Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

             

 

            

     Have you ever had buyer’s remorse? That immediate after thought of “I should have done ___ and OH, I should/could have___”. Whatever the case, looking back and completing a post-mortem is important to finding what works, your strengths and ultimately your weaknesses. Looking at the post-mortem is helpful for future projects because you are assessing prior knowledge and building that knowledge so that future projects avoid the past pitfalls and mistakes. Michael Greer discusses the benefits of the written post-mortem when he states: “it allows the quieter, more analytical people to develop their responses to the questions without being interrupted by the more outgoing, vocal people who might otherwise dominate in the face-to-face meeting. Also, it allows everyone the time to create more thoughtful responses” (Greer 2010, p. 42).

     For this blog posting I will examine the last web project completed for Walden University. The assignment was to create a learning module, which had the capability to instruct students in an online classroom using a host module site.  Our instructions were to choose a scenario and to create a pre-training. In the beginning I felt that I understood the parameters of the lesson and was confident I had chosen a host site that was user friendly what I didn’t expect was to find out that the restrictions on the project in my mind were very low tech and unacceptable to the professor. My thoughts were to bring in a multi-media presentation such as Power Point to instruct the students adding narration and video when needed and then incorporating other elements. Immediately after I had formed the storyboard our instructor asked for a higher level of media from us and asked that we not use Power Point. My technical ability levels have always been challenged when completing asynchronous training and my strengths were not in incorporating higher levels of media into my presentation. I had to find a media that would fit the requirements and be something that I was able to accomplish.

     The process began with a storyboard and a flow chart. I embedded audio and video into the lessons to instruct and inform the learner about successful distance learning.  I did not include further instructional flash video or other instructive audio narratives that would have enhanced the learner’s perspective. I could have used an evaluation form or a flash visual to help the instructive parts of the lesson.  

     I think the use of flash; more appealing images, and better formatting on the instruction for the lesson would have enhanced the module.  I believe that an instructional video made from flash is more appealing, helps the learner get the idea of the project and appeals to more learning styles than written text on the page.

In the end, I believe that my project was successful but not as appealing as it could have been if I had incorporated a higher level of technology and had been more successful in finding help to incorporate that media into the project.  All in all, my project did well but as the instructor informed me in the comments. “There is always more room for improvement”.

Resources:

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc. p.42.