Analyzing Scope Creep

 

Our text defines scope creep as the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses (Portny, et al, 2008).  My experience of scope creep stems from a project where not only the client and team members tried to revise the scope, but to redefine the requirements prior to the project being completed.  Project requirements outline what the customer wants and defines what the end product will be.  If the client and stakeholders do not agree on what the requirements are prior to starting the design phase, then changes will need to be made to the scope at some point.  Our text also states the later in the project that changes need to be made, the more difficult and costly they become (Portny, pg. 346).  In my project where I experienced scope creep, the requirements phase was left to me and a colleague to determine.  We accomplished this by attending tradeshows, competitor’s workshops and researching the end product.  Once we thought we had enough data to define the scope of our project and the necessary requirements, we created a requirements document.  This document and the requirements that were defined in it, were ultimately signed by the stakeholders.  Everyone agreed that we had defined the scope for our product version 1.0.  But, as we found out, we did not survey the correct audience for our product and realized that our product was missing some key features required by our core customer base.  But in order to implement these changes, it would have drastically changed the scope of the project, the timeline and increased the cost.  It was decided to release version 1.0 of our product without these key items, but to immediately continue work on the next version where these items would be implemented.

Looking back at this project, the first mistake was putting software engineers with limited experience of the product(myself and my colleague) in charge of defining the requirements.  The requirements must be defined by customer needs, market demands and necessary stakeholders.  Further, to prevent scope creep on a project, the PM must resist adding functionality on a whim and develop a formal strategy for implementing change orders.  Our text defines this process as a “change control system” and allows the PM and stakeholders to respond to scope creep and the change order process.

References:

Portny, S., Mantel, S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., & Sutton, M. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboke, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

 

Communicating Effectively

The 3 variations of the message that was sent by Jane to Mark in the multimedia program “The Art of Effective Communication” were all very different. Below I have synthesized my thoughts about this activity:

Email

The email that was sent by Jane to Mark seemed to be very dry and to the point. The fact that emails lack hand gestures and other signals means that a little more thought should go into a written document, especially when asking for something. However, even though the message was the same in all 3 formats, the email message makes it appear that Jane is unprepared and unorganized. If she misses her deadline, it is not Mark’s fault. From the video “Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders”, Vince Budrovich does mention that you must tailor the communication strategy to fit the specific needs of the stakeholders. However, he goes on to say that a written record is also very important and his preferred method of communication when it comes to stakeholders. Mark should respond to her email and also cc the project manager, whoever that is so that a record of communications can be traced.

Voicemail

With any audio, the communicator now has an opportunity to inject inflection to change the tone to a softer, kinder message. Jane’s voicemail seems to indicate that she still is frustrated with the fact that she does not have the data she needs. The only kindness that I hear on this audio is the last line; “I really appreciate your help”. The timing and tone of her message seems to be very fast-paced which indicates that she is under pressure and wants to make her problem Mark’s problem. Jane has used an informal method of communication in her message to Mark and perhaps not addressed other stakeholders of the project. To minimize misunderstandings and hurt feelings Portny (2008, pg 359) mentions that project managers should avoid informal discussions with only some of the stakeholders.

Face-To-Face

Jane’s smile and kind words make the message much kinder and friendlier in the person. It is assumed in this example that Jane is actually talking to Mark vs. just leaving a message as in the previous 2 examples. I have always thought that it is easier to leave a more terse message via email or voicemail than in person. We are not told of the stakeholder relationship in this case and who is the PM, etc… but perhaps Jane is intimidated with Mark and cannot relay the same message as she did with voice or email. Dr. Stolovitch states in the video “Communicating with Stakeholders” that a previous research study indicated that “93% of the communication is not in the words”. This means that gestures, timing, body language and tonality all play a key role in communicating a message effectively. Janes face to face message also seems to be at a slower pace than her voicemail which puts the listener at ease.

References:

Laureate Education. Communicating with Stakeholders, Dr. Harold Stolovitch, Retrieved from Walden University eCollege.

Laureate Education. Practitioner Voices: Strategies for Working with Stakeholders, Troy Achong and Vince Budrovich, Retrieved from Walden University eCollege.

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.

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

While I was an employee at my former employer, I was tasked with developing a product for the automation industry with a colleague of mine. My colleague was the PM and I was the lead engineer on the project. Our first task was to determine the requirements of the project based on market demand and potential client interviews, but as we found out later, we should have performed a more thorough needs analysis. Some of the requirements we implemented into the end product were either too basic or not what the end customer required. We also made several assumptions as to what we thought these potential clients would need in this product and this was our first mistake. We did not have enough experience with this particular sector of automation to understand the complexities of what the product should look like. However, we did employ a similar version of the ADDIE model to our product. We had a structured test suite that we used to test our code and whenever a bug was found, we would execute this suite in order to adequately test our code. We also would use this suite for regression testing so as not to break anything that worked prior. This was something that contributed to the success of the project.

At the end of what we called our Alpha phase, we had a software release which signified a product 1.0. We made several revisions to this initial phase and were lucky enough to have a customer that let us try this product in the field. We received very valuable feedback from this customer as well as other potential customer who were allowed to view it in the initial customer’s site. Once we were finished with Phase 1, we conducted a post-mortem on the project to figure out what things were done well and what things we needed to improve upon. As we discovered, we were victims to scope creep even though we had a set of requirements as well as internal and external documentation that described the project in great detail. As Dr. Stolovitch discussed in the video Project Management Concerns: Scope Creep, it is important to let the client, or in this case colleague, know that the ideas are important, but need to wait for another time to be implemented as it inevitably affects the timeline and budget. We could not resist the urge to implement features that we thought were needed in the software without consulting clients or even upper management. This impacted the schedule as well as future versions of the software since some of the features we implemented were very invasive and affected many other code segments.

References:

Stolovitch, H. (2011). “Defining the Scope of an ID Project”; “Project Management Concerns: ‘Scope Creep.’” Video Program.

Introduction for EDUC 6145

Hi fellow classmates,

For those who have not visited before, welcome to my ID blog.  I have maintained the same blog throughout my Walden experience and, as you can see, it has started to grow quite a bit. 

I look forward to our course in Project Management.

Reflection for EDUC-6135

Distance education has grown over the past decade and even in the past 5 years the technology has improved so virtually anyone can take an online course as long as they have access to a fairly fast internet connection. As George Siemens states in the video The Future of Distance Education, peoples perception of distance education 5 years ago would have not allowed them to believe that by using Skype, the voice quality of an online discussion would be as clear as a telephone conversation (Siemens, n.d.). Therefore, as technology improves distance learning will continue to makes it’s way into businesses and education institutions and allow more and more people to take courses that otherwise would not have been designed for the online environment.

As instructional designers, the onus is on us to not only continue to develop our skills in the field of distance education, but to also educate others in the respect that anyone can take an online course regardless of age, geographic location or previous commitments. It will be important to educate people on the technology requirements of distance education, especially with the evolution of smartphones, podcasts and tablets/notebook computers. It is important for people to know how to use these devices, or newer devices, to their potential so they can be as efficient as possible.

I also think it is imperative that learners also understand the technology requirements from the software perspective. In our course in particular, it is assumed that the learners have a requisite amount of experience with applications such as Adobe CS, navigating websites and blogs and wikis. Of course, the instructor must also make the learner aware of what technologies they need to know for the course, but they can also provide resource links to other websites, books, or online resources as supplemental methods for learning the software.

As the ADDIE model requires the ID to constantly re-evaluate a course, so must a distance learner re-evaluate their experience and education. Technology is constantly changing and requires the ID to always be on the lookout for new ways to create valuable modules, training programs and course artifacts so that the learner has the best opportunity for cutting-edge learning experiences. The ID must also be in constant communication with the instructors and SME’s so if there is clarification or improvement needed, these resources are used to their full potential.

Resources:

Video Program The Future of Distance Education, George Siemens

Best Practices Guide for Distance Learning Conversion

Here is a link to the PDF file for the text posted below:

Best Practices Guide for Distance Learning Conversion

By: Dean Matthews

For: Dr. Ronald Paige

EDUC-6135-1 Distance Learning

Preplanning Strategies

In order to convert a traditional face-to-face program to a distance learning environment or even a blended learning class, you first need to consider what differentiates online learning from face-to-face learning.  An important point to consider is that you cannot directly convert traditional training to online training as we have learned previously in this course.  The Equivalency Theory taught us that the online learning environment needs to be equivalent in achieving the same learning outcomes as traditional learning.  A variety of equivalent instructional approaches should be provided for students (Solomon et al., 2009).

There are four key differences between traditional and online facilitation (Piskurich, n.d.). It is important to be aware of these differences as you plan your online or blended class.

1. Online is more difficult to know what your learners are doing and how they are doing. Connecting with them is even more important.

2. Activities and applications are the heart of an online course.

3. Content is critical, but in the end it’s the activities that help them learn the content.

4. You must build time into the implementation phase to think about and practice the role you will play in facilitating the online portions of your class.

The matrix shown in table 1.1 will provide you with some guidelines on the key differences among online, blended and web-facilitated learning models.

Table of Definitive Questions for Distance Learning Models
	Online Courses	Blended/Hybrid Courses	Web-facilitated Courses
How much content is delivered online?	Most of the content, at least 80%	30% to 79% delivered online	Less than 29% delivered online
How much separation is there between the learner and the facilitator?	There is usually total separation.  As is stated in our text (pg. 10) “World Wide Web courses have been offered to learners anywhere they have access and when ever they choose. This is called asynchronous distance learning”.  This is an example of Different-time, Different place (DT-DP) and, according to Dan Coldeway, it is the “purest form” of distance education.	Some separation is required since some of the learning is done face-to-face.  As Dr. Simonson states “twice a week” as an example since part of the course is taught at a distance and part is taught face-to-face.  This could also be an example of Different-time, same-place (DT-SP) education	This is an example of Same-time, Different-place (ST-DP).  Different Web 2.0 tools such as satellite, fibre-optic systems and compressed videos are used in this application.  Web-facilitated courses usually happen with separation between the learner and facilitator.
In what ways is technology used with each model?	Online courses typically utilizes Print such as textbooks, Computer such as email, and web-based resources (Walden library) and Video such as our video resources in mpeg format.	Hybrid courses use a combination of traditional technologies such as Print as well as newer technologies  such as email, internet and videos.	The technologies that are used for Web-facilitated learning includes Web 2.0 tools such as satellite systems for high speed internet in rural areas,fibre-optic systems and compressed videos
Identify 2-3 pros for each model.	Students should get the same learning outcomes as face-to-face instruction based on Equivalency Theory Students don’t have to drive to campus and can keep their job when learning at a distance Students can learn at their leisure and collaborate with fellow students from different backgrounds and experiences.	Students only need to come to class part of the time so they can focus on other things such as taking care of children, maintain part-time jobs Multiple courses can share the same classroom in the same time-slot Use of Web 2.0 tools such as LMS, wikis and blogs allow for classroom collaboration on projects, problems and allow question/answer session to take place away from formal classroom.	1)Teachers and students can share resources from other schools in a “collaborative” effort.2) It is usually used in a live environment so there is realtime interaction such as labs and feedback from fellow students as well as instructors3) Technologies such as “Telemedicine” allows patients to gain access to health care providers when at a distance.
Identify 2-3 cons for each model.	Requires high-speed internet connections for the user.  This can be expensive for users in remote areas (I pay around $100/month just for satellite internet) There is always a risk that internet connections or servers can go down.  Therefore due to the asynchronous nature of online learning, the risk is not getting assignments in on time or not being informed of certain information.	Well designed internet courses require time and money to setup.  Therefore, the return on investment (ROI) must be researched to see if it makes sense to offer a blended course. Some topics in K-12 may not adapt well to a hybrid model.  For example, if a high school Physics class has a lab portion, then this portion could not be done online as effectively since it would require the students to actually be present in the lab and actively participate in the lab.	1) Requires the adequate technology such as high bandwidth connections and web conferencing tools.  Therefore it can be very expensive to setup2) It also requires a technical support team in the event any issues arise at the site
What factors need to be considered when implementing each model?	A needs analysis (course, audience, instructor and technology) should be performed to make sure a distance education experience makes sense.  I think this applies to either distance education in schools or in corporations.  The private sector in particular, is more concerned with ROI from distance learning as it pertains to the people getting trained (Simonson, n.d.).	The distance separating the students from the facilitator needs to be considered in the hybrid model.  I think it only makes sense to offer a hybrid model if the institution and the location of the students is within a certain geographical distance.	Whether implemented for adult distance learning or K-12, the cost vs. ROI must be considered when implementing since it can be expensive for the technology.   Also, since web-facilitated courses are typically ST-DP, it is important to make sure the instructor and students can all collaborate at the same time.  I believe this is similar to what Dr. Simonson refers to as “Collaborative systems” in the K-12 realm where classes can share educational resources.

 

CMS and Online Learning

Planning your online learning environment should be the first step.  A Course Management System (CMS) will provide you with the online tools needed to facilitate the student activities and online discussions. There are many free CMS choices available such as Ectolearn (www.ectolearning.com ), Moodle (www.moodle.org) and Lecture Share (www.lectureshare.com).  Personally, I like Ectolearn since it is easy to sign up and use and also easy to invite friends and colleagues to join in on discussions and activities.  Once a CMS has been selected, it is time to decide what activities, assignments and other parts of your class should be face-to-face and what should be online. You need to consider your learners, the content, the method and materials, and the environment, including the technology (Simonson, 2009). Each of these components must interact both efficiently and effectively to produce quality learning experiences.

Consider the following bullet items as you are considering the online portion of your class:

• The focus of the instruction shifts from classroom lecture and presentation to visual presentations, engaged learners, and careful timing of presentations of information.
• Illustrate key concepts, or topics, using tables, figures, and other visual items.
• Plan activities that encourage interactivity. The students may require some training to participate actively in online activities.
• Plan activities that allow for student group work. This builds and supports a social environment. You may want to present case studies which the students could discuss and collaborate on a solution.
• Be prepared in the event technical problems occur. Discuss with students ahead of time alternative plans in case there is a technical problem to avoid confusion and loss of class time (Herring & Smaldino, 1997 as cited by Simonson, 2009).

Assuming the students do not know one another,  the first week of class is a good time to use an ice breaker or self introduction activity. You could have each student provide an online introduction of themselves in the blog or discussion area of your class. Use this activity to allow students to form a connection with one another.

When selecting your content you should follow this guideline. It may be necessary to reduce the amount of information delivered and to increase the interactive value of the learning experience (herring & Smaldino, 1997 as cited by Simonson et al., 2009).  Some of the content that had been included in your traditional class format might need to be reduced or deleted. Make sure the instructional goals and expectations are clear and they should be defined and shared with your students

 The Threaded Discussion

“The threaded discussion is one of the most powerful techniques used in distance education” (Simonson et al., p. 186).  As work begins to create a blended learning class, you can take your class discussion time and make these into online threaded discussions. These discussions are very valuable to the online students and will keep them engaged in the class on a daily basis. The online discussion provides students with the opportunity to improve and apply critical thinking skills and is also a learning activity that enables the students to form a community with their fellow learners.  Without weekly discussions the course would be a very isolated learning experience.  Your role in threaded discussions is to read each post and evaluate the quality of the scholarly responses. You must know how to eliminate superficial answers and grade the student’s on their post quality and use of research findings.  The facilitator can expect to respond to about 1 of every 4 posts by students as a general rule of thumb.  This can become less as the course progresses and the students begin to teach and learn from each other.  You need to ensure that there is not misinformation given, and that the discussion stays on track (Simonson, 2009). As the class instructor, you can keep the discussion engaging by adding additional questions to consider and provide new resources to further a student post. You may also challenge a student by offering another view contrary to the student’s post.

 

Roles of the Facilitator and Students

The Facilitator

As the instructor of an online course, your role is more facilitator than trainer. To allow your students to be actively engaged in the online segments, you must not be the lead presenter. Rather your role as a facilitator is to monitor their online activity, make sure they are engaged, and keep them on task with the discussions and assignments.

As the facilitator follow these tips for your class to be effective.

1) Thoroughly review the lesson plan and know how the material will be taught and what problems the students will work on.

2) Learn the software that you and your students will be using

3) As the instructor, make sure you are prepared and not fumbling through the lesson plan as you are attempting to teach it.  Nothing loses the students attention faster (Psikurich, n.d.)

4) You must participate in all synchronous and asynchronous discussions, constant monitoring the discussion and following the student progress

5) Show the learners that you care about their success

The Students

“They [students] will need to be motivated to participate and to engage in the types of learning experiences in which they may have little experience” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, p. 162).  Provide an opportunity for collaboration for the students.  “Although many distance students are cited as being independent learners, they derive value from collaborative experiences… working together creates a richer learning experience for the individual participant”  (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, p. 165). However, the students need to take responsibility for their own activity and learning in the class. They need to understand the software and technology that will they will be using. They must participate in all online discussions and assigned group activities.

Summary

Providing an opportunity for students to learn in a blended environment is a great opportunity for students to experience the online learning environment.  The facilitator needs to understand the key differences between traditional class environments and blended environments. You will need to invest time in your own understanding of this and of the technology you will need for your class.

Considering the content that will be taught and deciding which pieces lend themselves best to the online portion of your class is very important. Through online learning you can create a very engaging learning experience. One of the most effective activities used in online learning is the discussion thread. A discussion thread is an engaging and effective learning tool. You must provide clear participation expectations to your students.

The role of the trainer or instructor must change in the online environment to one of a facilitator. It is critical that the instructor facilitate the learning and realize the students are the main players and their role is to be engaged and actively involved in the online activities and discussions.

Online learning has been found to add a higher level of learning to students if the class is developed using best practices. By following this best practices guide, and investing the time to understand and redevelop your material to work in a blended environment, you will enjoy facilitating a class where your students are engaged and where they will achieve the goals and learning objectives of the class.

References:

Piskurich, Dr. George. (2010) Video Program: “Facilitating Distance Learning”, Walden University, L aureate Education.

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

The Impact of Open Source

For week 5 application, I selected an online weight lifting course from MIT.  The URL is located at: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/athletics-physical-education-and-recreation/pe-720-weight-training-spring-2006/index.htm.

Open Couseware, as described by the website www.thefreesource.com (http://www.thefreeresource.com/opencourseware-definition-resources-and-list-of-universities-offering-opencourseware-collections), is a collection of free, non-credit courses often in the form of audio, video and PDF files which are open to access via the internet.  The course that I have selected to review is from the MIT Open Courseware site and is called PE.720 Weight Training.  There were many courses on the MIT site, but chose this course since I have performed weight training for many years and thought it would be interesting to see how this kind of course would transfer to an online format.  The Syllabus page lists a Course Description which informs the beginner or novice weight lifter how many sessions they can expect, Objectives which tell the user what to expect once the course is complete and a background of the instructor.  It appears that this course is geared for the novice user and has had some planning developed for distance learning.  However, it does appear that the author has taken a face-to-face course and simply tried to make it into an online course.  An example is the section on Lecture Notes where there are PDF files that simply look like lectures that were transcribed.  As Dr. Simonson states in regards to the equivalence theory and distance learning, the learning outcomes should be the same, but the implementation of the method must be different.  With these PDF files, there would need to be some narration or text inserted to make them equivalent for the purpose of distant learning.

The course at MIT seems to make the requirements and learning outcomes clear to the students, but it does appear that the course was “dumped” onto the web.  As our text states “shovelware” is described as transferring course handouts and selected discussion topics to the CMS (Simonson, Smaldino, Alright, Zvacek, 2009).  There is a section on external readings but this is little more than links to books located on Amazon.com that one would need to purchase.  The saving grace for this course is the Videos section which has short clips of many different weight lifting exercises.  However, I did have to download Real Player since this was the format that was used for the videos.  Furthermore, the videos did not have any narration to instruct the user on how to perform the exercises, how many repetitions to do or how long of a rest between sets. 

Although weight training, by its nature, is mostly a hands-on type of course, I think there are some things that the designer could have done to maximize the learning potential for the students.  There is not a lot of theory associated with weight training so the ID should have used more technology via better videos, pictures and a graphical layout of what exercises to perform on what days.

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.

Website: http://www.thefreeresource.com/opencourseware-definition-resources-and-list-of-universities-offering-opencourseware-collections