Dealing with Project Scope Creep

It seems inevitable....  A project can often take on a life of its own, and before you know it, scope creep happens. Most of us are familiar with the concept of scope creep. It’s not uncommon for the members of a project team to “try to improve the project’s output as the program progresses, a phenomenon known as scope creep” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 346). Scope creep occurs when the specifications of a project are increased mid-steam, usually as a result of a well-intentioned desire to improve the end results of a project.

No matter how hard members of a team might try to resist scope creep, it’s not an unusual occurrence. I think it often stems from the enthusiastic desires of project team members to create a fantastic project. This happened to a project I was recently involved in. I was part of a team creating a curriculum for accelerated, self-paced online CIS (computer information science) program. Our goal was to create a path for displaced adult workers to return to college and complete a college certification in a shortened timeframe, so that they could get back out into the workforce with a credential that would help pave the way for them to secure new employment. Our project was focused not just on creating the online curriculum, but also on helping these displaced worker students successfully find new employment after they finished the certificate program. Well into the project, we realized that this student population lacked certain knowledge and skills that they would need to find good future employment. They needed help with things like preparing their resumes, knowing how to search for jobs in the 21st century, and practicing their interviewing skills. Into the project, we decided to create an online, self-paced course that we would offer as a free resource to our student population. This course wasn’t required as part of the CIS certification, but it would certainly help them better prepare for finding and securing future employment. This new component to our project certainly added to our workload and put stress on already fully committed resources, but we decided that the added work was worth it, because of the value that the additional course would provide to our students.

So, how does a project manager plan for scope creep? “Project managers must expect change and be prepared to deal with it. Fighting change is not appropriate. The best approach is to set up a well-controlled, formal process whereby changes can be introduced and accomplished with as little distress as possible” (Portny et al., 2008, p. 346). In hindsight, maybe if we had planned better (i.e., done more brainstorming at the beginning of the project to determine what the project would need), we might have anticipated the extra course in the beginning, which certainly would have helped us in the initial planning work. But we didn’t. And we made the decision, in the midst of the project, to add this additional course to our project despite the added pressure it put on resources and our schedule. The resources who would be responsible for the extra work were the ones who ultimately made the decision to go forward with the extra course. It was definitely scope creep, but the team as a whole decided it was worth the extra work.

References

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.

Communication: It’s All in the Presentation

The Assignment: For an exercise on communication this week, in my Project Management in Education & Training course, I experienced a piece of workplace communication in three different modes: print, a voice mail message, and a video, via a multimedia presentation called The Art of Effective Communication (Laureate Education, n.d.). The content of the communication was exactly the same in all three scenarios, but the feel of the message differed by modality of communication.

The Message: In the communication, the sender (Jane) is asking the receiver (Mark) for a particular report that is apparently “missing.” Jane needs some data from Mark’s report in order to finish her report and submit it on time. She’s running the risk of having her report submitted late, because she is waiting for data that Mark has. Jane asks Mark to give her an ETA on his report, or to send her just the data she needs separately.

My Reactions: I had different reactions to experiencing the communication in three different modalities. Of the three modalities, I was most uncomfortable with the voice mail message; I felt that Jane’s message came across in a slightly more negative way in the voice mail message, as compared to the other two modalities. The voice message seemed somewhat accusatory to me. I found the e-mail communication to be neutral (neither negative nor positive) – it certainly could have been worded more diplomatically, though. I found the video, which represents face-to-face communication, to be the most positive modality for Jane to communicate her message to Mark; in the face-to-face communication, Jane’s demeanor and body language were sympathetic and nonthreatening to Mark.

What Does This Mean for Communicating with Project Team Members? Interpersonal communication can make or break a team. We all interpret communication in different ways, and the mode of the communication has a huge impact on how the receiver perceives the message. Written communications, such as e-mail messages, must be worded very carefully as to not create a wrong impression. Someone might write what they think is a fine e-mail, only to have it interpreted in a completely different way by the receiver. Voice messages have the benefit of allowing the speaker to control the inflection and tone of his or her voice, but this can work for or against the caller, depending upon his or her facility with spoken communication. As Dr. Stolovich asserts in the media presentation Communicating with Stakeholders, diplomacy is  a key facet of communication within a project team (Laureate Education, n.d.). According to Dr. Stolovich, face-to-face communication, which allows for body language to accompany the message, should be used to communicate important information to all members of a team; and it’s important to realize that 93% of a conversation is not in the words, but in the tone, body language, and timing (Laureate Education, n.d.). Poor communication can undermine the effectiveness of teams (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008). Both informal and formal communications should be planned and delivered in a thoughtful way, and certainly not haphazardly. “The key to successful project management is effective communication – sharing the right messages with the right people in a timely manner. Through communication people exchange and share information with one another, and influence one another’s attitudes, behaviors, and understandings" (Portny et al., 2008, p. 357).

How Can I Use This Information to Communicate More Effectively? I found this exercise to be very helpful. I was surprised by how much variation I detected in the same message being delivered in three different modalities. In my work life, I like to communicate by e-mail, because it gives me a written record of information that is sent and received. I am very careful in how I word my e-mail messages, and I read them over more than once to listen for the tone and demeanor. I also realize, from the exercise, that nothing beats face-to-face communication for allowing the sender to communicate a message in the most accurate way possible, particularly when the message is somewhat difficult and perhaps sensitive.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). The Art of Effective Communication [DVD]. Baltimore, MD.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Communicating with Stakeholders [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Dr. Harold Stolovitch.

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,

Reviewing a Project in Hind Sight

“It's important for project managers and team members to take stock at the end of a project and develop a list of lessons learned so that they don't repeat their mistakes in the next project. Typically such reviews are called  post-project reviews or "post mortems’” (Greer, 2010, p. 42).

At the conclusion of any project, it’s helpful to collect the “lessons learned” (Greer, 2010). Lessons learned allow us to learn from our mistakes and perform better in future projects. A post mortem review allows all of the members of a project team to reflect and identify both what went well with a project and what didn’t go well. By capturing the collective experiences and views of the project team, the team members can use this knowledge to improve upon their project management skills the next time a project is undertaken.

Recently I applied the technique of conducting a post mortem review of a project that I, as an instructional designer, worked on recently. The project entailed working with a college faculty member to develop a new online course. This online course was unique in that we were going to implement a new feature in this course that would set it apart from the courses that we usually offered. The course design would be very innovative and open up new doors and opportunities for faculty teaching online courses by allowing individual faculty members who would be teaching the course to pick and choose elements of the course that they wanted to use – rather like a buffet, from which the faculty could pick and choose lessons, activities, and assessments to their liking. This mode of course design would allow faculty members to offer “themed” versions of the course. The design was established in a collaborative manner by me, the instructional designer, and the faculty member. The faculty member was excited about the new innovative course design. The project broke down, though, when it came time to discuss how the course would be implemented and deployed in the learning management system. The faculty member had in mind that the course would be implemented in a particular way, but I, as the instructional designer, informed her that her vision of how the course would be implemented in the learning management system was not practical from an ongoing maintenance perspective, and that it violated some important departmental policies. When I explained how we would have to implement the new course design in the LMS, she was very disappointed and unhappy with the plan. This disconnect between how the faculty member envisioned implementing the course in the LMS and how it would actually need to be implemented was so great that the faculty member withdrew her support for the innovative project altogether. Instead, a traditional course was developed that had none of the innovations we were intending.

In hindsight, it is clear to me that there should have been more discussion and planning in the early stages of the course design process, so that expectations of both the faculty member and the online course development department could be identified, addressed, and explored more fully. The faculty member, who was a key stakeholder in the project, had certain ideas and expectations in her mind that were not articulated, and she had made certain assumptions. Likewise, I as the instructional designer had made certain assumptions that had not been communicated to the faculty member earlier in the requirements gathering and design process. In the end, articulating and exploring our differences in vision may not have saved the innovative nature of the project, but it would have saved us time in that we would not have gone so far down the design and development phase before we realized there was a disconnect and our path would need to be changed. We ended up doing a lot of design and development work that was ultimately scrapped.

In my example of a project post mortem, inadequate communication of visions and unspoken assumptions were the weak links in the project process. In future projects, I would use those important “lessons learned” to prevent similar mistakes from occurring. I would be more specific and more thorough in documenting and describing all assumptions about a course design project, its design, development and implementation, particularly when the implementation was going to be something different than our normal process.

References

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

The Future of Distance Education

Despite having existed in one form or another for well over a century – from its early days as mail and telephone correspondence courses, to video and computer-based education, to its more recent flourishing thanks to Internet technologies and tools – distance education is in its formative years and is on track to revolutionize education in the modern world.  In the past few decades, in particular, educators and institutions have begun to systematically embrace distance education as a serious and viable contender for the hearts and minds of learners of all ages and backgrounds. Today, educators, instructional designers, and institutions are coming together to design and develop engaging, enriching, and highly-stimulating online courses that are taking distance education to a whole new level. While not all distance education offered today is up to the standards demanded of excellent education, there are many institutions that are offering amazing online education to students of all ages, from K-12 to higher education. Distance education is already revolutionizing how we define and consume education. And while there is no shortage of skeptics today, one day distance education will change the face of education as we know it.

Public perception of distance education has changed greatly in the recent past. The widespread acceptance of Internet technology tools – such as video conferencing and other social networking tools – that allow people to converse and form relationships despite geographical separation has changed our ideas about what it means to communicate and interact with others without being face-to-face in the same room (Laureate Education, n.d.).  I think public perception about the quality and viability of distance learning will continue to steadily climb. As the quality of online education continues to rise, through the application of sound research and best practices, public perception of the value and relevance of online education will rise, too. I recently conducted an informal interview, asking about the value of online education, and even the notable skeptic in my interview pool admitted that public perception about online education will continue to rise over time. The numbers of students engaging in online learning – from K-12 to higher education – continues to climb. Also, the quality of online education continues to rise. As the quality improves, more students will flock to online learning because of the many advantages that it offers. I can envision a future in which the majority of learners engage in some form of online learning, challenging the role of traditional brick-and-mortar institutions as the primary vehicles for education.

Instructional designers, along with teachers and educational institutions, play a significant role in promoting and championing the future of distance learning. The future of distance learning hinges primarily on the quality of the educational experiences offered. As the bar continues to be raised, and quality continues to improve – along with the development of new and better tools for cognitive engagement and social interaction across geographical distances – distance learning will increasingly become a viable and valued mode for education worldwide. The advantages that distance learning offers students from all levels are significant. Logistics, mobility, access to education, affordability, and flexibility are just some of the tangible advantages offered by distance learning that should not be underestimated. Today, some of the best online educational experiences available are also some of the most affordable. As the quality and acceptance of online education continue to rise, at what point will some students turn away from very expensive brick-and-mortar institutions in favor of more flexible and more affordable online institutions? I think there will be a tipping point, and that point will redefine the nature of education worldwide.

I am admittedly a cheerleader for online learning. I have been an instructional designer of online learning for adults for over 20 years. I have seen how the field has continued to evolve as the bar continues to rise. I, myself, am pursuing a second master’s degree through an online institution, and I find myself taking part in an incredibly well-designed, well-developed, and rigorous academic program. Even my own hopeful and optimistic expectations have been surpassed. As a certified master reviewer and trainer for Quality Matters – a national organization that promotes quality in online education – I am working actively to help institutions of all levels, from K-12 to higher education, improve and refine their online courses. We instructional designers have the privilege of being on the forefront of the evolution of distance learning. As instructional designers, we should never be content with the status quo. We should always strive for improvement. Our efforts to promote quality online education, along with the efforts of dedicated teachers, faculty and innovative institutions, will help pave the way for an education revolution that is based on quality and innovation, rather than geography and tradition.

References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). The Future of Distance Education [DVD]. Baltimore, MD.  Dr. George Siemens

Converting a Face-to-Face Course to a Blended Learning Format

Distance education, also known as online education, offers many benefits to both trainers and learners. Often, training facilitators are interested in taking advantage of these many benefits by incorporating aspects of distance education into their face-to-face training sessions. This method of training – a combination of face-to-face training and online training – is referred to as a blended learning format. 

A blended learning format allows facilitators to take advantage of the benefits of face-to-face learning and online learning. One approach to designing a blended approach that includes both in-class learning and online learning is called the flipped classroom model. The flipped classroom model provides a reliable blueprint to help you design your new blended learning program.

Some of the important things to consider when converting a traditional face-to-face course into a blended learning format include:

• What exactly is a blended learning format?
• What are the best strategies for converting a face-to-face course into a blended format?
• How much of the course should be in the classroom and how much should be online?
• What activities should stay in the classroom?
• What activities should go online?
• How does the role of the course facilitator change when moving from a face-to-face format to a blended one?
• How can a facilitator encourage students to communicate effectively online?

The attached guide provides tips, strategies, and recommendations for how a new level of effective training can be achieved by combining best practices and models of training to make the most of a blended training format.

Converting Face-to-Face Training to Blended Learning

Review of an Open Source Course

For my project this week, I reviewed ASTR 160 – Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics (Open Yale Courses). This undergraduate astronomy course, which is designed for nonscience majors, focuses on the study of three important topics in astronomy today: Extra-Solar Planets, Black Holes, and Dark Energy. 

Course: ASTR 160 – Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics (Open Yale Courses)

URL: http://oyc.yale.edu/astronomy/astr-160

Does the course appear to be carefully pre-planned and designed for a distance learning environment? How so?

               ASTR 160 – Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics (Open Yale Courses) is offered free of charge to anyone interested in taking it. Learners do not receive any course credit for taking this course. This course is not really designed to be a distance learning course at all. Rather, it provides a snapshot of the classroom course that was taught by Professor Charles Bailyn at Yale University, in 2007. The original classroom course, which was offered in Spring 2007, met twice per week for 50 minutes. This “online course” is simply a videotaping of Professor Bailyn’s lectures during that 2007 term. Included with the online offering are the following:

• video recordings of the Professor’s lectures (videos) – very good quality
• copies of his overhead slides written during the lectures (PDF files) – rather poor quality
• copies of the exams with solutions (PDF files)
• copies of the homework assignments with solutions (PDF files)

Watching the video lectures is fascinating, as it allows one to take a peek inside a Yale University astronomy classroom and listen to an entire course worth of lectures on fascinating and cutting edge topics. It’s very interesting viewing, if one has a keen interest in the topic, but it’s highly inadequate as distance education. There was absolutely no preplanning or design work performed to transform the classroom course into a distance learning course, but that was never the intention of Open Yale Courses.

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

               This course is not designed to be an online course. It is merely a snapshot of a synchronous, instructor-led classroom course that was been recorded and put online as-is – the worst method possible for putting a class online, as Dr. Michael Simonson describes in his media presentation Theory and Distance Learning (Laureate Education, n.d.). The purpose for putting this lecture class online is simply personal enrichment. The lectures were videorecorded and posted online, and copies of the exams and homework problems, along with the solutions, are provided, so that the students can test themselves and check their answers. This course has none of the features of what is considered to be good online learning: there is no interaction, no active learning, no mechanism for receiving feedback from the instructor, there is no connection with peers. In fact, I would argue that the design of this classroom course itself – which relies heavily upon classroom lecture – is not a good model for putting online. ASTR 160 is based upon a lecture series, a “sage on the stage” presentation of information – a method of passive instruction that is in increasing disfavor in education (Grove, 2012). Dr. George Piskurich, in his media presentation Planning and Designing Online Courses, addresses the undesirability of lecturing in online courses (Laureate Education, n.d.). While ASTR 160 does not use PowerPoint slides, it’s still a primarily lecture-based course that does not take advantage of technology to enrich the course. None of the recommendations and processes defined by Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek (2012) were put into practice when this course was placed online. But, that was never the intention of Open Yale Courses; their intention was never to develop and release a quality online course; rather, their intention was simply to give access to the content of a Yale classroom course to anyone who wanted it.

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

               There is very little active learning in the course. It is expected that the student will passively listen to the lectures and self test, if they have the desire to do so. There is no personal accountability as part of this online course. There are homework problems, with solutions provided, so that students can work the problems themselves and check their solutions. But there is no textbook, which eliminates the possibility of active learning through reading. In fact there are no other assignments, other than viewing the recorded lectures. Simonson et al. (2012) provide a variety of suggestions for ways to build active learning into an online course. It would have been very easy to add elements of active learning to this online course, simply by providing a textbook or some type of reading assignments, and by offering links to open source astronomy videos that illustrate the course topics (these types of videos are plentifully available on YouTube). The simple addition of these types of components would have provided opportunities for students to engage in active learning. A discussion board could have been added to the course site, allowing students to post ideas and comments, and join in discussions, thereby allowing for some student-to-student interaction. Simonson et al. highlight the importance and value in offering opportunities for discussion in online courses, to promote active learning. This is not to say that the online course experience is poor. I found the lectures to be fascinating, as the topic is of great personal interest to me, but I understand that the experience is limited in what it can offer me as a distance learner.

References

Anderson, N. (2013, February 7). MOOCs take a step toward college credit - Washington Post. Featured Articles From The Washington Post. Retrieved February 11, 2013, from http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-02-07/local/36958661_1_moocs-coursera-college-credit

Antioch University Becomes First US Institution to Offer Credit for MOOC Learning Through Coursera | Antioch University Los Angeles. (2012, October 29). Antioch University Los Angeles. Retrieved February 11, 2013, from http://www.antiochla.edu/news-events/media-and-press-room/antioch-university-becomes-first-us-institution-offer-credit-mooc-l

Bailyn, C. (2007) ASTR 160 – Frontiers and Controversies in Astrophysics, 2007.  (Yale University: Open Yale Courses), retrieved from http://oyc.yale.edu/astronomy/astr-160. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Grove, J. (2012, July 12). Times Higher Education - Sage on the stage - your time is up. Times Higher Education - World University Rankings, education news and university jobs. Retrieved February 11, 2013, from http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=420556

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Planning and Designing Online Courses [DVD]. Baltimore, MD.  Dr. George Piskurich and Jacqueline Chauser.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Theory and Distance Learning [DVD]. Baltimore, MD.  Dr. Michael Simonson.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Solutions for a Training Problem

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.

Two Proposed Technology Solutions:

I would like to propose two technology solutions to address the training need identified in Example 3:  videos and job aids accessible via digital devices. The problem highlighted in the example is that more training is needed at a biodiesel manufacturing plan on how to safely operate the heavy machinery on the plant floor. The safety record at the plant is not at the level that it should be. The type of training should by asynchronous and it should allow the shift supervisors to be sure that the employees are engaged and can demonstrate the skills that they have learned. I propose a 2-part solution to the training need: videos and job aids available on digital devices.

Solution Part 1 - Videos: In order to solve this training problem, students must be able to see demonstrations of “best practices on how to safely operate” the heavy machinery so that they know exactly how to operate the equipment. To do this, I propose developing a series of high-quality videos that allow students to see clearly and precisely what steps should be performed, and how, when operating the equipment. The students need to be able to see the “right” way to do things. The videos should focus in on the equipment and the user in order to see the precise level of details needed in order to convey the proper equipment handling steps. The videos could be presented, or narrated, by a skilled operator of the machinery. Here is an example of a video that is designed to show a learner how to use equipment safely and appropriately; this is a Butane Torch Safety instructional video provided by the jewelry site Beaducation. (http://www.beaducation.com/vids/watch_class/158). This video demonstrates very clearly how effective video can be in demonstrating the proper usage of equipment in a situation where safety is paramount. It is easy to imagine how a video could be designed to be effective in the scenario presented in Example 3. Through online tests, students can be assessed on their knowledge of the proper steps in using this equipment to ensure that they have mastered the content. Prerecorded media, such as videos, can be highly-effective learning tools when they are designed well. As they are prerecorded, they can be used whenever needed, by whomever needs them. Videos have a long history of use in distance learning, and they continue to offer tremendous value, particularly when a learner needs to be able to “see” and perhaps “hear” something being done. This type of approach to learning is often used by companies as they develop asynchronous learning materials to satisfy training needs (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012).

Solution Part 2 – Job Aids on Digital Devices: To supplement the videos, I propose providing a series of “job aids” in the form of PDF files that employees would have available to them on portable digital devices, such as tablets or other smart devices, located right next to the equipment in question. The job aids would include equipment diagrams and sequential steps, presented as reminders to the employees, along with important safety reminders, cautions, and warnings. These job aids would be called upon as needed, to refresh an employee’s memory about how to perform certain tasks in a safe manner. A company called Wild Blue Tools has an example of a safety performance digital job aid: (http://wildbluetools.com/content/FS/20/22/002_PreInstallPrepJobAid.pdf). A similar job aid, tailored to this specific training need, could be customized and designed to be highly-effective in the scenario at hand. The particular learners in this scenario are adults in the workforce who need further professional development, i.e., further training in safety procedures related to the work they perform on heavy equipment on a plant floor. As adults in the workforce, they are considered nontraditional learners, and as such, applying adult learning strategies would serve them well. By providing digital job aids that would be available when and where they are needed, within the context of their jobs, this training solution offers the learners an opportunity to be self-directed learners. "If students enrolled in a course are working adults, the course design should incorporate the basic principles of adult learning. Adults are more self-directed and have specific reasons for taking the course" (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012, pg. 136).

References

Beaducation, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Butane Torch Safety [DVD]. Redwood City, CA. Joe Silvera.

Pre-Installation Preparation Job Aid. (n.d.). Wild Blue Tools. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from wildbluetools.com/content/FS/20/22/002_PreInstallPrepJobAid.pdf

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.