Project Management, Time Management, Study Skills, Outline Revisions - Week 2

Effective Study Skills

In examinations, I have struggled with planning and executing answers to longer-form essay questions.  Creating an outline off to the side is a good idea, one that I don't think I've done in exam environments.

My ear for note taking can use some practice.  This semester, I am taking my notes in Google Keep as I watch and listen to lecture videos.  Usually I do not go back and revise them, but I will work on that as part of the SQ3R method.  

I can admit to being a procrastinator when it comes to studying.  While I can make it through most exams without issue, long term retention and learning can be difficult.  With the good lessons we are receiving in Proseminar, I feel much more encouraged to manage my study time and coursework time throughout the week.

Depending on the topic, I will sometimes go down useful tangents to related topics.  This can help me connect the dots and reinforce some of the topics.  After taking notes during a lecture or reading, attempting any related assignments helps me with active learning.  Sometimes I won't even feel the need to go back and review notes because I've just applied the topic to some problem.  In exams, I will review the entire test first and answer the easy questions first.  

Preview Time Management Skills

At the start of this program, during the schedule / calendar planning, I went looking for an application or service that could help me keep track of how I was spending my time.  Ultimately I decided to move forward with Clockify.me.  It is for project management and aimed at teams, but a single person can use it as well.

At its core, it will track line items of time spent doing something.  You can define that something as effort toward a project for a client and add notes to clarify.  In my case, I am considering each course a client and projects are assignments or whole modules.  A nifty feature is that you can start a stopwatch timer quickly and add the details later.  I even found a browser plugin to make starting and stopping that stopwatch even easier.

 

The most challenging part is to remember to use it!  But if I forget, I can add items later and estimate the time I spent. 

Clockify will show dashboards and reports based on your inputs.  Just ignore all the parts about billable hours and cost.  And make sure to set your date range to match our Wednesday to Tuesday weekly cycle.

 

Project Management Basics

Projects are finite and coordinated efforts undertaken by one or more team members, or even whole teams, that aim to reach some final deliverable or result.  A project manager must manage and lead all participants in an organized way, inspire confidence in for success, and manage the trifecta of time, costs, and scope.  Establishing a project proposal allows decision makers to direct resources and prioritize efforts across multiple projects in an organization.  Work breakdown structure (WBS) establishes the needed efforts and deliverables required for the final project result.  WBS is not only for subdividing work but also categorizing work logically. Gantt charts (possibly NOT invented by Henry Gantt) are one tool available to keep items from a WBS on task and on time.

 

Looking at Previous Capstone Projects

OtterParsing

This kind of application or service is greatly needed.  My spouse has gone through a lot of grief in applying for jobs over the last few years, and that is in no small part due to inputting resume data into employer forms and uploading a resume in PDF or some other format.  For recruiters and HR, I'm sure this is a huge time saver.

The presentation was pretty clean and to the point.  Information on tools used is informative.  The UI will benefit from a more streamlined flow and less backtracking to reach info in the desired context.

Open Energy Dashboard

I'm excited by the idea that we can join an open source project as part of a capstone project.  Excellent presentation; the interstitial content was a little goofy but doesn't subtract from the presentation. I appreciated the coverage of tools used and team member roles.

CueTracer / DiaLOG

I was confused about why the lead up to dumping all the work done on the database when the metadata was discovered.  From a presentation structure perspective, I would have lead with the concept of DiaLOG first but made CueTracer part of the intro and history of DiaLOG development.  That being said, it is easy to understand how DiaLOG can be a very helpful tool in this industry.

 

Weekly Learning Summary

The above is all about learning from Proseminar, which needs no further comment.  It was great to learn some about project management; I look forward to learning more.  In the GWAR class this week, I received thoughtful and useful feedback from Prof. Ryan Eller.  I understand better that some of my outlined topics were meandering a bit and I need to refocus those areas.  Additionally, some outlined topics were a little sparse.  In my personal development section there is a portion about project management.  To include that last week in a GWAR assignment and have it come up in Proseminar this week was a nice surprise.