Reflections on Project Managment

Taking time to reflect on the successes and gaps in a project after seeing it through completion allows instructional designers to develop as professionals (Greer, 2008). Greer suggests a two step process, first distributing a series of evaluation questions to the staff, allowing individual quiet time for relection and note making, followed by a face-to-face group meeting to discuss the project and to make note of lessons learned and recommendations for future projects (Greer, 2008).

This summer I accepted a new position as a summer school instructor for the migrant education program in my county. I was asked to oversee the middle school students and told there would be 50-75 students participating in the program.

During the initial staff meetings, I was given a list of priorities and content that I would be expected to build into the program. I was also introduced to 3 staff members I would be working closely with. One was an instructor focusing on a particular content area; the other two were instructional aides.

Having the basic information for content, time, and learners, I began brainstorming with my co-workers to determine how we could create a program to meet the requirements defined by the administrator. We evaluated of each other’s background and experience, and the available resources. We drafted a sample schedule for classes and content, assigned responsibilities to each of the team members, and met again with the administrator. I was informed that the high school teacher would not be available for the first two weeks, and I was to adjust my plans to incorporate 20-30 additional students. We were able to do this with the addition of one additional instructional aide.

Having been given the approval for our approach, I began designing the instructional materials that would be needed for the course.

I created a schedule grid to distribute to the management team to assist them in understanding where I would have my students and what we would be working on during various parts of the day. With course materials ready we launched into the first week of summer classes.

The program ran very smooth, and I received acknowledgement from many staff that the program addressed the many instructional goals we were charged with.

Two weeks into the program, we were given additional instructional goals, and had to make adjustments to our plan. Because of the visual grid I had created the lead teacher was able to sit with us and very quickly identify how the changes would be implemented.

I believe that the project was as successful as it was because we worked as a team, identifying the various instructional goals, and using each team member as a critical component of the class rotations. The time we spent together planning and preparing for the program paid off in having control over what could have been a very chaotic situation with 100+ students and a wide range of instructional goals.

One area where I would strive for improvement is that during project definition phase, during which 2 key people were not available. Because of their absence, I was not aware of a few critical instructional goals, and some of the documentation that would be asked for at the end of the program. When they were able to work with our group, we were able to make adjustments, but the late alterations created some reworking and pushed us to making a choice between what one manager made a priority and what the other was asking us to make a priority.

The tracking phase of the project would have been more successful and required less backtracking had the stakeholder that was financing the project been more involved up front and able to work with the entire team to explain their needs. Because they worked one-on-one with various team members there was some duplication in the effort to track results, and some areas were overlooked.

Project close out was left to a single person, requiring a considerable amount of time to correlate results and to locate documents needed to meet the needs of the financial supporter.

As with many projects, the experience I had this past summer puts me in a better position to anticipate issues and be even more successful with the design for instruction in years to come.


Allen, S., & Hardin, P. C. (2008). Developing instructional technology products using effective project management practices. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 19(2), 72–97.

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist:Just enough pm to rock your projects (special ed., pp. 42-43). Retrieved September 15, 2011, from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/72033/CRS-CW-5693700/educ_6145_readings/pm-minimalist-ver-3-laureate.pdf