Analyzing Scope Creep

The week six assignment is to post a blog using the following as a guide. Describe a project, either personal or professional, that experienced issues related to scope creep. What specific scope creep issues occurred? How did you or other stakeholders deal with those issues at the time? Looking back on the experience now, had you been in the position of managing the project, what could you have done to better manage these issues and control the scope of the project?

This project was about skirmishing illiteracy among adults in Ghana. According to the URL below, the project started as mass literacy campaign in 1951 as part of overall community development program. The primary aim of this project was to teach adult to read and write in their own languages as well as in English language. Efforts continued during the 1950s and the 1960s, and in the 1970s an extensive literacy campaign was launched under the direction of the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare using mass education teams. Literacy classes for adults were also conducted by local units of the Peoples' Education Association, a voluntary organization founded in 1949. This group, which included teachers, graduates, students, and interested persons, had branches throughout the country (Ministry, L. S., 1994).

Despite such organizational efforts, it was estimated by the United Nations in 1970 that about 70 percent of the nation's inhabitants above the age of fifteen (57 percent of males and 82 percent of females) were illiterate. The 1970 figure was a 5 percent improvement over an estimated 1960 adult literacy rate of 25 percent. During the 1989 New Year School held at the University of Ghana, for example, the relationship between adult education and economic development was emphasized in a speech read by the then president, Flight Lieutenant Jerry John Rawlings. Also in 1989, reliable press reports held that the adult literacy rate in Ghana was about 40 percent of the total population; of the 60 percent of the population that was illiterate, 57 percent was female. Even though the 1989 figure was an improvement over that of 1970, the National Council on Women and Development still expressed concern and described the low percentage of literate adult females as alarming. The council attributed female illiteracy to high dropout rates in the elementary schools and called on the government to find ways to enforce compulsory education in the country (Ministry, L. S. ,1994).

In 1992, the project finally reached the village where I was teaching. I immediately became part of the grogram assisting in educating the adult learners because I am always passionate of making an impact in any society where I found myself. I believe in a title of a song I learned in my childhood “Brighten the Corner Where You Are”. The majority of the people in the project were women ages 15 – 55. The specific scope creep issue that occurred was that the government did not allocate enough funds for this project. This was a year long project however, when the project was half way through, there was an increased in participants with limited funds. The project could not continue nor were the people on the wait list able to get in the program. The stakeholders were upset threatening to demonstrate their right in equal education law.

During this time, the manager met with all stakeholders to explain the issue. It was not easy at all. There was anxiety amongst the stakeholders. We then decided to do some voluntary work to improve the scope creep. I volunteered more hours in addition to weekends. Other stakeholders did the same to deal with one part of the issue, to accommodate as many learners as possible. In order to deal with the second part of the issue to get more funds for purchasing materials for the project, most stakeholders decided to organize a communion labor to generate some funds to continue the project since the government could not afford it as planned. We were able to help farmers plowed, sowed, harvested crops during each season of the project. It was a challenge because the instructional time was decreased for community labor.

Portny (2008) asserted that avoiding scope creep is not possible. However, monitoring it, controlling it, and thereby reducing some of the pain is possible if the project manager follows a few guidelines (pg. 347). As I look back on the experience now, had I been in the position of managing the project, what I could have done to better manage these issue in order to control the scope of the project were to utilize Portny’s advice as follows:

Include a change control system in every project planned.

Insists that every project change is introduced by a change order that includes a description of agreed-upon change together with any resulting changes in the plan, processes, budget, schedule, or deliverables.

Require changes by approved in writing by the client as well as the representatives of senior management.

Amend and updates all project plans and schedules to reflect the change after the change order has been approved.

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

Ministry, L. S. (1994). Ghana-A Country Study. Accra: Government of Ghana.

Retrived on April 7, 2011

from http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-5253.html

Estimating Costs and Allocating Resources

This URL takes you to one of the United Kingdom’s project management e-handbooks entitled EnrichUK good practice guidebook. The content include Acknowledgement, Introduction, Project definition and Attributes, Project lifecycle, Why planning is important, Formal methods of project planning and software tools, planning tools and techniques, Risk management, Costing and budgeting, Monitoring and controlling, Documentation and reports, People and roles, Steering groups, stakeholders, politics, Consortia and partnerships, Financial Checks, and Bibliography. The most helpful thing I found in this site is how the information is broken down that makes it simple and easy to understand using visuals such diagrams, charts, and graphs. Project Management E-handbook

htt

2. This URL is a blog entitles Project Management Knowledge: The ultimate resource for project managers. It comprises with excellent ID related information that are sequenced from in alphabetical order from A – W. The most helpful thing about this site is that it contains most information necessary for this course such as statement of work, project scope, how to create work breakdown structure, stakeholders, cost and budgeting, and so forth. Project Management Knowledge Blog

3. The following URL will take you to one of the Google ebooks entitled “Instructional Design: Principles and Applications, 2^nd Edition by Leslie J. Briggs; Kent L. Gustafson; Murray H. Tillman. This e-book contains 17 chapters that includes Introduction, Needs Assessment, Organizing the Course, Writing and Using Instructional Objectives, Analysis of Objectives, Assessing Learner Performance, Designing the General Strategies of Instruction, Procedures of Lesson Design, Planning and Authoring Computer-Assisted Instruction Lessons, Formative and Summative Evaluation, Organizing and Managing the ID Process, Major Issues in large ISD Projects, and the Future of Instructional Design. It includes tables, charts, and diagrams that visually explain the information provided. The most useful thing I found in this site is that it shed light on information necessary for instructional designers prior, during, or after project. Google E-book

The Art of Effective Communication

The ability to communicate well, both orally and in writing is a critical skill for project managers. Planning project communication upfront enables project managers to choose the appropriate type of communication for sharing different messages (Portny et al., 2008). In this week’s blog assignment, I have been given three different communication modalities that include email, telephone, and face-to-face to interpret each one, address factors that influence my perception of the message, discuss the form of communication that best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message, and write what I have learned in this exercise that will facilitate my effective communication with members of a project team.

Dr. Stolovitch (2009) discusses some key points in communication that include diplomacy, avoiding ambiguity, and documenting everything. When using diplomacy, you are communicating your opinion, needs, wants, feelings, and beliefs to others in a direct and honest manner, without intentionally hurting anyone’s feelings (Bezroukov, 2011). Avoiding ambiguity means your communication should be precise for the intended message to be relayed. In my opinion, the email contains clear purpose of the message that includes possible solution as well as specified that a response was required as soon as possible and has friendly and respectful tone. The face-to-face message was also concise and straight to the point however, the facial expressions and gestures made the message more personal.

Basically, the three communication modalities have common message that Jan was trying to put across. Thus she would like Mark, who was a bit busy to send her the ETA on the missing report. Receiving the above document will enable Jan to meet her own deadline. Further, the following are the factors that influenced the way I perceived the message relayed through each of the three communication modality; email, voicemail, and face-to-face. These factors include tone, body language cues such as facial expression, gestures, background noise, eye contact; it gives me insight of how important of the message.

The form of communication that best conveyed the true meaning and intent of the message depends on each individual. Personally, I preferred the email as I could read each word by myself and interpret it in my own words. Since each project team member has his/her personality, agenda, and experiences of a project, any of the three communication modalities could affect them in one way or the other.

The implications of what I learned from this exercise is that the three modalities of communicating such as email, voicemail, and face-to-face could be used effectively with members of a project team, however either of them could affect the team members both positively and negatively as the information could be interpreted differently due to the different learning styles as well as the individual differences.

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.

Stolovitch, H. (2011), Video Podcast: Communicating with stakeholders. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4744647&Survey=1&47=6523831&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Bezroukov, N. (2011). Diplomatic communication. Open source software educational society. Softpanorama . www.softpanorama.org

Learning from a Project "Post-mortem"

My post-mortem project was a Personal Learning Environment (PLE) that we created as a group. PLE is a system that helps learners take control of and manage their own leaning. This includes providing support for learners to set their own goals and manage their learning both content and process. Learners also communicate with others in the process of learning and thereby achieve their learning goals. When designing instruction for PLE, the designer needs to create a scenario in which learners will set up their own personal learning environment. The scenario we created was that our company Elite Universal Designer’s Inc. was contracted by the administration at Jackson Public School District to train teachers how to set up a personal learning environment so as to be able to incorporate up to date technology into their lessons in order make it more meaningful to students. Additionally, in the project we were not only teaching learners how to create their personal learning environment, but also how it can be applied to their learning. These made the learning context concrete and realistic to the learner. The group used the ADDIE model to design the above project.

The following were some contributive factors of the project’s failure. Group members had limited knowledge of how to apply the ADDIE model in the scenario provided. In addition, some group members were late turning in their part of the project, while some did not contribute at all to the development of the project. Since this was a group project, it was necessary for group members to collaborate in playing their part in order for the project to be successful. Hence, other members became responsible in doing extra assignment with limited time. This made working on the project a bit stressful. Another thing that contributed to the failure of the project was the different time zone of the group members. Group members had rough time conference on scheduled to discuss the importance of the project. Some members joined the scheduled meetings in the last minute and missed the necessary points on the agenda.

Portny et al (2008) asserted that project management process should include planning, organizing, and controlling of the project. Therefore, I believe the project management process that if included in my PLE project would have made the project more successful were planning and organizing. Excellent planning would have promoted the success of the project by determining the strategies, artifacts, and necessary information to be used in the given project. A better organization would have promoted the success of the project through collaboration as well as determining the structure of the project. Also, good organization would have made the project homogeneous, which would help each group member designed the project with information related to the topic.

In conclusion, it is necessary to learn best practices and avoid mistakes on a future project by reviewing the results and activities from a previously completed project. As I reviewed the PLE project, I realized that it is important for group members to plan, organize and control the project. Additionally, it is crucial that members constantly collaborate for the success of the project. Also, it is important that each member takes charge and complete the given role. As a result, when group members perform accordingly they will probably create efficient and effective project that will meet the projects needs and objectives.

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.

Reflection on Distance Learning

As this distance learning course draws to a conclusion, it is time to give an account of what I have learned, as well as how the knowledge gained will influence my professional practice in the field of instructional design.This course has influenced my perception and philosophy of distance learning in a constructive and scholarly manner. I have expanded my horizon in this distance learning course as a result of consuming these various contents that are significant and valuable for instructional designers such as the foundations of distance learning; theories and models of distance learning; distance learning technologies; the distance learner; designing for distance learning; facilitating distance learning; and the future of distance learning. As a transforming instructional designer, the knowledge gained from the above topics will be directly accessible in the near future.

Distance learning has been in existence since time immemorial. Reflecting on the history of distance learning, there is a growing pattern that I believe will persist. George Siemens (2010) asserted that the growing of distance learning was due to the fact that more and more people are having experiences communicating online. As many people are familiarizing themselves with web 2.0 tools, I believe in 5-10 years, their primary perception of learning will be the distance learning settings. In addition, there will be an increase student enrolment in online learning environments within this time frame. As a result, more and more Colleges and universities will be converting their face-to-face courses into the distance learning format. Further, in the next 10-20 years, I suppose the tradition of distance learning, which is evolving will continue to grow. There will be more sophisticated technology tools that will make online learning a lot easier than before. I believe there will be exciting innovations in technology tools that will promote faster and copious online experiences to the learners in the future. Students’ life will be invigorating and empowering as they are competent using these tools. Therefore, anyone in this time frame who do not have the basic knowledge of distance learning will be no where to be found, as job opportunities will open to people who are conversant and competent with distance learning experiences. Job markets will focus more on skilled technology savvy; hence instructional designers such as me will be ready to display their innovative ideas and creativity.

As an instructional designer, I can be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning through impacting the knowledge gained at Walden to the society. I will advocate distance learning to people I will come into contact with either synchronously or asynchronously. Additionally, I will reach out to my community for volunteering work, as well as organizing activities that will raise societal perception of distance learning and its effectiveness. Some of these community and church activities include women’s night, anniversaries, birthday parties, baby-showers etc. During these parties, I will demonstrate the use of a technology tool that is appropriate for the occasion to the people. Also, I will organize games and activities that encourage distance learning experiences. As an educator, I will introduce different learning and assessment technology tools to my colleagues as well as incorporate the appropriate ones into my lessons. Further, I plan to raise people’s perception of distance learning in Ghana by designing programs, movies, and activities promote distance learning experiences. Finally, I believe the above activities and programs will reinforce my proponent for improving societal perception of distance learning.

In order to be a positive force for continuous improvement in the field of distance education, I need to be abreast with time, constantly using professional literature and resources to affluent my skills. I will also become a member of instructional designers’ organizations where my skills and innovative ideas will come to life. This organization will be my community of practice as I will be well informed with news and development in this field. Additionally, I will collaborate with other instructional designers both synchronously and asynchronously to develop community of practice. I believe every moment count in this lifelong learning experiences therefore, I will not leave any stone unturned; I will seize every opportunity and use every scenario for improving distance learning. I will always strive to find a better and easy way to make distance learning passionate to the heart of the learners. I will continue using the ADDIE process, the foundation of designing distance learning to meet the learners’ needs. Instructional designers should consider the use of ADDIE or another instructional design process to understand the needs of the learners and to design a course that meets those needs (Piskurich & Chauser, 2010).

In conclusion, distance learning has evolved through the years and it is growing acceptance in society as a whole. According to Siements (2010), more and more people are communicating using social networking tools such as Facebook. There is also a rising trend in enrollment and in the percentage of people who believe online courses offer a superior learning experience (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009). However, there are others who are still skeptic of distance learning and need to be exposed to the experiences and effectiveness of distance learning. Hence, as instructional designer, there is the need to be advocate of distance learning to the immediate society and globally as well. Our world is diverse and technology is growing therefore, there is the need to make experiences and effectiveness of distance learning known to all.

References

Piskurich, G., & Chauser, J. (2010), Video Podcast: Planning and designing online courses. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn CourseID=4744647&Survey=1&47=6523831&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Siements, G. (2010), Video Podcast: The Future of Distance Education. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved fromhttp://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn CourseID=4744647&Survey=1&47=6674137&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1&BrswrOK=1&PrevRef=http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn%3FCourseID%3D4744647%26Survey%3D1%2647%3D6674137%26ClientNodeID%3D984650%26coursenav%3D1&submit1=Continue

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

Converting to Distance Learning Format

Designing distance learning experiences is a dynamic process that requires detailed planning and organization, which makes pre-planning critical in the instructional design process. Not only do instructional designers need to be devotedly aware of learner needs, but they must understand how to utilize effective instructional strategies and modern technologies that help content come to life. In order to complete this week’s application assignment, I have generated strategies that the training manager in the scenario below could consider for converting his face-to-face training session to a blended learning format.

A training manager has been frustrated with the quality of communication among trainees in his face-to-face training sessions and wants to try something new. With his supervisor’s permission, the trainer plans to convert all current training modules to a blended learning format, which would provide trainees and trainers the opportunity to interact with each other and learn the material in both a face-to-face and online environment. In addition, he is considering putting all of his training materials on a server so that the trainees have access to resources and assignments at all times.

Click the link below to view the best practices I generated for the training manager in the above scenario.

Converting to Distance Learning Format

The Impact of Open Source

The course I selected for analysis is “Introduction to Robotics”, an undergraduate course from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Open Course http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mechanical-engineering/2-12-introduction-to-robotics-fall-2005/index.htm. This course provides an overview of robot mechanisms, dynamics, and intelligent controls. Its topics include planar and spatial kinematics, and motion planning; mechanism design for manipulators and mobile robots, multi-rigid-body dynamics, 3D graphic simulation; control design, actuators, and sensors; wireless networking, task modeling, human-machine interface, and embedded software. It features descriptions and videos of the two main student projects: building a robot capable of searching for land mines, and building a robot capable of rescuing trapped or injured people after a natural disaster.

This course appears to be carefully pre-planned for a distance learning environment. It includes syllabus, calendars, lecture notes, assignments, exams, and projects. Students can download course materials, send a feedback, email the page to their friends, and even sign up for a newsletter. Organization is very crucial in an online learning environment and this course looks well organized and is easily accessible. According to Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, (2009), issues of format or structure are important to help students quickly and easily become involved in learning rather than focusing on trying to puzzle through the manner of delivery.

This introduction to robotics course followed online instruction as recommended in the text such as organizational guidelines – the topics are organized into modules. When courses are planned, the designer might want to use the Unit, Module, or Topic approach or model (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright & Zvacek, 2009). The assessment guidelines, which include at least one learning outcome for each topic is included in this course, itemized in the weekly calendar. The content guidelines in this course include reading materials, lecture notes, and the downloadable materials. In addition, the instruction/teaching guidelines have been utilized in this course. The instructor pace the instruction that call for continuing interaction between him and the students through the use of email and feedback form. However, I did not see asynchronous chat or threaded discussion included in the course. According to Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009) Online courses should use more media, which includes graphics, video, audio, discussion, etc.

The course designers implement activities that maximize active learning some of which are the hand-on activities that are involve in building the different robots. It is very important that both instructors and instructional designers should take time to plan and organize any instruction or learning experience to engage students in distance learning. Planning makes the difference in a successful learning environment. (Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. 2009).


References

Piskurich, G., & Chauser, J. (2010), Video Podcast: Planning and designing online courses. Laureate Education, Inc. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/crs/default.learn?CourseID=4744647&Survey=1&47=6523831&ClientNodeID=984650&coursenav=1&bhcp=1

Asada, Harry, and John Leonard. 2.12 Introduction to Robotics, Fall 2005. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare),http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 05 Feb, 2011). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

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