Scope Creep

I was on a project once where my team was hired to format training packets that Military Subject Matter Experts (SME) created.  As time went on, we started noticing that the quality of work coming from the SME’s was going down and they were struggling to write the lesson content, while managing their military commitment.  Being team players, at first under the table, we would help them by developing content to fill in the learning gasp instead of formally returning the packets.  By not returning them we were able to help improving the content of their training packets and then complete our task of formatting the packets for delivery on time.  Soon we found ourselves feeling that we could help them improved all their training packets, falling prey to the phenomenon known as scope creep (Portney, et al, 2008, p 346).  I don’t think this scope change ever became a formal change in writing but informally we were authorized to change our task scope.  We had a little problem with the new time line, we weren’t given as much time are requested and we had to adapt our own process to include the new change control system process that was developed to ensure the SME had a say in the approval of the content before we could finalize the training packets for delivery. 

Looking back I don’t know if things could have been completed differently or if the scope creep was a bad thing.  All members being professional and sharing an invested interest in the training wanted to create the best training possible, in turn causing our own scope creep for ourselves.  The contract ended before our efforts could be judged.  What I think I might have done differently is upfront I would have evaluated the skill set of the team both the ID’s and the SME’s and maybe proposed the scope change to allow ID to create lesson content in writing.  But I know because most project are won based on money and sometime the lowest bid wins even if it’s not the best.  I don’t think anything could formally have been done simply because by the time our team came aboard we were already on the down side of the contract.  Also for us to have a bigger part in the task we would have to be paid out of the PM’s project slush fund (and we were) because working on DOD contracts for the most part there isn’t much negotiating for more money. 

Reference:

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.

How Long Does It Take

Looking for information to determine how long it takes to design training led me to some very informative sites.  I have included them in my blog this week.

The following links are written by the same person or at least have one author in common both article/blogs were very useful in determining how long will it take to design training.  Even though both state that estimating time associated with cost when designing training isn’t an exacted science, the article, “How long does it take”, did offered some tips.  It used a simple mathematical method by taking an estimate of time used on a previous project’s data; e.g. if “X” took 1 hour then when designing project that include “X” the next time it should be a safe bet that the time would be the same or close to it. 

Kapp, K. (2003) How Long does it take? Estimation Methods for Developing E-Learning. Retrieved from

http://www.astd.org/LC/2003/0703_kapp.htm

 

This article provides some great tips on how to minimize factors that cause projects to become delayed.  I enjoyed reading this article it put things into perspective and provided some factors that can be used to help PM’s remain in control, to help avoid or at least minimize the amount of time wasted.  It stated that some of the reasons for why projects experience some form of delay, doesn’t necessary have to do with the project itself but in fact it’s the client and SME.  The article ends with useful tip on how to minimize this by having the PM take an active role in the issue.

Defelice, R. & Kapp, K. (2009). Time to develop one hour of training. Retrieved from

http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm

This blogs article provides a very informative, detailed process to determine the time/cost of a web project utilizing the top-down process.  It walks you through the five main phase, “define activities, define task, define human resources, and assign human resources to tasks and estimate times and cost.”  In the end offered a simple formula to use to calculate the cost.

Lupetti, A. (2009). Simple process to estimate times and costs in a web project. Retrieved from

http://woork.blogspot.com/2009/02/simple-process-to-estimate-time-and.html

I hope you enjoy these article and find them useful.

Communication

After observing a piece of communication in three different modalities: as written text, as audio, and as video, I found the following consistencies that contributed to the ineffectiveness of the communication. 

                All three methods didn’t present a clear message as to what was needed up front, the communication didn’t define “missing report” or negotiated a suspense date, in which the reports will be delivered.  Another point, the communication didn’t provide any specifics as to how the report needs to be drafted or which delivery method is required; e.g., hard copy, email, PDF etc.  Providing specific, negotiating suspense dates, and follow ups, as well as, getting a commitment to complete a task is the key to effectively communication. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, P 300)

                Both the voice mail (tone) and face-to-face (tone and body language) didn’t match the implied urgency/concern relayed in the communication, “I might miss my own deadline if I don’t get your report soon”.  All three didn’t include a requested turn around date.  The tone and body language used seemed to minimize the sense of urgency and its importance to receive the report in a timely manner.  This happens often when the requester feels uncomfortable about asking someone for information and tries to use a friendly, I understand you are busy approach to win a commitment to get what they need from this person.  This method project that your work is less important and since you communicated that you understand they are busy, you send an implied message that you will acceptance a late response or no response. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, P 300)

                What I have learned is that no matter which form of communication you use it’s important that you are specific, clear and up front with your message.  In addition it’s important to remember when communicating with voice mail and/or face-to-face you voice tones and body language needs to match the intent of the message to be an effective tool and when used incorrectly could send wrong message.

Reference:

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.

Post-Mortem Reflection

     Looking back at some of the projects that I participated in, trying to recall any project that stuck out in my mind.  I recalled working on a project, where I was to design training products that were flexible and compact, that could be used to support a mobile training team.  The project time line was unique in that both teams; Software Designers and Instructional Systems Designers (ISD) where to work parallel both moving in the same direction with what seem to me to have limited and at times no interaction with each other.  To stay on track for our part of the deliverable, my team was tasked to created training products for what might be the final system.  As you probably gathered we spent a lot of time with rework, making corrections to training products that were affected by system design changes, always at the last minute.  But this was expected due to the way the project as whole was run.  As the software team felt they had a stable section they would notify our team to go ahead and prepare to deliver its training products.  The problems came for me, when evaluating my design, checking my training products to ensure it still matched the actual system.  I would always be the lucky one to discover that they don’t match 100%.  The products were designed to teach button functionality for the system according to the system design blueprints provided but as I discovered that wasn’t always the case or there were more buttons.  The best was trying to explain this discovery to the testing team (sub-level of the system designers team) who just approved the section (dealing with it’s not my fault) and recommend that they go back now not after the approval is accepted and check my findings.  To my surprise I found out that we didn’t have the authority to make changes.  The reason as it was explained, we didn’t write the program another team was responsible and the process to make changes with them was painful.  As I thought to myself you took an hour of my time to finally admit you weren’t going to do anything and worse you are still signing off as accepting the other teams work as sound, turning an eye to this mistake.  As it was explained this happens at times when working with software projects and the work around is we get them back during the change process where we have more time under a different milestone.  

     Looking at this project from an analytical perspective it was structured with three independent mixed organizations.  Each company was structured with VP’s, group PM’s, section managers and their sub contractor’s PM, all connect at the top with client.  (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, p 69)  Although I didn’t see any one’s statement of work, from what I gathered its wording came from lawyers and high level VP’s/PM’s.  Each group’s PM creating SOW at a very high level to support their bids for the high dollar value of the project.  Another observation was during meetings where majority representation from each teams (same company/w/sub contractors) were present, it seen as if there was an atmosphere of tension between some team leaders/members, for my team a feeling that they considered training to have no value within the process simply because we didn’t have approved software to design training from.  In the end ISD and other teams whose task responsibilities were preformed in the last phase were release to save money during the rebidding of the contract.  At this point I would consider the project successful but not perfect; they did win the next contract but determined that they should wait the next go around until the software was approved to develop the training products.

      I don’t know if the process or concept of PM works differently for smaller companies than in larger companies with high dollar projects but I suspect that it’s just more complicated for larger projects?  What I would possibly do differently is to:

1.  Provide a more interactions between the teams; e.g., testing and ISD. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, p 67)

2.  Develop, document, and distribute to all team members a better process plan on how each team is to interact and address issue between them with the PM. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, p 67)

3.  Provide all team members a matrix to let everyone know how each team interface with each other and where they are located. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, p 67)

4.  Document (outline) every teams role and responsibility within the project to include the project time line. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007, p 67)

I don’t know if this is possible but I would have tried to be more a part of the development of the SOW and the agreements between the three different companies (their SOW and roles), to ensure that there was a clear and easy process to deal with program error, function issues etc. (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2007)

Reference:
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.

Welcom Fellow Project Managers

Just a quick welcome.  I look forward to blogging with all you during the next eight weeks, sharing thoughts on project management. 

Thanks for blogging with me.

Sandra Acol

Reflection

Looking into the future of distance learning and its perception among Americans, asking oneself, “will it still be offered in the future?” in my opinion is, yes if the elements listed below change with the time and technology.  Distance learning has been around since 1833 and was referred to as “mail correspondence” then. (Simonson, n.d.)  Although, it’s referred to names and training objectives have evolved through the years, it’s always served a common purpose, which was to meet the needs of students who for one reason or another couldn’t attend traditional institutions of higher learning to fulfill their need for knowledge. (Simonson, n.d.)  It’s been stated that as technology advances, social media become more popular, and user friendly the fear of technology will continue to dissipate with future generations. (Siemens, n.d.)  By further opening the doors toward acceptance of distance learning among Americans as an acceptable means for students seeking knowledge.  Statically there is a growing trended supporting the security of distance education as a recognized method of higher learning. (Mortagy & Whitby, 2010)  In a 2011 U.S. Dept of Education statistics in brief investigation there was supporting statistical data that there is a growing need among American adults between the ages of 25-64 for flexible higher education.  This need for flexibility to balance family and work obligations while pursuing a degree or credentials was noted as a contributing factor. (Radford & Weko, 2011)

Along with students needs, education and advertising will also play an important role in the perception of distance learning in the near future.  Education and advertising media will be an important vehicle used to inform the American adult population of the benefits of distance learning.  As the media keys into the benefits offered by flexible distance learning programs to attract adults to their institutions, by advertising education products/programs that meet their needs as working adult’s with families or other adult needs that are more suitable to distance learning then traditional face-to-face institution.  (Bambescia & Paolucci, 2009)  This attraction will only be successful if partnered with a changed educational process.  Education as a whole will be the driving force to change the perception as it become more and more educated with best practice methods in which to transfer knowledge from a traditional face-to-face to an online learning application. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009) 

How can an Instructional Designer (ID) be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning and be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field?  This can be done by an ID staying abreast of technology trend in education and by keeping students interest first when designing and developing distance learning products or programs.   The role of an educational ID’s will be to pay particular attention to growing trends in the economy, as well as student needs and/or concerns regarding online learning environments.  With this information an ID will be able to analyze possible trends in student enrollment and identify student educational needs.  This will help an ID be able to design and develop courses with this information in mind to help draw student awareness to the benefits associated with distance learning.  Also to help an ID will need to ensure that their pre-planning strategies are bases on solid systematic process that applies sound common sense approach to learning, that allows them to address the program’s learning objectives in a way that meets the students needs. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009)  By doing so an ID can develop a course that make learning easier by utilizing available technology already recognized by these potential student; e.g., YouTube, Facebook etc. reducing student pressure associated with their fear of not understanding how online learning works in comparison to traditional learning environments. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009) 

Two ways, I would like to offer as a means to promoting positive educational awareness of the benefits of distance learning would be, 1.  Create an online tutorial for the institutions that provide potential students with a seek preview into an online learning environment showing them how easy it is to navigate and communicate during an online course and 2.  Create a mobile tutorial presentation that can be displayed during student recruitment campaign, providing recruiter a visional mean that could help led them into an open discussion regarding the benefits of distance learning with students and/or their accompanying members by offering them information and an alternative when on the fence with attending higher learning.

Inclusion:  The success of distance learning can be described as dependent links that act as four legs that support distance learning.  These four legs are described as 1. The changes and improvements made within the educational process as a whole making the systematic process conducive to online learning, 2.  A clear understanding by the institution/ID as to what changing needs drive potential students to attend or prevent them from pursuing higher educational goals, 3. The abilities of an ID to understand these driving forces to create flexible meaningful course content that meets the institution’s educational goals/objectives as well as the student’s need to balance life’s obligation, and 4.  Design advertisement media that understand these student issues and concerns with online learning.  Along with the needs of the institution to educate and project a positive learning environment that shed light on the benefits offered to students through distance learning.  Without these elements working together distance learning will not be here in the future.  

Reference:

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

Mortagy, Y. & Boghikian-Whitby, S. (2010). A Longitudinal comparative study of studentperceptions in online education. Retrieved October 26, 2011 from http://www.ijello.org/Volume6/IJELLOv6p023-044Mortagy684.pdf

Schmidt, E., & Gallegos, A. (2001). Distance learning: Issues and concerns of distance learners. Journal of Industrial Technology, 17(3). Retrieved from http://atmae.org/jit/Articles/schmidt041801.pdf

Siemens, G. (n.d.). The Future of Distance Education. Retrieved October 26, 2011 from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5693697&Survey=1&47=7555398&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, (n.d.). Distance Learning Timeline Continuum: This multimedia, interactive timeline chronicles the evolution of distance learning from 1833–2009. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=5693697&Survey=1&47=7835415&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Radford, A. & Weko, T. (2011). US Department of Education stats in brief. Learning at a distance, NCES 2012-154 Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2012/2012154.pdf

Best Practices for Converting F2F to Blended Learning

         This week I've discovered many useful best practice tips that are most effective when converting face-to-face (F2F) learning to blended learning environments and have compelled them all into one guide.   My best practices guide starts off by defining what does it mean when someone refers to training as "blended learning" and then walk them through the pre-planning strategies using the ADDIE model systematic process.  Offering insights as to what information is needed during each of these phases to ensure a successful conversion of F2F training material into blended learning materials.  This guide offers trainers tips and makes recommendations to help them strategically formulate a good solid working plan.  The following section addresses best practice tips that trainer can use to effectively facilitate communication and foster learning among their students.  In the last section of the guide I address methods a trainer can use to determine what if any of the previous F2F learning material can be converted by pairing it with an online media that is more conducive to the online portion of the blended learning environment to enhance the students learning experience.  Ending with a brief summary of the changing roles of the trainer in a blended learning environment from trainer centered to student centered.

The following attachment provides you full access to my guide for your review.  If you have any best practice tips that I may have missed please send me a post and let me know, what tips you have found the best work.

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B2klET4CXkB3ODA3NjQzNjktN2UwNi00ZjIzLTg3N2EtNTIzZjU0ODAwZmI5&hl=en_US

Reference:

Georgouli, K., Skalkidis, I., & Guerreiro, P. (2008). A Framework for Adopting LMS to Introduce e-Learning in a Traditional Course. Educational Technology & Society, 11 (2), 227-240.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (4th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Bouchat, C. (2007). Threaded discussion tips for designers. The elearning guide’s learning solutions. Retrieved October 19, 2011, from http://www.cedma-europe.org/newsletter%20articles/eLearning20Guild/Threaded%20Discussion%20Tips%20for%20Designers%20(Dec%2007).pdf

The Impact of Open Source

Stanford Engineering Online Course, Machine Learning, http://ml-class.org//

            For this week’s blog topic, I elected to examine Stanford Engineering Online course, Machine Learning presented by Professor Ng, the Director of Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab.  The instructional designer appears to have done a very good job at pre-planning the page layout for the course.  Its layout was designed to help students understand the orienting context, instructional context, and transfer context (Morrison, G., Ross, S. & Kemp, J., 2004).  Its introduction information was divided into five sections; “About The Instructor, About The Class, What is Machine Learning, Course Description, and What You Will Learn.”  Each section provided clarification of student responsibility, course expectation and provided each student with the elements of the principal, “What’s In It For Me, (WIIFM)”.  The course homepage presented a lot of information that was well balanced between text and YouTube videos, taking into account students’ different learning styles (Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. 2009).  In my opinion this online course creates the perfect distance learning environment that is conducive by providing students with all desired information to minimize student’s stress, keeping them informed, reviewing objectives for instruction, and providing example on how they will be evaluated (Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. 2009).

After viewing the online course, I concluded that the course was developed utilizing the ADDIE process.  In each of the sections the professor provided detailed information:

• As to whom they considered the course student population by stating what level of experience they assumed the student currently posed.
• Course objectives were addressed by outlining course expectation, course break down, and course assignment time line etc.
•  Method of instructions.  The students were provided an example of what they could expect to see during a lecture.  The lecture provided samples of activities that accompanied the lecture as method to re-enforce the learning objective.
• Methods of evaluation.  Within the lecture and from the course syllabus, students are provided check- on- learning questions, project assignments in which they were required to apply the information learned and lessons learned as methods of evaluation.
• Feedback methods.  The course provided a section where students or visitors could take the time to provide feedback of their experience with the course.

The course designer has implemented very effective course activities that maximize active learning for the students.  This was accomplished by chucking the information into smaller section for each lecture.  Within each of these lectures were check-on-learning activities that drew student to participate in the learning activity, as well test their knowledge.  The course also had a number of projects that the students had to complete before the course ended.  These projects allowed students to apply their understanding of the knowledge by putting them into practice.  Each of the activities could be measured by utilizing the principal of the Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain pyramid.  The course appears to start at the lowest level and continue upward towards evaluation (Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. 2009).

References

Wickham, S. (n.d.) Using the Power of W-I-I-F-M. EZine Articles. Retrieved on

Oct 9, 2011. From http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Wickham

Morrison, G., Ross, S., & Kemp, J. (2004). Designing effective instructions (4^th ed.).

New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and

 learning at a distance foundation of distance education (4^th ed.). New York: Pearson Education Inc.

The Integration of New Technology into E-Learning

As technology advances and becomes more accessible it’s understandable that these advances will affect how students will learn in the new age.  These changes are opening the doors for companies to develop user friendly applications creating newer generations of Web tools, providing new learning opportunities for students (Beldarrain, 2006).  

By creating a strategy plan that encompasses the special needs of the learning environment, customer’s expectation, the desired learning goals, and learning principles, an instructional designer can create effective online learning experience for students (Beldarrain, 2006). 

Based on the information detailed in each of the following examples, I recommend the following Web 2. Tool solutions:

Example 2: 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 art work 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”.  

Recommend:

Video Podcast - offers students a method in which to receive information that connects them to the learning environment (Beldarrain, 2006).  

The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. uses video and lecture podcasts to provide students with a learning experience full of information connecting them to the world of art.

http://www.nga.gov/podcasts/index.shtm

Browser Plug Ins – ADOBE Shockwave player and ADOBE Flash player provides designers the tools to develop interactive learning environments for students.  These created learning environments allow students the ability to engage in learning activities to re-enforce student learning.

The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. uses browser plug-ins to create online interactive learning environments for children of all ages.  The Art Zone has a host of activities that fosters and re-enforces learning.  These activities allow students to apply their knowledge of art by creating their own art.

http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm

Example 3: Asynchronous Training – “In an effort to improve its poor safety record, a biodiesel manufacturing plant needs a series of safety training modules. These stand-alone modules must illustrate best practices on how to safely operate the many pieces of heavy machinery on the plant floor. The modules should involve step-by-step processes and the method of delivery needs to be available to all shifts at the plant. As well, the shift supervisors want to be sure the employees are engaged and can demonstrate their learning from the modules”.

Recommend:

YouTube Video – Allows educator to create quick instructional video guides that can be tailored to a specific topic that can be integrate onto the web or into a web based training product.  YouTube video applications offer mobile training thru apps that allow students to receive the information on the go thru their Smart phones, iPhones, Android phones, or Blackberries, (Shoaf, J., 2009).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C6js5JtCIQ

The above recommended Web tools all provide a form of collaboration, allowing students the means to activity participate in their learning.  

Reference:

National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., Copyright © 2011

Shoaf, J. (2009). 3 Benefits to using YouTube in E-Learning, Integrated Learning Service. Retrieved September 25, 2011 from http://blog.integratedlearningservices.com/2009/12/3-benefits-to-using-youtube-in-your-e.html

Safety Videos Shop (2009). 10 Commandments of Workplace Safety (2009), Retrieved September 25, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C6js5JtCIQ