing. The examples focused on high order questions and included more visuals, interactivity and sensory experiences.
Examples follow:

• Eleanor Okell demonstrated how eMI design (engaging with multiple interpretations) was employed in Humanities disciplines to support students understanding of recognising and negotiating the range of possible answers to questions.


• Janet Tatlock used GLOs to introduce students to some of the ways in which they will be required to contribute to scholarly debate at the uni. Students explore the ways in which objects may be invested with value and who or what may determine value.


• Kate Cooper and Jamie Wood developed a digital learning framework that would help students to engage with and carry out enquiry activities into the numerous papyri fragments that are preserved in John Ryland university library.


• Phd students have produced GLOs on the eMI pattern which explores the different ways in which theses related disciplines may investigate an object or concept.

The seminar focused on GLO Maker, a free, easy to use authoring tool for creating learning resources developed from London Met . Pedagogical designs have been built into GLO Maker , making it extremely easy for academics to add their content to produce learning objects. All designs are executables (.exe) and run on the web and in VLEs, such as Moodle and Blackboard.

As any other tool , it has its advantages and disadvantages but learning object repositories continue to grow and interest is still high.


Further links
GLO Maker: http://www.glomaker.org/index.html
RLO- CETL http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/joomla/index.php
GLO example: RLO determining the clinical importance of trial results available at http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/nmp/sonet/rlos/ebp/trial_results/2.html
RLOs free for use http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=246&Itemid=297
Download GLO maker http://www.glomaker.org/downloads.html
GLO Maker Support guides: http://www.glomaker.org/guides.html

eAssessment tools

The following examples of eassessment software are available at the University. ( There are several other eassessment applications worth looking into, as simple as Hot Potatoes, surveymonkey, Google docs amongst other (post to follow in due course).
ABC: Assess By computer

ABC is a suite of tools for all aspects of setting, taking, marking, invigilating and administering online exams. ABC supports 4 question types (m/c, fill in the gaps, free text and diagramming)and runs anywhere, anytime and on any computer.

The student takes an assessment through a simple user interface. Setters and markers have stand-alone tools with setting and marking being done off-line. The invigilator tool monitors students taking an assessment in real time, and alerts the human invigilator to suspicious behaviour. Student data is taken from Campus Solutions.

Blackboard assessments

Blackboard assessments support a range of question types from multiple choice, multiple response, short answer, fill in the blanks, essay questions, sequencing, numeric, true/false and matching. Grades are assigned to questions and quizzes are graded automatically unless they contain a paragraph question.

All assessments questions are saved in the Question Database tool which allows for easy retrieval and usage of question. The Assessment Manager tool allows you to view and grade student submissions, and run reports to compare the performance of students. Assessments available through Bb:

* Quizzes - online tests, marks are recorded in Bb's Gradebook
* Self tests - allowing students to test their own understanding of knowledge and course content. Marks are not recorded in Gradebook
* Anonymous surveys - ideal for questionnaires seeking students views and opinions and for course evaluations. No grades are assigned to surveys and the instructor can see whether students have completed a survey with submissions being completely anonymous.



Respondus

Respondus is a user-friendly Windows application for creating and managing assessments and surveys in Blackboard, supporting all above mentioned Bb functions. Respondus is a powerful tool for creating and managing exams that can be published directly to Blackboard.

Another development is the Respondus LockDown Browser, which is a customised browser that increases the security of online assessment through Blackboard. It locks down the testing environment and stops students printing, copying, going to another weblink, accessing other applications.

Advantages of using Respondus?

• It is very easy to use


• You can access your assessment and surveys offline and modify them


• You can download assessment results


• You are able to move your assessments between multiple courses

Audience Response Systems :Turning Point

TurningPoint technology is a unique lecturing and presentation tool that allows you to communicate with your students interactively by asking them questions to which they can reply using a keypad handset.

There are a variety of assessment (and non) questions included, such as multiple choice, T/F, Y/N, likert slides, ice breakers, questions that reveal opinions and insights, fastest responders, and interactive prompts such as countdown timer, answer now, correct answer indicators, turning a lecture into an engaging, competitive and motivating learning environment.

Wimba Create

Wimba Create is a user-friendly Microsoft Word add-on for creating accessible web pages from Word documents, for publishing on the Blackboard VLE.

From a Word document you can generate a set of webpages that include navigation, table of contents and interactive features (such as flashcards, links, quizzes, movie clips and so on) which can quickly be uploaded to your course. You don't need any special knowledge to add these features, you build them into your course using simple styles and dialog boxes that Wimba Create adds to the Word document.

Blackboard assignments

Blackboard assignments allow for coursework to be submitted online. A BB assignment requires students to submit their assignment by entering text in the Assignments tool, attaching files, or doing both. Submitted assignments are available via the Assignment Dropbox tool for viewing, feeding back to student and grading.

TurnitinUK (stand alone or via Blackboard)
Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that is supported by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC). It provides a first-pass plagiarism detection service which searches vast publication databases and the internet. Using Turnitin enables you to eliminate correctly formed documents and concentrate your attentions on those that indicate a degree of plagiarism.

The TurnitinUK GradeMark tool allows annotation of the submitted work by the marker, the insertion of comments and marking work according to a pre-defined rubric. Marks created for TurnitinUK submissions are automatically added to the Grade Book in the associated Blackboard course.

eAssessment

Moving from paper based to online delivery

eAssessment is broadly defined as the use of computers and software to evaluate skills and knowledge in a formal or informal educational setting.

Moving traditional based assessments from pen and paper to computers, offers a flexible way to improve feedback, supports greater accessibility and flexibility of traditional models, introduces a richer range of materials and question types and improves the students teaching and learning experience.

Uses for eAssessments vary from:

• Diagnostic: used to identify students current knowledge, skills and abilities through self tests and objective questioning,


• Formative: carried out throughout a course which help to measure student progress and include the provision of feedback and


• Summative assessments which entail online coursework (essays, reports, theses, projects, etc), marking and feedback online, plagiarism detection and online exams.

Amongst the benefits of eAsssessments are minor development effort required, ease of marking, reduced administrative burden, geographic access and time flexibility, consistency, accuracy, convenience, security and question reusability with questions made clearer and more detailed through the use of text, sound and video which can aid motivation.

My Top 5 educational videos

There are loads of wonderful creative videos out there but these would be my top 5 (in no particular order). Very powerful messages through some great visuals. No suprises here, I'm sure you have all seen them before, yet for once more - Enjoy :-)

1. Did you know? by Karl Fisch (Shift happens)

Video Description: Created by Karl Fisch, and modified by Scott McLeod; Globalization and The Information Age



2. A Vision of Students today by mwesch

Video description: a short video summarizing some of the most important characteristics of students today - how they learn, what they need to learn, their goals, hopes, dreams, what their lives will be like, and what kinds of changes they will experience in their lifetime. Created by Michael Wesch in collaboration with 200 students at Kansas State University.




3. Social Media and Open Education by courosa

Video description: Here is the final take of the course trailer for EC&I 831: Social Media & Open Education, an open graduate course offered by the University of Regina. Read more about the course and learn how to participate here: http://eci831.wikispaces.com>




4. Common Crafts series of videos

For example, Social Networking in Plain English Video description: A short explanation of social networking websites and why they are popular.
http://www.commoncraft.com/




5. The Machine is Us/ing Us by mwesch

Video description: "Web 2.0" in just under 5 minutes.
http://mediatedcultures.net

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Video Library Server

The Video Library Server provides an easy way for staff to get video content to their intended audience. Due to the vast range of digital media formats, staff are now able to upload content in almost any digital format via a simple web interface. No extra user names or passwords are required thanks to the LDAP Integration provided by the system. Once the upload is complete the video is converted automatically into RealMedia for delivery through RealPlayer and also MPEG-4 for delivery to an embedded Flash Player or mobile device such as the Apple iPhone.

Videos range from demonstrations, capturing lectures and guest speakers and other wider events , interview style videos with also many videos serving as visual aids ( lab work, experiments, product demos, instructional guides) . Students and staff, (whether face to face or studying at a distance/ working from home) are reaping the advantages of streamed video content available 24/7 .

Videos are powerful tools to communicate your message effectively and efficiently, and is a very convenient teaching aid whilst improving the overall teaching and learning experience. In todays visually literate society, video is becoming the preferred delivery medium and streaming media is a most effective way in delivering multimedia content.

The VLS has proven a valuable tool allowing us to provide standardized information and training in the means of instructional video guides on Blackboard Tools and other Technologies, available at the users disposal at their convenience and preferred format.

The particular Video Server uses Streaming Ltd services.