EXAMINE THREE (3) MAIN CHALLENGES THAT AN INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER ENCOUNTERS WHEN PREPARING A PROJECT PLAN.

05 Jun EXAMINE THREE (3) MAIN CHALLENGES THAT AN INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGNER ENCOUNTERS WHEN PREPARING A PROJECT PLAN.

Examine three (3) main challenges that an instructional designer encounters when preparing a project plan.

The planning of an instructional design project requires a scope of work, scheduling and resource allocation, and budgeting. Examine three (3) main challenges that an instructional designer encounters when preparing a project plan. Suggest ways to overcome or address these challenges in your own project. From the e-Activity, propose the manner in which you would use a project plan to track activity for your project. Specify how you would use the project plan to report progress to stakeholders.

E-Activity Go to Project Management Docs’ Website located at http://www.projectmanagementdocs.com/project-planning-templates/project-management-plan.html. Examine the various purposes for a project plan. Be prepared to discuss.

CHAPTER 16: Instructional Design Project Management

GETTING STARTED

For the past two years, Green Energy, a company specializing in renewable technology, has been developing a new solar panel for residential application. Now that the product is ready to be launched nationwide, you have been asked to quickly prepare training for the sales force and installation technicians. The product manager tells you that the new product rollout will take place in about three months! The product manager promises to provide you unlimited access to subject-matter experts (SMEs) and sales representatives as needed. The product manager also invites you to join the weekly product rollout meetings, which include about 25 engineers as well as representatives from marketing, sales, legal, information technology, and human resources. At the first weekly meeting you attend, a debate develops among the engineers concerning several technical changes being considered that will affect installation procedures.

As you begin work on the task analysis, the SME informs you that he has just been placed on another project, so his time will be limited. Several other engineers provide assistance, but none of them have expert knowledge, and the product information they provide is inconsistent. The sales representatives are continuously preempted by sales calls, so they keep rescheduling meetings. After you create a draft prototype, you ask the lead design engineer, the sales manager, and a field installer to review the materials. At the review meeting, it’s obvious that the sales manager has not reviewed the materials critically, and the lead design engineer and field installer disagree on the correctness of the technical installation procedures. The product design manager informs you that no budget is available to support a website and to develop a training video but suggests asking the sales manager for financial support. When you meet with the sales manager, he tells you that the two-day training will have to be cut to four hours. At this point, you cannot determine whether the sales manager or product design manager is now in charge and which manager has the final authority to sign off on the training prototype. As you begin to discuss changes with your web programmer, she reminds you that she will be on vacation for the next two weeks. You feel a perfect storm rising. Could you have taken some action early on to better manage this project?

QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

• “What are the key tasks involved in planning an instructional design project?”
• “How do I manage an instructional design project?”
• “What are the components of a project agreement or proposal?”
• “How can I reduce the time needed to carry out an instructional design project?”
• “How are instructional design projects funded?”
• “What responsibilities do the instructor and client share in the design process?”
• “What are the legal responsibilities of the instructional designer?”

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

All projects are characterized as being unique in some way, finite in duration, and intended to achieve a specific result (Project Management Institute, 2008). Instructional design projects vary in size and complexity from creating a simple job aid for making internal, local, and long-distance calls to developing a semester-long college chemistry course delivered asynchronously or a 15-hour web-based tutorial on interface design for your company’s web developers. Similarly, you might work on developing a course for network technicians that includes modules on cabling, network design, and network switches. Some instructional design projects involve only one designer; other projects may require a large team. A project or course that involves the design, development, and production of 15 or 100 different modules presents a unique problem: How does an instructional designer manage the process? We have divided the project management process into two major parts, applicable to both large and small projects: project planning and process management activities.

Project Planning

The planning of an instructional design project requires a scope of work, scheduling and resource allocation, and budgeting.

Scope of Work

The scope of work provides a definition of the boundaries of the project. This definition is used to gain a consensus among all the stakeholders concerning the purpose of the project, why it is being done, and the expected outcomes or products (Project Management Institute, 2008). The scope of a project is affected by three constraints: the time available, the degree of quality required, and the budget (Lewis, 2007; Thomsett, 2010). The project’s scope may also be modified during the life of the project to reflect unexpected changes.

Scheduling and Resource Allocation

Developing a schedule for the design of a single unit is rather straightforward; however, developing a schedule for several units for a specific project is complex and requires careful attention to logistics and staffing. Scheduling begins by identifying all the specific tasks that need to be completed (called work breakdown structure). The project manager must then determine the sequence for completing the tasks and assign individuals to each task, taking into account who is available when and how to make efficient use of employees’ time.

The time required to complete each task is a function of the nature of the task. There are two types of tasks: fixed duration and variable duration.

Fixed-duration tasks take a set amount of time. For example, viewing a 30-minute video recording will take 30 minutes. Other tasks have a variable duration; these are referred to as resource-driventasks (Stevenson & Marmel, 1997). You can reduce the amount of time it takes to complete a resource-driven task by adding more resources. For example, it might take one graphic artist four days to complete 16 drawings, but the 16 drawings can be completed in one day by using four graphic artists. It still takes a total of four days of effort; it just happens that all “four days” of effort happen on the same day, and that shortens the project’s timeline. Each additional graphic artist, however, must have a shared understanding of the project concept to ensure that the designs produced are consistent; otherwise, adding more resources can actually slow down a project rather than improve efficiency.

Expert’s Edge: The Recipe for Success Requires the Right Mix

Managing an instructional design project in the context of higher education has become a new challenge, with new technologies and new paradigms converging and conflicting with established practice and interactive learning literacy. Within our unit at Deakin University, specifically where projects integrate online learning environments, we are developing a different approach to the management of instructional design projects by focusing on the long-term delivery of those environments and the dynamic nature of the educational content. This management approach integrates the essential features of instructional design while catering to the unique elements of online access (interactivity, collaboration, communication) and off-campus delivery (access, convenience, service) as well as the associated professional development and support (scaffolding) in online teaching and learning strategies for the academic staff. This brief synopsis highlights what we consider to be the six essential success factors for the management of our instructional design projects.

The first and most critical aspect of managing our instructional design projects is to ensure that we have established effective liaison with the “client,” usually the course or program chair, who has overall responsibility for the effective delivery of the course of study. Until recently, it was assumed that our clients’ familiarity with both educational design and online learning was sufficient to enable translation (instructional design) of the content material to the interactive medium without requiring additional professional development. What we have discovered, however, is that familiarity with these concepts is varied and that extensive professional development is often required to maximize the effectiveness of any instructional design and development projects. This situation is also consistent with evidence from other training and learning contexts that have manifested limited levels of competency in utilizing the online milieu effectively. In our situation, when professional development needs were identified, it was often during the development process, with the consequence that the output of content into the online environment became little more than a digitization process. Our revised approach, developed in close consultation with senior faculty, is to establish the necessary communication and understanding between client and designer and to delay formal instructional design work on the project scope until any necessary professional development and training have been completed.

The second factor relevant to the effective management of instructional design is to work with the client to confirm the project and the subsequent project specifications. In our context, the scope refers to the overall requirements for the project that focus on the educational rationale (what is going to be achieved by undertaking the work), the project deliverables (what we as a development team will produce for the client), the project responsibilities (the people who have been nominated to undertake specific tasks), the project plan (estimation of when essential tasks will be completed), and the project resources (the people, equipment, and funds necessary to create the deliverables by a target date). While this model is consistent with accepted commercial practice, our experience has been that projects too often follow their own paths, becoming unwieldy, rather than conforming to an articulated plan. Once both the client and our development group have accepted and agreed to the project scope, more detailed specifications are generated. It is also important to note that this process assumes that the client is responsible for the provision of content and the statement of learning objectives, with strategies for teaching and learning being developed in consultation with educational designers from our development group.

Before embarking on the project, the third critical element for the manager is to ensure that the development team has the appropriate skill mix. Prior to the growth of online environments for off-campus delivery, our main mode of media production was print-based study guides and readers that were developed using a specific sequential process and clearly articulated roles. This linear process, however, is not suitable for online environments, and we are now emphasizing what skills are required to complete the instructional design project and the roles different people play in that process. The critical roles for the successful design and implementation of online resources include the educational designer, the teaching and learning innovator, and the visual/interactive designer. Rather than operating with a mind-set that we are creating text online, we must focus on providing engaging communication between learner and material presented. This requires project roles in which individuals can take on a wide range of skills relevant to the project—creating online material, integrating appropriate graphical or interactive objects, applying educational design to the course structure, and undertaking operational effectiveness (quality assurance) checks. This last role highlights the fourth success factor that must be included in our instructional design projects—quality assurance, which takes a number of different forms. In the first instance, quality checks are established to ensure the overall design is consistent with the original plan and, where necessary, to correct different design components such as screen layout or graphics. This process also provides feedback to team members who have expressed a need to better understand the impact of their work on the overall design effort. Subsequent quality checks are undertaken by independent experts to provide feedback to the team and the client on the overall impact of the product and any potential delivery issues. Through an iterative sequence of successive approximations, the instructional design effort is monitored for quality and educational effectiveness.

The fifth factor is to ensure that the timelines and milestones that are prescribed for the project are closely monitored and corrected to meet the objectives of the project. While this is clearly a standard component of any instructional development project, a major issue that we face is that traditional development has focused on completing the instructional design activities prior to delivery. Typically, this has been undertaken on a semester basis, with development in semester 1 for delivery in semester 2. However, this does not provide adequate time to ensure the ongoing effectiveness of teaching and learning resources in the context of higher education, and we are now conceptualizing the project as extending over a sequence of four or five delivery cycles, with each cycle implementing changes based on information from evaluation of the prior delivery cycle. The significant difference with this approach is that projects are conceptually always “under construction.” This links to and highlights the sixth and final success factor, the ongoingmaintenance of resources. Until recently, we had undertaken projects on a year-by-year basis and are now establishing a process by which a single project is scoped for development work over a number of years. Our projects are therefore conceptualized as the development of a series of resources that will be subject to ongoing change as a result of course evaluation and disciplinary developments. Moving from a mind-set that focuses on completion of these resources (and therefore the end of the project) to one in which resources will (theoretically) never be “complete” requires a new approach to the management of instructional design projects.

These success factors are critical in our current environment because we are moving rapidly to new ways of designing and delivering teaching and learning environments. Unlesswe change the way our clients think and our developers undertake projects, we will not be aligned to the appropriate methods for effective instructional design in the context of online teaching and learning in higher education.

Roderick C. Sims, PhD, is associate professor and director of the Teaching and Learning Support Unit at Deakin University, Australia. He is responsible for the educational design and quality assurance of online teaching and learning environments as well as the provision of academic professional development for the university faculties. Dr. Sims has over 20 years of experience with instructional design and educational computing, specializing in the learner–computer interface and visual communication.

A key term in scheduling is the critical path. The critical path is the series of tasks you must complete to keep a project on time. For example, if you are wallpapering your kitchen, you must first remove the old wallpaper before you can apply the new wallpaper. The critical path would include removing the old wallpaper and installing the new wallpaper. Returning the wallpaper-removal equipment is not critical to finishing the project on time.

Some tasks can be completed at various times before they cause a delay in the project. Selecting and purchasing the wallpaper can be done almost any time prior to the removal of the last strip of old paper. Selecting and purchasing the new wallpaper has slack time. That is, there is a time period for completing the task before it becomes part of the critical path. Thus, if we wait until after we have removed the old wallpaper to buy the new wallpaper, then the selection and purchasing task becomes part of the critical path. Some tasks are also dependent on other tasks. Applying the new wallpaper is dependent on removing the old wallpaper and purchasing the new wallpaper. But removing the old paper and buying the new paper are not dependent on each other.

Milestones identify the completion of major accomplishments in a project. A milestone is actually a point in time. For example, one of our milestones is the purchase of the new wallpaper, a second is when the old wallpaper is removed, and a third is when the new wallpaper is applied. Each of these milestones indicates the completion of a phase or major task, not the time needed to complete the phase or task. In a design project, milestones might be the completion of the learner analysis, task analysis, statement of objectives, strategy design, approval of the design document, and first draft of the instruction.

Often, there is a deliverable associated with a milestone that you can give to a manager or client. The item might be a prototype of a screen design for a web page or a report, such as the results and recommendations of the formative evaluation. The scheduling process involves translating planned activities into the various tasks; determining the dependent tasks, milestones, deliverables; and then identifying the most efficient path for completing the project. Scheduling also involves determining who will carry out each task, either individually or as a team.

Budgeting

Some organizations require that you prepare a detailed project budget, others require only that you track costs so they can be charged back, and still others do not budget or track the costs. Once you have identified the tasks and their durations, you can determine how much effort is needed from the different team members and what resources are needed to complete the task (see Figure 16-1). Resources include people (e.g., instructional designers, SME consultants, graphic artists), facilities and equipment (e.g., offices, labs, video studios, computers), and materials (e.g., flash drives, burnable CDs, paper).

FIGURE 16-1: Staffing budget estimate

Dates	Task Description	Project Manager	Instructional Designer #1 (senior level)	Instructional Designer #2	Graphic Artist	Web Programmer	SME
	Analysis
5/10–5/14	Interview managers	4	6	6
5/18–5/24	Administer survey	2	12
5/15–5/17	Word process raw interview data			14
	Design
5/19–5/27	Conduct task analysis	2	18	12			4
6/1–6/14	Write instructional materials		40	40			4
6/12–6/30	Produce graphics	1	4		20
6/20–6/28	Create website pages	2	4			20
	Total Hours	11	84	72	20	20	8
	x hourly rate	$200	$175	$125	$75	$100	$200
	Total Cost	$2,200	$14,700	$9,000	$1,500	$2,000	$1,600

Business organizations and consulting firms often have a daily rate for their instructional designers that includes salary, benefits (e.g., health insurance, vacation, retirement), and overhead (e.g., for office space, computer support, telephone, etc.). In addition to labor costs, the project budget must also account for the rental of equipment and facilities (e.g., postproduction video editing) and the production of prototypes and master materials.

The output from preparing the scope of work, schedule, and budget is a project agreement or proposal, which we will discuss in greater detail later in this chapter.

Management Activities

After the client approves the scope of work and the budget, the project begins. Throughout the project, the project manager monitors progress, resolves human relations issues among team members and stakeholders, and maintains communication with the client and other key stakeholders.

Starting the Project

For large projects, a project launch or kickoff meeting is held that includes all the stakeholders and key team members. The aim of the meeting is to ensure that everyone gains a common understanding of the scope, goals, individual responsibilities, and timeline. The project manager and team members can explain the project, the milestones, and the deliverables to clarify any misconceptions. This meeting provides a means for the team to develop rapport with the stakeholders and to explain the instructional design process. It also provides the client with a forum to ask for explanations and to clarify their expectations.

Once the project is under way, the project manager is responsible for managing, tracking, and reporting the progress. Project management involves coordinating the work of others, hiring consultants, facilitating cooperation, maintaining team momentum, and managing resources (Kerzner, 2006; Lewis, 2007; Roberts, 2007; Thomsett, 2010).

Managing Resources

The project manager is responsible for ensuring that adequate resources (human, material, and financial) are available to complete the tasks. A project manager is responsible for arranging for and coordinating with external service providers such as video producers, graphic artists, print production services, and consultants. The project manager must ensure that each task is carried out at the right time and meets quality expectations. For example, the project manager must determine when the video production crew is needed and have it arrive at the appropriate time rather than a week early or a week late. When a project falls behind, the project manager may need to add additional resources to resource-driven tasks. For example, additional graphic artists could be hired to finish the graphic work, or additional programmers could be added to complete a multimedia project. Similarly, the project manager may ask the team to work six days a week or longer days to complete the project on time.

Tracking

Tracking the completion of tasks and monitoring project costs are essential for completing the project on time and within budget. A project manager will need to establish processes and procedures (e.g., weekly status reports) for collecting information from the various team members to track the progress of the project. Similarly, weekly or scheduled team meetings are used to identify problems early so that personnel can be reassigned to keep the project on schedule. The project manager is also responsible for documenting client-requested changes and adjusting the schedule and budget as needed.

Project Reporting

A project manager has the responsibility to keep management and the client informed of the project’s progress. The type of reporting is dependent not only on the length and complexity of the project but also on what information management and the client want. Some clients may want a weekly or monthly report, whereas other clients may only want a final report. A project manager needs to determine the type of reporting at the beginning of the project and be willing to make changes as the project progresses. If management and the client do not want reports, we have always found it wise to maintain our own file of reports in case someone asks a question about the project. Similarly, it is always useful to keep logs of phone calls with the client and to document changes to the project.

Planning and managing a project may seem like an overwhelming task. The project management responsibilities often conflict with the instructional design responsibilities, leaving instructional designers in the position of determining which task to neglect to cause the least negative impact on the project. Project management software is a valuable tool that can help the instructional designer manage a project. These software tools can streamline the scheduling, budgeting, tracking, and reporting processes.

Completing the Project

After the project is completed, the project manager meets with the client to turn over the deliverables, provide information for maintenance, and discuss any follow-up recommendations. The project manager may also arrange a debriefing meeting during which the project team and key stakeholders evaluate the project process by identifying what worked well, what could be improved next time, and other lessons learned. It should be noted that instructional projects are rarely ever “complete.” They are often improved on an ongoing basis long after implementation. Last, the project manager rewards and recognizes the project team for their efforts. A project celebration can include a formal luncheon with speeches, a personalized gift such as a desk set, or a handwritten thank-you note.

PROJECT AGREEMENT AND PROPOSAL PREPARATION

For some projects, a client or funding agency may request a proposal or bid. Such a request is often referred to as a request for proposal, or RFP. Some agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation) provide a number of forms and specific instructions on how to prepare and submit a proposal. Internal proposals or project agreements prepared for corporate clients may not require a structure. Regardless of the client, a proposal should include the details of the project. A proposal should include six parts:

• Statement of purpose. This section should describe the need or problem the project will address and a statement of goals. It should focus your reader’s, the proposal evaluator’s, or client’s attention on the primary purpose of the proposal. Using signal words such as “The purpose of this proposal is” or headings such as “Project Purpose” or “Project Goals” helps direct the reader’s attention.
• Plan of work. This section might include a brief description of the instructional design process that you will use. The reader is probably unfamiliar with the instructional design process and the terminology, so the section should be written in terms a layperson can understand. Your reader should gain an understanding of what you will do if the project is funded.
• Milestones and deliverables. Milestones are major accomplishments of the project (revisit the “Project Planning” section). Typical milestones might include the completion of the needs assessment, completion of the design and prototypes, rough edits of video recordings, final version of print materials, and completion of the field test. Deliverables are those objects such as instructional materials, videos, or reports that you will give to the client. Again, the design model can help identify the milestones and deliverables.
• Budget. The fourth part of the proposal is the budget, which details all the costs associated with the project. One approach to preparing a budget is for the designer to complete a task analysis for each of the milestones to identify the tasks associated with each. Then the designer must determine the personnel, travel, and other costs associated with each task.
• Schedule. This section includes a timeline or schedule describing the work on each milestone. The amount of detail in your schedule will vary depending on the requirements of the client or funding agency. Some proposals may require a schedule only for milestones and deliverables, whereas others may request only a date for completion of the total project.
• Staffing. The final section describes the project personnel, perhaps in a brief biographical sketch of each individual or vitae or résumé. Often, clients and funding agencies want to know who will work on the project. This section needs to present each staff member in an honest and appropriate manner. When writing a proposal, the designer should always keep the reader’s perspective in focus and write the proposal for the reader, not for other instructional designers. Many agencies place a page limit on the proposal (e.g., 25 pages of narrative).

FIGURE 16-2: Sample project agreement

Sample Project Agreement: Fire Extinguisher Training Program

1.0 Purpose and Overview

Our purpose is to improve emergency preparedness of office personnel in case of an office fire. Security personnel and employee fire marshals have been trained on procedures to evacuate the building and assist physically challenged employees but are unfamiliar with building fire equipment. This course will cover proper use of fire extinguishers.

2.0 Personnel

2.1 Identification:

The primary client is Keegan Coburn, Director of Security. A secondary funding sponsor is Mary Lou Rankin, Vice President of Human Resources. John Hernandez, a certified emergency responder, contracted from the county fire department, will serve as subject-matter expert.

The corporate training department will oversee the project. Dee-Anne Gomes will serve as the project manager and Sherry Wise will be the lead instructional design specialist. Part-time support personnel will include Linda Campbell, web programmer, and Cindy Mudge, graphic artist. Video production services (if needed) will be contracted with an external agency.

2.2 Expectations:

The client is responsible for signing off approval on all prototypes and final master deliverables. Budget and the associated charge code will be provided by the VP of Human Resources.

The project manager has overall responsibility for the project and negotiating any extension of project timelines due to unplanned contingencies.

3.0 Project Communications

The project manager will update the client and sponsor weekly by providing a written status report. The report will identify accomplishments, changes and modifications, and budget expenditures. The project manager, client, and/or sponsor may arrange meetings anytime throughout the project to share problems and concerns about the design process, the deliverables, or the behavior of project personnel.

4.0 Project Goals

• Develop a two