Undergraduate Project Management Research Articles

Metaverse adoption for the teaching and learning of project management: an exploratory study of student use

The rapid adoption of collaboration technologies over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the advancement, growth, and proliferation of metaverse technology capabilities, has created a heightened awareness and comfort with the use of advanced collaboration technologies for online and distance education. This paper presents an exploratory study of how metaverse technologies can be adopted for the teaching and learning of project management concepts and skills specifically, as metaverses have been identified as a legitimate tool for the support of virtual projects. As a part of this work, a task was designed and adopted in an undergraduate project management course. Study results related to the teaching and learning of project management as well as student perceptions of metaverse technology adoption show that students were able to work together in a metaverse environment and collaborate with one another to achieve group consensus on a task. Ultimately, the findings from this case can guide future adoptions of metaverse technologies both in and out of the classroom.

Unlikely allies in preventing sexual misconduct: Student led prevention efforts in a technical communication classroom

Students' participation in relevant service learning can have a unique impact on their institution of higher education, if provided the opportunity. This article explores student-designed sexual misconduct prevention efforts taking place in an undergraduate project management course at one institution of higher education. We found that involving students in particular kinds of campus communication design and implementation simultaneously improved those efforts and offered students the opportunity to participate in impactful civic projects. In our article, we first examine the most common approach to sexual misconduct prevention, while considering its limitations. We then introduce a nontraditional collaboration---technical communication student involvement within prevention work---which resulted in new efforts. Finally, we illustrate how instructors can integrate similar collaborations.

Priming the Project Talent Pipeline: Examining Work Readiness in Undergraduate Project Management Degree Programs

Undergraduate education is emerging as a direct pathway into the previously deemed ‘accidental profession’ of project management. We introduce the concept of graduate work readiness and explore whether undergraduate project management degrees are imparting industry-required work-readiness attributes. Documentary analysis of 12 Australian bachelor’s degree programs identified that many (but not all) of the work-ready attributes taught are consistent with those sought by industry. The results revealed that graduates’ work-readiness profiles vary according to university employer reputation. The findings suggest the need for a more industry-consultative approach to the way universities prepare their graduates for the project-based workplace.

You’re Hired! Applying the Human Resource Selection Process to Team Formation

This article explains an activity that can be conducted to form teams in university business classes. It allows students to actively participate in the team selection process and learn valuable human resource management skills. Students are placed in the role of hiring managers. They have to identify the skills and characteristics needed to complete a project and then review and evaluate résumés to select appropriate team members. The exercise provides students with practical experience in a key managerial function, as well as insight into how they are presenting their own skills and accomplishments on their résumés. While this activity has been primarily conducted in an undergraduate project management course where the team project is a substantial part of the student’s grade, the exercise is also applicable in other business courses.

Student Perceptions of the Use of Multimedia for Online Course Communication

A great deal of research exists in the use of multimedia communications in online classrooms as a means of furthering student engagement. However, little research exists that examines the perceptions of students when such technologies are used. Additionally, it is unclear that students are likely to engage in the use of such technologies when available. This research explores the perceptions of 69 students taking both online and hybrid undergraduate project management courses. Specifically, the study seeks to explore how students experienced the use of multimedia by their instructor and classmates in both online announcements and discussions, as well as whether these same students used or would be likely to use multimedia for similar communications. Finally, student perceptions of social presence, the degree to which one is perceived as a real person in computer-mediated communication (Gunawardena, 1995), are examined. The results of the study indicate that while students overwhelming enjoy the instructor’s use of multimedia communication, they are unlikely to engage in using these technologies themselves. A discussion of these results and recommendations for further research complete this paper.

Authentically enhancing the learning and development environment

Constructivism is increasingly being included into higher education curriculum design. The goal is simple: to enhance the learning experiences, the learned outcomes, and the graduate capabilities of students. However, the inclusion or addition of constructivist learning models and methods into curricula can occur in a non-holistic, inefficient or piecemeal manner. There exists an increasing demand from stakeholders in higher education course curricula that they produce graduates with a greater level of authenticity in their competency and capability and to be better able to cope with change, complexity and uncertainty as professional practitioners. Can a more effective learning and development environment where active learning is observable and assessable be created using a blend of constructivist learning and instructivist/objectivist learning philosophies, models, methods, and techniques? Can the authenticity and practice proximity be quantitatively assessed for such a learning and development environment in order to better enable the design, implementation, and ongoing dynamic optimisation of more authentic course curricula? To research this, a learning and development environment inclusive of constructivist experiential learning methods and traditional instructivist/objectivist learning methods was trialled in 2016 within a core undergraduate project management unit. Observations and results from the initial trial indicate that the proposed learning and development environment model can be successfully implemented and achieve improved learning outcomes. A conceptual quantitative method seeking to determine the relative combined proportion of task authenticity and practice proximity was also developed.

Facilitative learning model for student engagement in a project management course: a case study

Ample research exists in the area of instructor-led facilitation, which is typically conducted by those trained in pedagogical approaches and as such their primary profession may be that of faculty, instructor, or professional trainer. Prior research on student-led pedagogy has focused on tutoring, problem-solving teams, and similar activities. This exploratory case study focused on student-led facilitation for active student engagement in an undergraduate project management course and its impact on student learning measured by engagement, average exam score, and overall course average. Data was gathered through observations, exam scores, student survey, and final grades. In the second year of application, a voluntary survey was completed by students to supplement existing data. It was uncovered that students are more engaged through increased class participation in discussion, have greater retention of material as demonstrated through higher exam scores, and improved performance in final course averages. Based on this case study, it can be inferred that student-led facilitation is an effective pedagogical approach for this course and may be applied in the context of other courses. This is believed to be the first contribution in the area of student-led facilitation not using tutoring, problem-solving, case discussions, or similar methods.

SCRUMIA—An educational game for teaching SCRUM in computing courses

Due to the increasing use of agile methods, teaching SCRUM as an agile project management methodology has become more and more important. In order to teach students to be able to apply SCRUM in concrete situations, often educational (simulation) games are used. However, most of these games have been developed more for professional trainings than taking into consideration typical restrictions of university courses (such as, class duration and low financial resources for instructional materials). Therefore, we present a manual paper and pencil game to reinforce and teach the application of SCRUM in undergraduate computing programmes complementing theoretical lectures. The game has been developed following a systematic instructional design process and based on our teaching experience. It has been applied several times in two undergraduate project management courses. We evaluated motivation, user experience and the game's contribution to learning through case studies on Kirkpatrick's level one based on the perception of the students. First results indicate the potential of the game to contribute to the learning of SCRUM in an engaging way, keeping students immersed in the learning task. In this regard, the game offers a low-budget alternative to complement traditional instructional strategies for teaching SCRUM in the classroom.

Toward an approach to create self‐organizing and reflexive information systems project practitioners

PurposeThe primary purpose of this paper is to present an alternative approach to educate information systems project practitioners. An alternative to the prescriptive, model based, instrumental approaches is sought. The alternative approach presented in this paper focuses largely on imparting a discourse to equip students with an understanding of how communication occurs, how competences are acquired, and how to understand the influences of power and agency on themselves and others in a typical information systems project context.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual approach is followed. First, Heidegger's ideas are used to demonstrate the flaws inherent in assumptions that claim we interact in project management contexts in rational, and instrumental ways. Second, the paper argues that Cockburn's concepts, which are traditionally used as a theoretical lens to understand agile software development practices, are a good approximate to Heidegger's concepts to impart reflexive learning skills. Finally, the concept of a discourse is used to package the instrumental tools, reflexive learning skills and related concepts to understand communication, and the acquisition of competence.FindingsThere are many parallels that can be drawn between the dilemmas, which face the project management community, and the ideological debates about agile versus monolithic approaches, for which the software development community is infamous. Additionally, Heidegger's motivation for defining the fundamental ontology of dasein is similar to the motivation given by the research community to understand actual project experiences.Research limitations/implicationsThis approach has only been tried at one institution thus far; hence, there are only two semesters of teaching experiences at one institution on which to reflect.Practical implicationsThe paper advances the dilemma related to project practitioner education to a point where action can be taken. Educators can use the ideas presented in this paper to revive undergraduate project management education programs both in information systems and other disciplines.Originality/valueThe original value is two‐fold. First, there is a presentation of an alternative approach to educate information systems project practitioners that holds the promise of making the experience more true to life; thereby, rendering the experience more fulfilling for the practitioner. Second, the paper uses Heidegger's fundamental ontology to show the consequence of imparting the ideals of instrumentality rationality in a true to life manner. This discussion highlights some of the effects contemporary educational approaches have on retarding competence and competency development.

Linking Theory with Practice: Undergraduate Project Management with School-Age Children

This article describes an undergraduate course, Management Skills, that builds tacit knowledge and develops reflective learning skills. In this course, management students teach basic business concepts to elementary school children and manage a business project with the children for 3 months. The business project requires management students to apply their conceptual knowledge in marketing, human resources, and operations management to the production and sale of a product. Tacit knowledge develops as management students coordinate the efforts of the elementary school children, manage the decision-making process, and respond to marketing, production, and human resource problems. Reflective learning occurs through storytelling of critical incidents, interim and final project reports, and coaching sessions with a professor.

Teaching Project-Management Issues through Live Cases from Construction Sites

Educating students in building science and civil engineering departments about professional practices has been recognized as an important issue. Information technology provides exciting possibilities for bringing project managers to classrooms electronically. In this paper, we describe the use of annotated still image case studies (ASICS) in a senior undergraduate project-management class. A project manager, at a nine-story building site, discussed project-management problems with the students. Using a picturephone, the manager showed still images of the problem and talked to the students about the problem. The students were able to question him using another picturephone in the classroom. The effectiveness of this technology was determined using the four measures of “clear,” “useful,” “attractive,” and “challenging.” A questionnaire survey of the students showed that they found the case studies effective and preferred the ones delivered by the actual project manager. The students listed major benefits of the use of these case studies to be identifying project-management problems, reinforcing writing skills, and learning the need to communicate effectively.