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Creative Approach to Teaching Project Management Service Learning

Roya Javadpour California Polytechnic State University

Introduction

A project is a complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by time, budget, resources, and performance specifications designed to meet customer needs[1]. Therefore, they require a unique approach to management and administration. A creative approach is taken in designing and teaching the graduate level Technological Project Management course offered as part of the Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering department’s program at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. The course covers the basic issues related to, and tools used for managing projects in organizations in addition to providing the opportunity for a real-world application of the tools and concepts comprising project management

The course is designed for students who want to learn how to manage a project by following the “learn by doing” philosophy. The course content follows the “project life cycle”, investigating projects from start to finish. However, the best way to appreciate the complexities of managing a project and project personnel is through direct experience. For this reason, students are assigned to a project team for a house rehabilitation service project. Class efforts are focused on a home improvement project for a low income family with the mission to improve the quality of their lives.

Through this project, students engage in scheduling, supply management, project team recruiting, resource allocation, time/cost tradeoffs, risk assessment, task coordination, team-building, progress monitoring, and post project assessment. Each team plans and manages its progress using appropriate project management tools and techniques. Teams present informal status reports during the semester. Additionally students contribute their own physical labor to the project. Through an offering of this course in Spring of 2004, students spent two months meticulously planning their schedule down to the minute for two short weekends of work, splitting into smaller teams that had to stay on budget, develop contingency options and plan the remodel from top to bottom. They researched how to install drywall, laminated flooring, carpet and lay tile. We received no funding with which to perform the work for this project and depended entirely upon the generosity of businesses and individuals in the community. More than 40 donors, including local businesses and individuals provided financial support for the project. Students raised nearly $14000 in monetary and in-kind contributions and in the end, they worked a miracle.

“Proceedings of the 2005 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2005, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Javadpour, R. (2005, June), Creative Approach To Teaching Project Management Service Learning Paper presented at 2005 Annual Conference, Portland, Oregon. 10.18260/1-2--14789