Poster presentation with Noel Broman - Sloan-C Annual Conference on Online Learning, 2010. Benefits and challenges of using an online project management system with a virtual team. Considerations for selecting an online project management system.

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Melissa A. Venable, PhD
mvenable@kaplan.edu
Noel C. Broman
nbroman@kaplan.edu
Working in virtual teams to
develop online courses
presents multiple challenges.
Managers, designers,
developers, and faculty
content experts must all be
able to communicate and
collaborate effectively. This
presentation provides
attendees with a list of
resources and a checklist of
considerations for selecting
an online project
management system.
Supporting the Course Development Process:
Online Tools for Team Collaboration and Communication
Melissa A. Venable, PhD & Noel C. Broman | Kaplan Higher Education, School of Nursing
____ How many people need access to the
system? To an individual project?
____ How many projects do you have running
simultaneously?
____ What is your budget?
____ What features do you need?
__ Calendar
__ Milestones and benchmarks
__ Automated notifications
__ File storage
__ File version control
__ Check-in/Check-out function
__ Personal profiles
__ Internal communication
• Email
• Instant messaging
• Chat
• Synchronous conferencing
__Collaboration space
• Whiteboards
• Wiki space
• Online workspace for geographically dispersed group
• Not monitored outside project group
• Version control of documents
• Notification options
• Templates – quick set-up for new projects
• Learning curve for the interface
• Training new users
• Work around for check-in/check-out of collaborative documents
Team members working across different geographic locations to
review and develop courses are faced with multiple challenges.
The presenters work as part of one such team, designing and
developing online courses in a higher education setting. This team
typically includes a faculty content expert, web developer, program
chairperson, and manager/designer. Collaboration and
communication are critical to the success of the process itself, as
well as the resulting course products. Online project management
applications are available to help provide shared workspace, as
well as overall structure to the process. The authors are
instructional designers serving in the roles of manager/designer
and designer/web developer.
A larger, commercial system had been used for file sharing at the
institutional (school/college) level, but these smaller, more focused
design teams needed an online space with more communication
features and the ability to clearly segregate materials into specific
project areas. Online tools were reviewed in search of an effective
way to facilitate communication and collaboration and support the
course development process overall. While several team
members were highly experienced with technology, interface and
ease of use were also considered.
BACKGROUND
Cleveland, S. (2010, May 2). Top 3 project
management blogs to engage, educate, and
empower you [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://www.examiner.com/project-management-
in-miami/top-3-project-management-blogs-to-
engage-educate-and-empower-you
Kumar, S. (2010, March 18). 15+ amazing project
management and collaboration tools [Web log
post]. Retrieved from
http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/resources/best
-project-management-collaboration-tools/
BENEFITS / CHALLENGES
CHECKLISTDASHBOARD
FOR MORE INFORMATION . . .
ABSTRACT
CONTACT
FILES MILESTONES