Educating students in Project Management

I have found that Cengage has two good textbooks for an undergraduate level fundamentals course. I expect a simple search of their website would show you their options.

Debra,

I participate in teaching classes as a volunteer and noticed that new students often do not differentiate between Theoretical Project Management & Practical Project Management so it might be good idea to start-off by explaining to them the difference between Knowledge & Experience (Theory & Reality) so as you go on with your course, they would have a sense of what real experience would be.

I would recommend spending some time on Mind mapping/WBS - trying to give them tools to break down complex ideas or problems into smaller and more manageable components. This is an everyday task for me - for the last 30+ years

Hi Debra, I would recommend to let students work on a case study through your whole course where they would build and deliver a project on their own. How long is your course?
Project management is a complex discipline and some people are naturally strong in some areas, e.g. interpersonal skills while it may be more difficult for them to conduct detailed quantitative risk analyses. But in real world they need it all. Such a case study and hands on experience with team work would help them to learn from each other and discover their natural skills and skill gaps. Besides it will be fun and students will like it:)

I am part of the team who delivers project management unit to undergraduate.

It is all based on PMI and PMBOK.

1. Lectures - 10 knowledge areas
2. Tutorials - Practical
3. Few Lab session for MS project

They are all equally important. however, I will focus here on my area which is the tutorial - practical

Week one tutorial: Forming teams exercise including some storming (spaghetti and marshmallow tower) you should use that in a concept of showing them the competing constraints.
Team contract and responsibilities, they can send it by email after signing it.
They also should send you their project ideas, so each team to provide at least three achievable projects.

Week two: Discuss these projects ideas in front of all teams and choose one project for each team and explain why you picked it and how they will do it. Explain thoroughly about the project charter and provide them with a template and Ask them to send it back within three days.

Week Three: mark project charters and build a strong power point to show them good and bad areas. This is an important assignment, and it should be marked, and it is 5% to10% of the total.
The project charter will show you a lot of information about how far students are learning from the theoretical part and are they applying it.

Week 4 and so on: They should submit and on weekly bases a portion of their Project plan in according to the knowledge area that they are following from lectures ( we left it to the end it was hard, and the feedback would be late towards the final submission). You need to keep track and very thorough discussions even outside the paid hours of tutorials. I had Monday and Tuesday always open door policy.
As you approach the end, students should be, in parallel, working with MS project trainer and producing their MS Project.

Once they submit their project plans and you mark it, then you can challenge them during presentations because the plan has to be applicable with the competing constraints.
Expect some of the following: Western students think projects like any of these low-level reality TV show and it is not. Therefore try to mix the teams with International, Mature, and Exchange students. It is important to have one day for powerpoint personations, and it is highly regarded for confronting, highlighting and being realistic.

A part of the team contract and project charter you should not provide any other templates, so they can be creative and check the internet.
Referencing is not essential, it is not academian c exercise, it is actual project planning.

Every team should create a shared google doc which you have access to, all their meetings and notes should be documented including lessons learned.
Team contract is alive doc must be updated if they change responsibilities.

My students enjoyed a lot my real-life examples, and it is the main key to create the connection and the interest for them.

This is the way that I think it should be after some good experience, and it is not necessary to match Uni outline thoroughly.

Feel free to contact me for details.

Kevin Drake

I have found that Cengage has two good textbooks for an undergraduate level fundamentals course. I expect a simple search of their website would show you their options.