Analyzing Scope Creep

This week I was ask to describe a project either personal or professional that I have experience issues relate to scope creep. A scope creep is a tendency to the client, well project team members, can improve the result of the project (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008). A change control can reduce a scope creep. A scope creep can affect a project and a project manager needs to handle the change effectively.


As an IT Administrator, working with many factors can abrupt when dealing on daily basics. I coordinate services to employees and outside contractors. I have to deal with many different request and issues that can come up. I was setting up a conference room with projector, keyboard, mice, and computer. The client wanted to be able to connect to the internet. I setup a wireless internet that non employees can be able to access the internet and not the company’s network. This allowed our office to be the first spot where client can access the internet and open conference space. A risk that came up is scheduling conflict of the conference room. There will be issues on scheduling conflict and client’s needs.

To better control a real project for my company is to setup the conference prior with the clients request. A project manager conducts an assessment of what are the requirements of setup the conference room. Most important of controlling a scope creep is to be not afraid of expecting issues that can arise. The IT Administrator must be prepare and plan for anything that can pop up. The delay of equipment not working can cause a meeting not to happen on time. The risk management is an important part of a managing any project. I continue to research technology and issues that improve my connection with my client’s needs.

Katie

References:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Tracking progress and maintaining control. In Project Management: Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling Projects (pp. 317-355). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Communicating Effectively

Communicating Effectively

There are multiple forms of effective communication by sharing the message to the right people in a timely matter (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, 2008, p. 359). To communicate both oral and written can be a critical part for a project manager. The message can be delivering by written text, visual and video. The multimedia program “The Art of Effective Communication” provides different modality of presenting information to your client.

Dr. Stolovitch (n.d.) states that effective communication is the influence by:

1. Spirit and attitude

2. Tonality and body language
3. Timing
4. Personality of the recipient

A project manager must be able to communicate to their audience in a straightforward matter no matter how you want to share information. It is important for each project team member to understand the message. Not all team members have the same way to understand the information.  

Email

First, the written text with the use of multimedia is presented in a email format to a colleague. The written text is the central part and words must be carefully chosen to minimize the misunderstanding of the message (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, 2008, p. 358). An important factor of the written text is to keep a standard format by making it easier for the audience to look for information. Jane must stay focus on the main goal of the topic. However, the written text can loss the some influential factors when presenting to another individual or client. The written text does not allow the audience to ask questions to make sure they have clarified of the content. The Jane cannot verify that Mark has received the message.  

Voicemail

Second, the voicemail is another way for individuals to communicate a message. Jane did a great job on reminding Mark the importance of meeting the deadline. Jane explains the importance of Mark finishing his part of the project.

Face-to-Face

The final deliverable is the use of face to face communication. The message can be lost in an audio conversation between individuals. Jane’s body language was all about business with no direct connection. The effective communication between Jane and Mark shared important information through the use of face to face interaction. Communication is design to be one of the most effective ways to share information. A meeting between individuals is another great way to share information in a face to face environment. Team meetings are a very valuable tool because individuals are able to plan and manage effectively (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, 2008, p. 359).

Communicating with Project Managers

The communication seen to be continues through each systematic process. Jane needed to motivate Mark with the use of a project progress report. A project progress report is a help tool because problems and corrective action can take place before moving into the next stage. Jane needs to make Mark accountable of his project. Project managers must hold individual accountable of their assignment to make sure it is complete on time.

Katie

References:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Communicating and documenting project progress. In Project Management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects (pp. 356-370). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Stolovitch, H. (n.d.). Communicating with Stakeholders. Lecture presented for Laureate Education Inc

Learning from Project Post-Mortem

Project “Post Mortem” is important for project managers and team members to take into account after a project. It is a great way to learner from mistakes and reward success. The questions are asked by individual team, members that allow them to work independently on their own thoughts (Greer, M, 2010, p. 42). I feel it is a great way to make sure the same mistakes are not repeating.

In my current profession as IT Administrator I enjoy many unexpected activities that need to be resolve very quickly. However, there are projects that take a long time to plan and execute. For example, I am creating a classified conference room with an assortment of IT equipment. I did a lot of research before choosing the right equipment. I have to keep the Executives and Supervisor needs in mind when presenting the equipment for the office. However, I forgot one important factor when gathering my research I forgot to provide a lot of assortments of technology tools. With the equipment being classified, there are many other rules that need to be kept in mind. With a little experience with classified equipment, I missed out on making sure the equipment meets the classified standards. After I present the equipment list, my supervisor provided me with detail guidance. His guidance helped me understand the importance of a classified system. I feel the one thing that failed was not asking enough questions about the equipment of a classified system. A few questions that I ask myself for executing the project:

 After the project questions:

1. How would you do things differently next time to avoid frustration?

2. How could we have improved our need-feasibility or analysis phase?

3. How could we have improved our work process for creating deliverables?

The organization of the project is an importance when presenting my research. I have a strong working relationship with my supervisor that made it easy for me to receive feedback. One way I feel I can improve in the future is developing a matrix organization, “enable a quick and efficient response to projects that must be performed under today’s dynamic business conditions” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, 2008, p. 61). The project management has three basic operations planning, organizing and controlling. The planning stage is the first and most important part to a project. A project manager uses the planning stage to keep track of the requirements of the project. To establish a plan helps the project manager to, “clarify details and reduce the chances of forgetting something” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, and Kramer, 2008, p. 79). To acquire the project information the project manager must be able to assign task to team members.

Katie

References:

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

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., & Sutton, M, Kramer, B. (2009). Project management: planning, scheduling and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

EDUC 6145 – 4, Project Management in Education and Training

Welcome to my blog. I created this blog to continue my journey as an Instructional Designer at Walden University.  You will find a great deal of information of my course work at Walden University.  Also, you can join my site. 

Katie

A7McCollK - Best Practice Guide

The Best Practice Guide for Trainers – Strategies and Tips explain the steps to integrate a course before posting online. The practice guide explains the steps and the important strategies that a trainer needs to develop an effective course. The guide outlines the use of integrating pre-planning strategies tips, structure, videos, and charts to have in a blended course. To improve an original training program a trainer needs to keep in mind the barriers, course structure, and technology tools. The role for the trainer is to keep the trainees in focus during the course discussions. The tips to improve a trainee communication are important because it increases interaction in the course. The guide provides additional articles in Appendix A – C that explains additional way to improve a blended course.

Katie McColl

The Impact of Open Source

The Open Course site I chose is Open Yale Course, http://oyc.yale.edu/. The course I will examine is Introduction – Freeman’s Top Five Tips for Studying the American Revolution, http://oyc.yale.edu/history/the-american-revolution/content/sessions/lecture01.html.  This course will offers 5 study tips for learners to understand the professor’s main goals (Open Yale Course, n.d.).

1. Avoid thinking about the Revolution as a story about facts and dates.

2. Remember that words we take for granted today, like “democracy,” had very different meanings.
3. Think of the “founders” as real people rather than mythic historic figures.
4. Remember that the “Founders” aren’t the only people who count in the Revolution.
5. Remember the importance of historical contingency: that anything could have happened during the Revolution.

This course conducts in a straightforward matter that relates to pre-planning. The course syllabus is clearly structure and points out what the learner is going to accomplish at the end of the course. The 5 study tips are a great pre-planned function that learners can use as a guide in the distance learning environment. The objectives of this course are to state, “the conditions under which learning should occur, the performance expected of the learner, and the standard to which the performance will be matched” (Simonson, 2009, p. 132). The learners are able to stay ahead of the course reading and take notes. This course patently is designed for distance learning. The instructor provides learners with written transcript, video, and audio for the course. The visuals help learners to simplifying and have a clear understanding of the course information. Simonson best describe a course to have “the well-organized procedure that provides guidance to even the novice distance instructor” (Simonson, 2009, p. 249).

This course offers regular reading assignments and detail grading system. This course is very similar to the Walden University Online Courses. It provides learners with many different types of tools to be in aligned with the distance learning environment. The best way for an instructor to implement their course activities is to maximize their learning materials. The instructor must become, “familiar with the hardware and the nuance of the technology use them with effective teaching” (Simonson, 2009, p. 135).

The online instructions of the course textbooks give the learners the ability to follow along easily. This course is design of adult learners that are self-directed and self-motivation learners. They can easily access the course materials to maximum their learning experience. The course schedule does not micromanage learners. Learners are able to do the readings and writing assignments at their own pace. The expectation of the course requirements a clear set of instructions and communication through the syllabus. The course objectives are clear and align with the course materials. The course links learners and instructor with an open line of communication through the use of discussion boards and emails.

References:

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

Freeman, Joanne. Professor of History, Yale University. HIST 116: The American Revolution (Spring, 2010). Retrieved on July 29, 2011 from http://oyc.yale.edu/history/the-american-revolution/content/syllabus.

Interactive Tools in Distance Learning

I selected Example 2: Interactive Tours, because high school students do not have the ability to travel to New York to see exhibits. The learners need to use technology tools to assistant them with understanding the artwork and communicate with the museum curators. That is why a blended of learning is a great way for learners to view the exhibit and participate with other students in a group setting. The high school history teacher is locate on the west coast and the students. However, the art exhibits are held in New York museums. The integration of technology and face-to-face group setting are a great place for learners to increase their understanding of artwork. The use of two-way audio gives the teacher and students the ability to communicate with museum curators in real time. The museum curator can also provide learners with additional audio to have for future reference. The history teacher wants to provide their learners a place where they can ingrate technology into a high school classroom. Introducing technology to learners at a young age will provide the benefit of using technology into education.

The distance learning technologies I suggestion to this teacher would to use LectureShare because it is a great place for teachers to share video, audio, PowerPoint slides, blog, and images of the artwork to the learners. This technology is an open environment where learners, teachers, and museum curators to communicate about the display of artwork. The LectureShare lets, “instructors post lecture notes to their students, or the world, quickly and easily” (LectureShare, 2011). The instructor can post assignments, videos, and communicate with other learners on the site. Students can receive the course information from their home computer. Even the museum curators can post videos and images of art work on the site. The teacher will work with the museum curators to post artwork dicusses to the learners.  LectureShare does not give the teacher limitations on what they can post on the site. This technology is, “highly participatory and promotes collaboration, networking, sharing, and the widespread generation of content, and the editing and mixing of content from diverse sources for new purpose” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 244). The LectureShare, http://www.lectureshare.com offers learners with an online search tool to view the current catalog of courses.

The course Online Testing Software is a course that offers individuals employment and training modules to help business grow in this financial trouble. The ProProfs, http://www.proprofs.com/training/ is online distance learning tool where companies can develop training module quick and easy. The online training module gives company’s an easy way to offer training and testing online without company time. The students are able to take quizzes, review documents, and take notes during their training session. It is an easy way to gather all employees in one location without the high experience. With companies being establishing worldwide employees do not have to meet in one location but rather online to take a training course.

Also, GoToMeeting http://www.gotomeeting.com is a technology tool that most companies and education institutions use to collaborate and provide demos to learners. The site also offers other useful meeting tools like, GoToWebinar and GoToTraining. An individual is able to host or join meetings.  For example, the museum curators can provide teachers and students live presentations on the museum artwork. The teacher can broadcast audio conferencing in the classroom where students can hear and participant with the museum curators.

Katie McColl

References:

LectureShare, Retrieved July 16, 2011 from http://www.lectureshare.com/

 GoToMeeting, Retrieved July 17, 2011 from http://www.gotomeeting.com/fec/

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

Defining Distance Learning

My former personal definition of Distance Learning is similar to Schlosser & Simonson that there are multiple meanings that range a wide range of media. I do not feel there is one meaning of distance learning. The participant can be small or large groups and includes an instructor. The instructor communicates to the learner with the use of online discussion boards, email, and chat rooms. The range of ways distance learning is interconnection by the electronic devices, technical media, communication, institutions, and online technical resources. It can be a combination of any time of these tools that I defined.

First part of distance learning is the use of electronic devices a learner can use to stay connected to their instructor and fellow learners. The electronic devices iPhone, Laptop, and Apple iPad are a few examples learners can use to stay connected anywhere in the world. These devices have wireless Internet. The learners are able to, “receive instruction that originates from some distance location” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 33). Technical media like audio, print text, and video have given learners over the years a better use of implementing their understanding of distance learning.

I have been involved in distance learning since I was in undergraduate education. My first experience with taking an online course was at the Riverside Community College in California. The course was 16 weeks summer session about “Introduction to Art”. The course is designed similar to the Walden University course. I had to research art paintings, and the exams were multiple choice, essay questions, and matching. At the end of course, we were assign to go to art museums to see the art in person. I found the course to be more interested because I was able to discuss my ideas of art online and go to art museums. I was able to use the course materials and Internet to gather information about artwork.

Compared to my previous experience distance learning I feel it has with the improvement of technology tools. Since my first online course, the increase of online technical resources has helped me stay connected and brain storm ideas more effectively. I created my first Blog and designed a mind maps at Walden University. I learned a lot of information on how to develop a mind map and use RSS Google.

I am currently looking to Distance Learning to aid my coworkers my current profession to help them stay connected to their clients and coworkers. The employees are able to use email and online chats to stay connected to their client. The employees are able to engage their client more efficiently than face-to-face. No matter the institutions a learner can use distance learning to build a strong relationship with their instructor or client.

No matter the technology I implement distance learning the information must be organize in a coherent matter. The information that is presenting must be in, “a manner consistent with how we organized the world conceptually or logically” (Morrison, Ross, Kalman, and Kemp, 2011, p. 140). Technology has dramatically improved and revamped to work for all types of learners. Distance learning is a great way to keep the learners more involved in their education progress.

Katie McColl 

References:

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

Morrison, G., Ross, S., Kalman, H., & Kemp, J. (2011). Designing Effective Instruction (6^th ed.) John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

EDUC 6135

Hello Fellow Learner,

I am very eager to learn from everyone about distance learning. Feel free to comment on my post with your great ideas and thoughts.

Katie