The process of course design for any given course, itself, is a project. Thus, an instructional designer should possess strong project management skills to successfully complete a course development. In my own course design projects, I am able to bring a project management process that articulates project deliverables clearly, provides frequent and detailed project updates-typically on a weekly basis, and provides transparency to faculty about the overall status of the project. By employing such an effective project management process, I am able to help faculty to continually see the great strides they are making to finalizing their course throughout the semester and, ultimately, assuaging their fears about their own ability to complete such a project on time.

What is my project management process?

I have found in order to make the best use of both the faculty’s time and mine during the course design process, it is best to set an agenda for every meeting. Typically, these meetings take the form of a quick update, followed by some decision making, then working on course items together, and, finally, identifying next steps. After a meeting, I will send out a quick email that delineates the ODEE tasks going forward from the faculty tasks for the coming week. On these emails, I will carbon copy any relevant team members from the Multimedia or Carmen Tools teams. Then, at the end of the week, I will send out a PDF copy of the pivot report. This pivot report provides the faculty a snapshot of the progress of the overall course design.