My Development Ideas For the Project

The whole idea of developing a Project as the conclusion for the Certificate in Information Technology (Level 3) programme is to bring the various threads of learning together into an experiential learning environment which helps to apply the learning for the students.

The role that the lecturers take on in the four weeks of scheduled class time is very much a facilitator role.  The students have meetings where they set the work that they are going to do for the next couple of days.  They utilise Gantt Charts to plan the milestones and how they are going to meet the deliverables.  The control appears to very much be in the students’ hands and through various resources they can plan their learning and how they are going to meet the assessment requirements.

No lesson plans exist!!  However there is an overall timetable that specifies some set meeting times and the final presentation details.  The biggest challenge around this as we are taking three different courses classes and combining them into a single project class timetable.  The various lecturers that up to that point in time were teaching different topics are now all involved in a single Project.  This should work because the common driver of these classes are the student project groups.

Each group will be working on the same Project but controlling their own way to meet the deliverables.

What Is The Project?

Each student group has to prepare for a software release event for an “Asteroid” style game that they have been designing the graphics and multimedia for in one of their courses.

The Project Brief

After some discussion with the other lecturers and my own research, I have decided that in the Project Brief I will give some high level overview of the Project Structure and list all the deliverables but not actually define what they are required to do to meet the deliverables.  This approach allows the students to look at the Project Scenario and look at the deliverables and then make decisions on how they are going to get there.

Since the students are using Gantt Charts and other project management tools to plan their milestones and set their own timeline for the project, then the role of the lecturer is to facilitate this process and provide structure rather than to control what happens next.

Iam Manager

In the real world a project group would be responsible to somebody who would regularly communicate with the group and dynamically give instructions and directions.  I have therefore decided to give the mock business that the project groups are working for, a mock manager.  Hence the creation of Iam Manager.  Iam will correspond with the group through Moodle Mail.

Moodle Mail

I am setting up in the Moodle structure for each project group, an area called Moodle Mail.  Moodle Mail has an Inbox and an Outbox through which the project groups can receive memos etc from Iam and also submit correspondence such as letters and emails.  The letters and emails they submit automatically become assignments within Moodle and will be attached to the gradebook and able to be graded.  This creates a dynamic environment where students know that they will be assessed on their correspondence and yet they send emails, letters, memos in a realistic situation and receive replies back within the Moodle Mail Inbox.  This allows assessment events to occur naturally within the project environment.

Marking Schedules

All the marking schedules will be available to the student groups within Moodle.  This enables the students to know the criteria on which they are going to be marked but still make their own decisions on how they will meet the criteria.  Because their actions will dynamically adjust the path they are taking and because they set and adjust their pathways utilising project management software, they have control over how they meet the criteria.

Portfolio Based Submission

A certain number of the deliverables will be submitted within a portfolio of documents/publications.  This portfolio area will be set up within Moodle and each item submitted will automatically be attached to the gradebook.  One particular deliverable might have two different lecturers marking it with two different marking schedules from different perspectives.  All these marking schedules will be available to the students within Moodle.

Staffing

This project makes use of the existing staff and actually continues on the same course structure from the first twelve weeks of the programme but changes what the students are doing within the classes from different topics to a single project.  No extra training for staff is required.

Resources

All resources already exist within the current environment from the project management software, the software for working on the graphics and multimedia, Microsoft Office for creating the required documents/publications/presentations, and Moodle as the collaboration, submission and communication tool.

What On Earth Made Me Do This?

There is logic behind my madness.  In looking at our past experience with the Certificate in Information Technology (Level 4) programme, and because this new CIT (Level 3) programme is a pathway into the Level 4 and the BIT Degree programmes; we wanted to create an experience at the end of the programme that applied the skills that the students had learnt and better prepared the students for further studies at the higher levels.

We have always tried to utilise experiential learning within all the IT programmes and we have found that students have more enjoyment and achieve better if they are actually applying their learning.  Just having lectures and discussing topic after topic after topic, has not worked in the past with these certificate level students, and therefore over a number of years we have incorporated a lot of hands on activities which make the learning more experiential and applied.

In the same way just having online material for these students and allowing them to manage their learning remotely does not work either as they fail to achieve.  We have made increasing use of firstly Blackboard and then Moodle over the years, and we have found that if students are left to work on an activity online from home they seldom manage to complete the activity because of other distractions and the lack of instant feedback and support.  The ability for students to utilise the same online resource in the face-to-face classroom and then continue on working at home is the best combination.

The Deliverables

My list of proposed deliverables are as follows:

o      Email – Booking Venue

o      Letter – Grant Application

o      Budget

o      Leaflet – Advertising the Software Release Event

o      Folded Brochure – All about the software

o      Minutes of meetings

o      Agendas for meetings

o      Gantt Chart Versions

o      PowerPoint Presentation

Some Things I Would Expect Students To Do

My list of things I would expect students to do is as follows:

o      Complete and Update Gantt Chart

o      Plan meetings

o      Have Meetings

o      Apply for a Grant

o      Work on software that incorporates, graphics and multimedia

o      Consider Venue Requirements

o      Book Venue

o      Complete a Budget

o      Create Leaflet

o      Create Brochure

o      Complete Presentation

o      Practice Presentation

o      Present Presentation

The Moodle Shell

My proposed list of areas for the Moodle Shell includes:

o      Project Overview

o      Mail area

o      Upload area for Minutes

o      Upload area for Agendas

o      Upload area for Gantt Chart

o      Portfolio upload area

o      Marking Schedules area