PLANNING AND MANAGING EUROPEAN PROJECTS GRUNDVIG COURSE AT AUGUST RO1-GRU

METHODOLOGY -PREPARATION The course was planned for people interested to plan, prepare, organize and start either a LLP project or other (European) projects. The course taken 50 hours: 25 hours of class-teaching and 25 hours of Distance Learning. The preparation activity was performed through the e-learning platform of the EBI. The participants were able to access the course materials through a personal password and they were able to start thematic discussions in the web forum, with the help of a tutor RO1-GRU

METHODOLOGY -CLASSROOM BASED TEACHING During the course, we were exposed to a range of classroom lessons mixed with practical exercises (and group work). The course provided blended learning with some parts offered by the e- learning platform of the association (mainly used for preparation work) and class-teaching (theory and tutored practical lessons). The approach adopted in the training activities was inherited by the so called Social constructivist pedagogy (after Jean Piaget, Seymour Papert and after social constructionism theories) as described in the documentation of the Moodle server, accomplished by very straight class-teaching assisted by special trainers that are specialists both in training as in project management. During classroom teaching the work was done using a computer lab with modern equipment and software RO1-GRU

METHODOLOGY - E-LEARNING The access to the e-learning platform of the association during the preparation phase and further offers a special forum To exchange experiences or to ask questions to the tutors To maintain in contact with other participants During the course all the participants used basic materials and additional materials including papers and summaries are available on the e-learning platform RO1-GRU

TRAINING OBJECTIVES Focus of the course was to learn about techniques to plan and manage European projects. This included: Planning the outline of the project, definition of the project aim First steps & the startup workshop Creative techniques with practical exercise Evaluation methods Theory and praxis of the project structure Technical background of working in groups (long distance cooperation) communication RO1-GRU

ETIVITIES: 25 HOURS eTivity 01: Complete your profile! Project Management: How - why - what? eTivity 02: My experience with Project Management Forum eTivity 03: Terms for Project management: eTivity 04: Definitions The term eTivity was coined by G. Salmon of Open University (England). It means "task online". All eTivities "are designed to engage online students in meaningful work that captures their imagination and challenges them to grow" RO1-GRU

EXAMPLE: ETIVITY 03: TOP 10 ITEMS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENTTOP 10 ITEMS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1.WBS-Work Breakdown Structures: a project work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable or product-oriented grouping of project work elements shown in graphical display to organize and subdivide the total work scope of a project. The WBS is generally a multi-level framework that organizes and graphically displays elements representing work to be accomplished in logical relationships 2. Milestones: a milestone is a task of zero duration that shows an important achievement in a project. We should place several milestones in our schedule at planning time, estimate their completion date and compare it with the actual completion date. 3. Baselines: the projects baseline is used to measure how performance deviates from the plan. our performance measurement would only be meaningful if we had an accurate baseline. A projects baseline is defined as the original scope, cost and schedule. 4. Triple constraint: Every project is affected by the triple constraint of time, scope and cost. Doing something to one of the constraints always has an effect on the other two constraints. 5. Project Life Cycle: The project life cycle consists of four phases, initiation, planning, execution (including monitoring and controlling) and evaluation RO1-GRU

EXAMPLE: ETIVITY 03: TOP 10 ITEMS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENTTOP 10 ITEMS FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT 6. Gantt Chart: to complete a project successfully, we must control a large number of activities, and ensure that they're completed on schedule. Gantt charts convey this information visually. Origins of the Tool: in the late 1800s, Polish engineer Karol Adamiecki developed a visual work flow chart that he called a "harmonogram. In around 1910, Henry Gantt, a management consultant and engineer, took Adamiecki's concept to the next stage. His chart was designed to help manufacturing supervisors see whether their work was on. 7. CCB: change control board refers to any group of individuals within a project team or project group who are responsible for making the ultimate decision as to when and if any particular changes are to be made in regards to work products or schedule events.hange control board 8. Stakeholders: a person, group, organization, member or system who affects or can be affected by an organization's actions 9. Change management: in its most fundamental form change management is what we do to control and manage the impact of a change. Experience shows that the most successful change efforts, whether they involve the introduction of a new product, business processes, or a business model, include a conscious effort to understand and manage the impact to people and affected organizations. 10. Risk Mitigation: Risk mitigation planning is the process of developing options and actions to enhance opportunities and reduce threats to project objectives. Risk mitigation progress monitoring includes tracking identified risks, identifying new risks, and evaluating risk process effectiveness throughout the project RO1-GRU

CLASSROOM BASED TEACHING FIRST DAY: MONDAY 19 TH AUGUST 2013 Basics of European partnership & project management – outline of the course. The course started with an introduction to project management and gives us the basic definition of the technical terminology and an overview of key issues. A general overview of projects structure was given as an introduction to project management. Planning the start-up workshop Practical exercise: defining the objectives of a project (group work, presentation) What is a project? What is project management? Presentation: Project structure Presentation: Project's aims Presentation: The KickOff Workshop Practical work and uploads: The project's aimsThe project's aims RO1-GRU

SECOND DAY: TUESDAY 20 TH AUGUST 2012 Presentation of creativity techniques for planning and fact finding: Brainstorming,Mind Mapping, card requests and other methods.BrainstormingMind Mapping Practical work (in groups) to get experienced with the presented methods Evaluation methods for projectsEvaluation methods Practical exercise: Create an evaluation concept for an European partnership Creativity methods Presentation: Creativity Methods Creativity: Definitions & Statements Brain Writing 635, Mind Mapping, Brainstorming Evaluation & Evaluation Methods On one hand evaluation is important to get a feedback about the project, on the other hand in all application forms you will find this issue. Evaluation (Overview), Presentation: Evaluation, Evaluation MethodsEvaluation Methods RO1-GRU

THIRD DAY: WEDNESDAY 21 ST AUGUST 2013 Structure of a project We summarized the "classic" structure of a project: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Monitoring, Closing Introduction in the method of stepwise refinement and concepts of work(ing) package Technical background of working in groups (long distance cooperation) The use of collaboration tools Presentation: Structure of a ProjectURL Presentation: Working packagesURL Collaboration Tools This covers joint used documents as well as online questionnaires or download files (from a file sharng server) Milestone Plans & Gantt ChartsPage Planning Techniques There are several options how to plan the project and how to give the plan a structure. CommunicationPage, Communication PlanningPage, Presentation:Communication CommunicationPageCommunication PlanningPagePresentation:Communication RO1-GRU

FORTH DAY: THURSDAY 22 ND AUGUST 2012 Planning of meetings and introduction to moderation techniques to hold meetings at a high quality level and more efficiently Practical exercise: Checklist of an (international) partnership meeting Planning of a LLP-Partnership (multilateral partnership) or Grundtvig Partnership with practical advices to compile the application form of a multilateral partnership or a Grundtvig Partnership Running Effective Project Meetings Presentation: Checklists Presentation: Meetings & Minutes Presentation: Closing of a project Practical work and uploads 1. Work Order: Create a checklist for a Meeting Define the different issues at a different time and bring them in a pleasant order (The meeting is lasting for one day) RO1-GRU

FIFTH DAY: FRIDAY 23 RD AUGUST 2012 Monitoring and controlling of a project: Time and quality management Practical exercise: design of a quality management for a project. Final assessment Presentation of the assessment's products The final assessment Demo-Project Description Upload of the Documents RO1-GRU

MATERIALS AND SOFTWARE USED AT THE COURSE This is the software used at the course which was installed at our laptops we used at the course:. Freemind - Mindmapping program Freemind - documentation OpenOffice (free office software) Impress documentation RO1-GRU

THEORY & KNOWLEDGE Here you will find additional material. You should use it for preparation work. Everything listed her will be used in some way at the course. Mind Mapping (Definition) How to Make a Mind MapURL Mind-Maps: How to mindmap Project Management Guidebook (Method 123) - ebook RO1-GRU

FOLLOW UP The four weeks following the classroom based course will be devoted to the e-learning based course that the participants will attend from their own workplaces. During these four weeks a discussion will be organized between the course tutor and the course participants so as to further analyze and discuss the contents learnt at distance. This will be organized by Access to the server of advanced-training.at to practice presentations Access to advanced e-learning units from the learning platform Virtual meeting and use of an (non-public) Blog RO1-GRU

THE PROMOTER OF THE TRAINING COURSE The "European Initiative for Education" (EIE) is Private No-Profit education and training organization based in Wiener Neustadt / Austria (legal status: association). The association was founded by Peter Mazohl and Harald Makl, two experienced teachers and trainers. EIEs mission is to promote an innovative approach to education, training and culture; this is done using the method of blending learning as an advanced technique of education and training. The new challenge for us is the LLL-Program of the European Community starting The EIE is integrated in a network of similar institution in Europe; there are training organizations, educational establishments, research and development centers, public authorities, specialist etc. The bandwidth of courses lies on E-Learning (Moodle, ACollab), multimedia (basics of multimedia), Content Management Systems, presentation techniques und project management. For further information visit the webpage RO1-GRU

PARTICIPANT, CONEA GABRIELA, Prof. Informatica, COLEGIUL NATIONAL, Iasi Inspector scolar Proiecte educative europene, ISJ IASI This project has been funded with support from the European commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein RO1-GRU