Can you Increase Student Engagement?A Beta Test of Yellowdig! Crises forces, and also creates opportunity for, change! The COVID-19 pandemic compelled campus classes online, but many faculty simply moved their lectures to online platforms.  They did not understand that teaching online is a totally different educational paradigm! The result is that, sadly, many classes are judged as unengaging and the content difficult to learn by students. While online education is an established and growing trend, the pandemic has changed education forever, resulting in what could become a permanent shift away from classroom instruction in favor of virtual learning platforms. However, this is only the case if classes are designed . . . continue reading

5 Ways Avoiding Digital Transformation can Sink Your Company

Digital transformation is the process of modifying or creating new business by incorporating digital technologies. It is a top priority for large enterprises, especially if they expect to continue growing. But it’s a very risky undertaking. Although most large corporations have digital transformation near the top of their agenda, barriers remain. Without the knowledge and guidance to direct your steps through this transformation, your company could be among many that will have failing digital transformation projects. Here are five important reasons why ineffective digital transformation processes can go wrong — and how to mitigate your risks. Poor planning, communication and . . . continue reading

Do You MOOC?Continuous learning is, or should be, a way of life for project managers and all members of the project team! According to a global survey[i] by Pearson in 2019 a “40-year career is gone, replaced by lifelong learning and diverse career paths”. Even if you have gone back to college and earned a master’s degree, the need to continue learning new knowledge and new skills is ongoing. Work assignments and demands are constantly evolving. According to this same survey, “People expect digital and virtual learning to be the new normal in the next decade” and the “shift to digital delivery . . . continue reading

Student’s Groundbreaking Research on COVID-19 Impact on Construction

Hala Alkhalouf planned to spend only one semester as an exchange student in the United States and then return to her family in the Gulf.  Five years later, she has earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering at the University of Maryland and pioneered groundbreaking research investigating the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the supply chain and labor productivity. She was half the way through her master’s thesis on a different topic when the pandemic began spreading, and the country began quarantining. “That’s when I decided to change my thesis, and because I have already spent . . . continue reading

Video Production GuidanceBottom Line Up-Front Make Short Videos (<6 minutes) 2 to 3 minutes must grab them At 6 minutes you start to lose students At 10 minutes they’re all gone! Start with a Point of Interest! Shocking Statistic Remarkable Story or Case Follow the “IDEA” paradigm for inquiry-based design Speak Quickly and Enthusiastically! Don’t talk slowly…you’ll lose the audience Show your love of the material! Add a transcript / subtitles for accessibility     Background The effectiveness of our courses on edX and using short videos for a flipped active learning (blended) classroom is fundamentally based on two things: good content . . . continue reading

PM World JournalA Critical Online Global Resource, Spotlighting Topics and Offering PerspectivesLooking for a global project management resource focused specifically on Sharing Knowledge in Program and Project Management?  Look no further than the PM World Journal. The PM World Journal is an extremely useful online resource that showcases best practices, case studies and descriptions of how others have solved program and project management problems.  Each month about 30 new works are published and all the information is FREE! “Our mission is to promote and support knowledge sharing related to program and project management,” said David Pells, PM World Journal’s Managing Editor. “We also want to offer practicing project managers and those . . . continue reading

Can Virtual classes be Better than in Person?Seismic shifts occur in education when unexpected events force widespread experimentation. Right now, college students have been facing perhaps the most uncertain year of their lives due to closures and restrictions brought on by the COVID-19 virus, with thousands choosing to defer or postpone their studies to avoid taking their classes online. But students are finding out that deferring or postponing isn’t necessary– virtual classes can be as good, if not even better, than in-person classes. The virtual platforms are fertile ground to explore more active learning methods; enabling students to make choices and reflect on their learning individually plus . . . continue reading

Facilitating Virtual ClassesSetting the context for an online course to be most effective (just like a campus class), we assign various activities for the learners to prepare before class so that class time can be an active learning environment. Assignments before class may include videos, voice-over PowerPoint or animation slide decks, readings, problem sets, Google searches for information, pearl diving essays, etc. Short quizzes or knowledge checks before class encourage the learner to have prepared for class and they are easily administered on a learning management system (LMS).  At the University of Maryland, we use Canvas. Feedback from our students informs us that the knowledge checks do motivate . . . continue reading

Flipping the ClassroomWhen UMD professor Jocelyn Davis’s Managing Project Teams course meets in person, it’s not so that she can deliver a lecture. Her lectures are already provided to students as short videos they watch before class. Instead, she uses the in-person time for more active learning techniques so her students actually apply what they have learned from the videos, readings, problem sets, and other “pre-work” activities. It’s part of a “flipped classroom” approach to learning that UMD’s Project Management Center for Excellence, part of the civil and environmental engineering department, has been developing over the past several years. In the COVID-19 era, such strategies have . . . continue reading

Blended Learning Classroom GuidanceThe terms flipped classroom, active learning, and blended learning have been kicked around for a number of years, sometimes with great fanfare. One of the outcomes of our partnership with edX is that we have studied research results on effective teaching techniques. Relative to teaching on campus our conclusion is unequivocal, blended learning formats are far more effective. The content is much stickier! For example, the 2019 Impact Report from edX states: “edX and our partners have unlocked the power of blended learning – when on-campus learning happens both on-line and in person. Blended learning has been shown to improve learning outcomes. In one . . . continue reading