Effective Communication

Say what you mean and mean what you say....

Effective communication is the dissemination of significant information through oral and written means (Cox, 2009).  Instructional project designers use effective communication to build an understanding of a project (Bourne, 2011) and reduce negative influences.  Information must be succinct and clear to eliminate misrepresentations about the project.  Communication barriers such as perception, beliefs, attitudes, values and noise can lead to message breakdowns (Cox, 2009).  Information that is selective or subjective can lead to misconceptions by the stakeholders.  Stakeholders themselves can misinterpret information because of their own perceptions. Lack of communication is equally detrimental to a project plan. 

For a project to be successful, effective communication needs to be informative, instructional and persuasive.  To achieve this, the message goals, objectives, scope, costs, timelines, expectations, roles and responsibilities need to be addressed and targeted to the responsible stakeholder.  To clarify roles and responsibilities, project tasks are clearly assigned, given a due date, and given a level of expectation. Typical communication methods include presentations, emails, newsletters, phone calls, and websites.   

Click on picture

Click on the picture to learn effective applications of emails, phone calls, instant messaging and meetings in project management. Use emails for concise messages and the phone for complex or emotional issues. Instant messaging is best used for brief exchanges. Hold face-to-face meetings to cut down on sporadic, daily communications between team members. 

Personal Reflection:

Over the past week I have thought about communication and how I use it to express myself with my family, friends, and students. Often I tell someone who isn’t clear with their message to say what you mean and mean what you say.  In the courses I teach I think of the syllabus as the contract between me and my students.  This form of communication states what is expected to be delivered during the course and what is expected by the students over the semester.  It is clear and concise and spells out exactly what I intend to do. It says what I mean and means what I say.  When one of my students feels unclear about the course it is easy to refer to the syllabus for clarity.  This is also true with project management. Without clear and precise communication there can be a breakdown in the progression of the project. It is important that what was intended in the message is what was interpreted. Project managers need to make sure all parties involved in a project are receiving the information they need to feel connected and informed. Information must be made available in a timely fashion especially project status, finances and time frame. It is also important to remember that communication is bidirectional. This means project managers need to address the concerns of the stakeholders. Any conflicts, barriers or negative influences can be minimized with frequent and effective communication.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bourne, L. (2011, June 23). Project communication: A visual understanding. Retrieved from http://blogs.pmi.org/blog/voices_on_project_management/2011/06/project-communications-a-visua.html

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for instructional designers. (1st ed.). Bloomington, IN: iUniverse.

    

Task Analysis and Sequencing

In project management, task analysis is the identification of the processes needed to support the training program (Cox, 2009).   Task sequencing is the organization of the tasks to enhance comprehension and retention (Cox, 2009).  The task analysis is organized by a hierarchical framework beginning with the primary level of what the learner needs to be able to do or know.  Each primary level can be broken down into more detail including main and supporting tasks to accomplish the primary objective (Haughey, n.d.).   Tasks can be physical, intellectual, or cognitive to deepen the understanding of knowledge, skills, and abilities of the training (Cox, 2009).  Typically the task sequencing is ranked by importance based on the time spent, difficulty, and significance.   

Project management like Instructional Systems Design is a framework of tasks to be accomplished. It is the planning, organization, and supervision of the project of instructional design.  It is not the development of the content.   The process of Project Mangement is to oversee the scope, costs, and time to produce a quality product by managing resources and keeping within budget. 

This youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwdlqf-YS2o is part of a series of webcasts about sequencing learning experiences. It introduces and explains why it is important to sequence instruction; what is sequenced learning; and how to a create sequenced instructional material that best meets the needs of the learner. 

This second video in the series, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWrAluSVZb4 goes on to describe stratgies to produce sequenced learning. It begins with the assumption that learning is hierarchical.  That means that the learner must have prior knowledge to build upon to learn the new content. The project manager must identify what baseline of knowledge the learner must have and sequence tasks based on this information to meet the objectives of the new instruction. 

The final video in the trilogy, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35_lPjHpK8o offers another strategy to produce sequenced learning.  Procedural analysis is different from hierarchical strategy in that it recommends to sequence the learning in the order in which the task will be used.  The video has a great example that explains well the concept.  
 

Personal reflection:

From the lessons this week it becomes more apparent the importance of project management in producing instructional design that meets the scope of the stakeholders, on time and within budget.  After initiating the project a needs analysis is done to determine whether training is the solution and whether it will deliver the desired results (Cekada, 2011). Concluding that training is needed, a task analysis with task sequencing identifies the objectives to be met and measured. Systematically each task is broken down to a level of detail necessary to improve comprehension and retention.  This organization and leadership guides the process to produce the instructional design.     

Cekada, T. L. (2011, December). Need training? conducting an effective needs assessment. Professional safety, 56(12), 28-34. 

Cox, D. (2009). Project management skills for
    instructional designers. (1st ed.).
    Bloomington, IN: iUniverse.

Haughey, D. (n.d.). An introduction to
    project management. Retrieved from
   http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/introduction-to-project-management.html