View the Initial Meeting Minutes from 5-22-20.
View the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).
Milestone #2: Reflection
Creating an MOU for this project was honestly the trickiest part of this entire process. Trying to set and establish deadlines and timelines when the project scope was still in development really left a lot of variability in how or when the project would be completed. Variables such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the integration of a new Mobile Device Management (MDM) found my work being tied to the responsibilities and duties of others. As a result, it was very difficult to set and establish clear project outcomes with firm dates when the district was (and is) trying to still determine variables beyond their current control.
To overcome this obstacle, I stayed in constant communication with my client. During each weekly meeting, we would discuss and attempt to resolve some of these unknown variables. The initial MOU that was signed was able to identify the clear project objectives; however, the dates utilized were recognized as “to be determined” until the MDM and student profiles were resolved. It is also worth noting that the biggest deadline for this project did not align with the client’s necessary deadline. Since this resource will not be piloted until the middle of August, the course’s end date of July 6th served as the completion date for the project. The school district and myself have agreed to revisit the terms of the MOU at the completion of the creation of materials, and it is possible that terms may be renegotiated to have me stay on and do some additional work in the piloting phase.
There were not any disputes that arose during this project. I firmly believe that the conversations discussed during the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis really helped galvanize the team early in the process. There were challenges that emerged due to difficult scheduling conflicts, which did delay progress on occasion. However, each team member was understanding when this would happen, and virtual meetings and conference calls were held at varying times to accommodate all parties. If the team did not have this type of relationship and dynamic, I could see how a team members could begin to feel disconnected. One takeaway from this experience might be to establish a dedicated and consistent, weekly meeting time in the future. This consistency would help keep scheduling conflicts from delaying progress.
The final version of the MOU has not diverged from the original plan based on how the MOU was constructed. However, I did not put specific language into place for when I would be able to begin creating the video modules. In my mind, I had planned to be able to start this process earlier in the project scope; however, hurdles with the student profiles and some other variables beyond our team’s control forced this timeline to be backed up. As a result, I found myself investing large amounts of time in Week 8 rather than sharing this burden between Week 7 and Week 8. This experience serves as a reminder as to why explicit language in the MOU is so important.
With all elements considered, I believe the hardest part of the MOU process was helping all stakeholders agree and see the value in the project early on. When working with such dichotomous stakeholders (teachers, specialists, instructional tech. coaches, administrators, etc.), it is difficult to have universal support from day 1. By completing the needs assessment and presenting hard data to all stakeholders, I found I was able to better create a universal starting point. Once all stakeholders saw the inherent value and need, I began to see a much greater investment in time and resources, which ultimately brought the project and MOU to life.