Week 6 Project Manager 15/5 (5)

This week we worked to finalize our Task Analysis and Objectives documents. After accomplishing this, we sent these documents to Dr. Barbour for review. We also revised and submitted our Needs Assessment to Michael, as well. He just got back with us with feedback on this document yesterday, so we'll be sure to make the necessary changes and send it back to him as soon as possible. In addition, Jea wrapped up the finishing touches on our Timeline, which is due tomorrow night. After we all decided on a format to use at last Thursday's meeting, Jea took the reigns to finish this up. She did a great job!

As far as what I did specifically this week, I contacted Dr. Barbour and couple of times and delegated Eun Ju to shore up a few more issues with the Task Analysis, Objectives, and Needs Assessment. While reviewing everything, most of the things I found (and Dr. Barbour later pointed out) in need of work were trivial in nature (grammar, spacing, wording, etc.). We also took the feedback we received from Dr. Clinton Thursday night to heart and made several adjustments on paper and in our overall thinking regarding all of this documentation. It was a busy week for me personally and in another class. I should be able to devote more attention back to the project this weekend... except during the Georgia vs. Alabama football game, of course! :)

This coming week will be very important for setting ourselves up for what is to come. Although nothing is due next week, the User Profile, Treatment Rationale, Hardware/Software, Screen Design, and Eval. Plan are all due the following Thursday, October 9th. This will once again prove problematic for our team, as Joy is gone this week to see her dad up in Michigan (we're pulling for you, Joy!), and I will be out of town next Friday the 3rd through Monday the 6th to visit family up in Pennsylvania. Somehow, someway, we will get all of this done, though, even if it means typing away on my laptop as we cruise down the interstate next weekend! I'm sure we'll find a way to pull it apart and put it back together in time, though. A WebCT meeting might be in order that next Tuesday or Wednesday night (the 7th or 8th) in order to pull things together in time. I will also begin studying for the Comprehensive Exam when I get a chance, as well.

Tomorrow night should be very informative and helpful. Our group will be attending Dr. Choi's lesson on Prototyping so that we can plan more of our project details accordingly. It should be interesting. Here's to another week of fun!

Week 5 Project Manager 15/5 (4)

We had another fairly productive week this week as a group. Although we've hit a few snags here and there, and confusion has lingered regarding goals, objectives, and tasks, we weathered the storm and accomplished what we set out to do. On the top of our list this week was the Task Analysis and Objectives. Each person in our group took an objective or two (thank you Jea and Joy) to further develop. Reaching back to our EDIT 6170 days, we developed Bloom-level tasks leading up to each of the objectives. Students at IVHS will be participating in many activities that will inevitably ensure they are successful in this (and other) virtual learning environments. We also focused our attention on rephrasing the Purpose Statement to match what we are doing as a group and our one goal to reflect what we want students to accomplish. We've all decided that one over-arching goal, "Students will develop a soft skill set that will enable them to be successful at the Illinois Virtual High School," will enable us to focus on the specifics of the online tutorial while keeping this overall vision in mind.

This week was another busy one for me, as usual, and this weekend looks to be even busier. I'm a little worried about the next week or so, as my wife has yet another surgery Friday (and will have to recover) and I have a large assignment due in EDIT 7500 on Tuesday. I just simply will not be able to devote much attention to this class Saturday or Sunday (which is normally when I get things done). I know that's a tough, but very real-world, thing to say as a Project Manager. I am a full time teacher, though, and I can only fit so many extra things into my week. I just hope my group understands that, while I won't be available much for a few days, they can still count on me to pick up where I left off when/where I can. Obviously, I still plan to do my part to ensure the Timeline is complete by next Thursday. I just might not be able to do much with it until next Tuesday and Wednesday night.

As mentioned, up for next week is the Timeline. I don't have an example from another group to gauge what's expected, so I'll need to do a little research. We also need to reestablish contact with Dr. Barbour, as we have not spoken in well over a week. I know he's very busy, and I'm sure he's not too concerned. We do still need to get him the Needs Assessment, though, along with the Task Analysis and Objectives sheet to sign off. I need to check in with Dr. Clinton to make sure everything looked fine on the Needs Assessment from last week so that we can email it to him. We all need to begin to prepare for the Comprehensive Exam, as well. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that this is little more than a month away! So... another busy week ahead for Team ALIVe. Lots of fun ahead!

Week 4 Project Manager 15/5 (3)

This week was another busy one for Team ALIVe, as we finished up the survey, sent it to Dr. Barbour, fought through the confusion of bureaucratic red tape to use our research results, won approval to do the work we had already started, developed goals from the accumulated data, and put together the remaining parts of our Needs Assessment. I really feel we grew a lot as a group, as well. We now have gotten to know each other better and we're moving along a little more efficiently because of it. Confidence and moral are probably slightly up, as well, as we are now doing some of the actual work involved in developing this project (instead of just talking about it). All in all, it was a good, productive week. While there are still many kinks to work out regarding when it's best for everyone to do their best work (within the confines of work and commuting schedules), I feel like there's more of a mutual understanding and sense of responsibility among each team member, myself included.

As you have probably followed, Dr. Clinton, the confusion surrounding the survey began shortly after Michael promoted it last Friday. Although he was just doing his job, a member of the IVHS staff brought it to our attention that proper avenues had not been taken to properly administer and use the survey. Dr. Barbour was even caught off guard by the initial concern displayed, even though the other parties involved didn't fully understand what we were doing. As it turned out, because we aren't using any confidential information regarding the minors at the school, we were approved to continue. Not having the flexibility to use the data we had gathered would have meant falling back on presumptive pre-existing data that would not have given us as clear a picture moving forward (writing goals, objectives, etc.).

As far as what I specifically did this week as Project Manager, I kept the email lines open over the weekend, working closely with Dr. Barbour, teachers at IVHS, and other higher-ups in the state of Illinois in order to nail down what now appears to be an open path for future project development. I also arranged the meeting we had on Wimba last night. We needed to meet again to go through survey results, set goals, and develop a plan for the Performance Assessment. I feel like I delegated more this week, which kept my stress down a little bit, as well. Lastly, when I finish writing this, I plan to look over the work Eun Ju and Joy have put into finishing the last parts of the Needs Assessment for tomorrow. Eun Ju also asked me to help her with the Percentage of Discrepancy section, which I plan to tackle in a few minutes, as well.

This coming week we need to continue moving forward in our thinking and preparation for objective setting and the Task Analysis. Now that survey results seem to point to some specific discrepancies, we should be able to effectively set objectives for student achievement. Although the next step will once again be a challenge, I am confident that we can get the work done in a timely manner. I am also aware, though, that due to the delay in getting your (Dr. Clinton's) approval and Dr. Barbour's signature on the Needs Assessment, we will be a day or two back from where we should be. Our goal will obviously still be to finish what is due next week on time. If we don't meet the deadline, we will at least be close. With all that has happened this week, though, I'm sure we will all be ok with that. Tomorrow night needs to be as productive, if not even more so, than last week. We need to set ourselves up for another successful, dividing and conquering week! See you tomorrow night!

Week 3 Project Manager 15/5 (2)

Well, here we are and another week has flown by... and I do emphasize the word flown. While I feel we accomplished many things this week, I feel a little behind and overwhelmed by what still needs to happen before next Thursday. Before I get to what is still to come in the next few days, I'll provide a short (well, it was meant to be short) recap of the past week. Friday after school I emailed Dr. Barbour a series of questions and a request to speak with him over the phone at some point over the long weekend. What should have been a fairly simple process turned out to be a scheduling nightmare (a lesson learned there), trying to bring everyone together at a common time. No fault to any one member of our group, but we will have to be more flexible on our weekends in the future (myself included). After several back and forth emails, though, we finally got things set for Monday evening at 5 PM. Dr. Barbour was nice enough to go ahead and preemptively answer several of our more pressing questions in order to give us a head start on things prior to actually speaking with him. Many of the questions answered opened doors to still more questions, though, and by Monday night's meeting, Team ALIVe was looking for some genuine clarity moving forward. In speaking with Dr. Clinton shortly before our meeting with Dr. Barbour, I knew there were several things that needed to be ironed out in that conversation. More than anything else, we needed to know what our group would actually be teaching to the Illinois Virtual High School students. We knew whatever that turned out to be (soft skill set, entry point type orientation teaching students the skills necessary to be successful in a virtual school environment), it needed to be measurable and assessable. I had two main goals going into that meeting with Dr. Barbour: 1. Establish an over-all feel for the entire project, and 2. Properly set ourselves up to complete the Needs Assessment by next Thursday. I feel we did very well with the first goal... not so well with the second. Yes, we now have clarity never before seen to this point. For the most part, we know what the end product will look like... feel like... what it will mean to the students who will use it... what it will mean to our client. We have a better definition of scope... of the tools we can use... who we'll be working with at the school (Dr. Barbour is gathering that team of teachers as we speak). Thanks to Joy, we have a skeleton template for the Needs Assessment. We even have a wealth of information from articles passed to us from our client. What we don't have at this point, though, is anything actually done for this project! As I write this, we have yet to even write goals for our project. Yes... goals. The survey that we'll be administering to the group of students (who are still being gathered by Dr. Barbour) has yet to be completed. With a 4-5 day turn around, Dr. Barbour is doing his best to gather these students. Still, he'll need at least until Monday or Tuesday of next week if we got him the survey tomorrow (which still might not happen, since we are all having problems finding and digging through the research to find valid questioning that will work for us). That is not enough time to do the Performance Gap Analysis, provide Recommended Delivery Options, put everything else together, and get the signed Needs Assessment into Dr. Clinton's hands by next Thursday. Time is beginning to be a problem... and it's something we're going to have to nip in the bud sooner rather than later if we expect to survive this semester successfully. We can do it... I really believe that. I just think the shear amount of information and size of what we're taking on has clouded our ability to complete lower level tasks. We're going to have to change that in a hurry.

As far as what I did specifically this week, I'm going to let what I've already said speak for itself. I know this 15/5 is already getting a little long. Personally, though, I have a lot going on at work and in my personal life right now. I'm trying to manage all of this and another EDIT class that took up most of my free time this past weekend. I'll make it somehow... just don't know how at this point. Maybe I should stop typing and get to work?!?

What do we need to accomplish this week? Well, as indicated before, my fear that we'd be meeting this Thursday with literally the same amount done on the Needs Assessment as the week before has come true. We will have to get just about everything done in one week's time. We also need to try to get on top of the Objectives and Task Analysis, which is already due the next week. So... a tall order. Tall, but doable if we all put our heads and what time we have together. We're going to have be more efficient this week... quicker with our email returns to each other... quicker reflexes once the data is gathered... more resourceful with each other's time (i.e. we all don't have the same amount of time available to work on this stuff, and those who do need to step up). We're going to have to stop assuming the Project Manager (who is actually just another student in the class) is going to think of everything, or is always going to know the what next step in the process is. Don't let all of this scare you... just know that I'm a realist and I see things for what they are... and right now, that's a group that has a lot of work to do that involves many people spread out over the country, for a client a thousand miles away, and in a time frame unforgiving of other things going on. If that's not real-world, I don't know what is! Sounds fun, huh? Time to divide and conquer! See you in class tomorrow. :)