MOOCs vs online courses - whats the difference

MOOCs vs ansprechbar courses - whats the difference MOOCs vs online courses whats the difference?Posted November 18, 2013, by Marni WilliamsSince the New Yorker declared the Year of the MOOC in 2012, weve all gone a little gaga over the M-word. But in all that hype a very important differentiation has been lost that is, that the MOOC is a very different beast to the current offerings in online education.No one would dispute that any development that allows a Nobel laureate to teach a 1000000 students around the world is a good thing, but theres a way to go before MOOCs are able to fulfil the broad needs of public education, or offer tangible employment outcomes.Online courses are enjoying unprecedented popularity, with almost one in four Australian students now studying off-campus through local providers. In contrast, the Grattan Institutes The Online Evolution reports that only 7000 Australian students had signed up with MOOC provider Coursera by August 2012.Here in Australia we h ave some very established online players Open Collegeshave educated over 700,000 students since they began in 2011 Open Universities Australia(OUA) had 60,000 on their books in 2012 and SEEK Learninghas welcomed over 150,000 through its virtual doors since 2004. And its not just a game for conglomerates the largest single tertiary provider is Charles Sturt University, with 29,000 off-campus students.These are significant numbers and enrolments continue to trend upwards. OUA enjoyed a 17 per cent growth in enrolments belastung year and are at four times their numbers from five years ago.Theres no doubt theres a place for both kinds of courses, and each has its benefits and drawbacks. Heres a comparison of the two MOOCs vs online courses so you can find the best option for you.Would you do a MOOC course or have you studied online? Leave a comment and tell us what you think.table-border td border1px solid 444table-border td, table-border th padding3px border1px 000 solid vertical-ali gntoptable-border border1px 000 solidMOOCs vs Online CoursesMOOCsOnline coursesAgeAround since 2008.Online courses have had a significant place in the education sphere since the early 2000s with the number of students rising 187 per cent between 2002 and 2008.SizeMassive the largest provider, Coursera, now has five million students worldwide, Udacity has 1.6 million and edX 1.3 million. Enrolments for single courses can be in the tens of thousands.The number of students taking courses online through university and publicly-funded VET providers is approximately 570,000. The number of students studying online through private providers is likely to bring the total figure closer to a million.Industry sizeThere are four main practitioners at this stage Coursera, EdX, Udacity and FutureLearn.With many of Australias leading universities, TAFEs and private colleges offering online courses, there are over 100 providers currently operating.Typical studentThe typical MOOC student is likely to have already attained a university degree and wants to work on their professional skills or explore an area of interest. However, the numbers of undergraduate enrolments are increasing.Students who enrol in online courses are a varied bunch. They are usually somewhere between 18 and 50, are employed, already have a degree or certificate, and choose to study for a career change, self-development or to get a job.AccessibilityOpen to all applicants, regardless of experience or location. They do have recommended background knowledge or ratings such as beginner, intermediate or advanced.May have prerequisites and required levels of knowledge or experience, only open to local students.DeliveryOnline only.Predominantly online, but can also include workshops, residentials and work placements.QualificationsMost MOOCs offer certificates of completion, accomplishment or mastery, but no accredited qualification. Only a handful of US universities and one UK university are turning MOOCs into cou rse credits.Most courses come with a qualification attached such as a certificate, diploma, advanced diploma, degree or masters degree. These are accredited as part of the Australian qualifications framework.Local relevanceMOOCs providers work in the wholly virtual space and are therefore global. Most are provided by US universities but the UK has come on hauptplatine and Australian universities are joining in. The University of New England will be providing free courses with UNE Open, announced this year.Online courses are often tied to bricks-and-mortar providers and therefore can relate more closely to their locality. Though they are online, most providers encourage participation in discussion groups with local students.CostNo cost (except for some cases where optional credit-bearing examinations are offered, for a small fee).As courses range from short preparatory units right through to postgraduate degrees, prices can range from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Course fees ar e similar or the same as their on-campus equivalents, but you can save on textbooks, travel and student fees. Government assistance is available for most courses in the form of HECS-HELP, VET-HELP and FEE-HELP and students can apply for Youth Allowance.AssessmentsComputer-based assessment such as multiple choice and short answers. Assignments or longer form answers rely on self-assessment or peer-assessment.Expert assessment of assignments and projects from course tutors/lecturers some computer-based assessments.FeedbackBecause of the large number of students, there isnt a lot of opportunity to receive critical feedback. However, according to Coursera, peer reviewing has been proven to be similar to the assessment given by lecturers.With expert-graded assessments and small discussion groups alongside telephone and email access to tutors, the capacity for individualised feedback is far greater.TimingSelf-paced start any time schliff any time.Courses can be self-paced, but some can a lso have fixed start and/or end dates. Many are tied to university and TAFE enrolment dates.Flexibility and supportThe possibility of picking up and dropping courses as you like appeals to many students, but MOOCs havent yet found a way to serve learners in a variety of ways.With greater personal interaction and a higher teacher-to-student ratio, most online course providers are better able to address the more complex needs of individual students. Theres usually 24/7 online support and some even offer confidential phone or Skype sessions with counsellors for students who are struggling with their course.Course length4-10 weeks, most of which are given to learning and the final week might be to produce a piece of work, sometimes a video.Months to years, depending on the qualification and how you choose to pace your study.Average weekly study2-6 hours per week.If you take on a full-time load then you could be studying 20 hours a week, but you can choose to study at your own pace.Stude nt retention and resultsLearners commitment typically fades, with more than 90 per cent dropping out. Usually a few hundred or at most a thousand obtain a certificate out of the tens of thousands who might enrol.Research from the US has found that students enrolled in online courses obtain a higher percentage of As when compared to students in traditional courses. The completion rate for online courses is 93.3 per cent. ResourcesMy first resumeCover letter for my first jobCareer Insider StoriesShelley Lask - Body Positive Health & FitnessInterested in becoming a?Human Resources OfficerGeneral ManagerBusiness ManagerAccountantOffice Administrator CoursesBachelor of Social WorkEnquire Online Enquire OnlineCertificate III in Health AdministrationEnquire Online Enquire OnlineBachelor of Criminal JusticeEnquire Online Enquire OnlineCertificate III in Allied Health AssistanceEnquire Online Enquire OnlineMarni WilliamsRelated ArticlesBrowse moreCareer progressionJob hunting tipsHow To Nego tiate Your Pay And Get The Raise You DeserveNot negotiating your salary at every opportunity means that you could be robbing yourself of over $600,000 over the course of your working life. Here are 11 scientifically backed negotiation strategies to help you get the raise you deserve.WORKFORCE TRENDSChanges to the Skilled Migration List targets only the highly skilledImmigration and Citizenship minister, Senator Chris Evans, has put forward a newer, shorter Skilled Migration List (SOL) following advice provided by Skills Australia.BossWork etiquetteHow To Tell Your Boss About A Conflict Within The Workplace An schmelzglas TemplateYouve done your best to deal with a problem in the office, but its gotten to the point now where you have no other option but to tell your manager. Heres an email template that will give your boss a heads up and lets them know you need to chat.

How to Use Office Politics to Your Advantage

How to Use Office Politics to Yur AdvantageHow to Use Office Politics to Your Advantage Have you ever wanted to hide in your cubicle to avoid being sucked into a coworkers intense conversation about the latest office rumor? If so, youre elend alone. Office politics is often cited as a stressor or a reason to leave a job. In fact, 33% of UK workers report office politics to be a major contributing factor to feelings of unhappiness in the workplace.If were being honest, you should know that office politics arent going anywhere. But you may be surprised to learn that thats a good thing. The reality is that politics are a part of every company, says CEO and The Compass Alliance author Tim Cole. Whenever three or more people gather there will be politics. But not only can politics be put to good use, they are essential in learning how to engage others, gain consensus, build your sphere of influence and climb the ladder.Ready to change your mind about office politics? Her es how you can use them to your advantage I learned a long time ago that the people who complain fruchtwein about politics are the people who do not understand politics, says Cole. Assuming you can remain apolitical removed from the day-to-day and fully focused on just your job is in fact, a political position. If you are a part of a company, you are a de facto member of the political systems that help or hinder that organizations effectiveness.Dont try to escape it. Politics not to be confused with straight up gossip is an important way to keep a pulse on whats happening aroun d you. Welcome productive conversations that lead to more effective decision-making.2. Flex your emotional intelligence muscleCole cites practicing emotional intelligence as one of the most important ways to productively participate in office politics When we educate employees on the importance of this skill set, we use a mirror and a magnifying glass as a metaphorical example, says Cole. The magnif ying glass stands for our capacity to look at and assess others and our environment. The mirror represents our capacity to look at ourselves and to ask questions that prompt legitimate answers. To navigate office politics successfully, you must consider the merits and limitations of both tools. Only objectivity offers true perspective.Too many people dismiss office politics as behind-the-scenes negativity and trash talking. However, when you approach office politics with positive intentions and a high level of emotional intelligence, youll end up using your mirror more than your magnifying glass.Cole also emphasizes the importance of building a team around you of people you can trust Bad office politics implies backstabbing and conspiring for personal gain, says Cole. Strong team players can often upset the political pendulum, but they can also restore common sense to the undercurrents that fuel it. For example, good office politics can streamline your workflow by behind the scenes discussion, securing consensus on critical job decisions away from the boardroom and gaining access to information via the power of word of mouth.Dont stand alone with your opinions. Reach out to team members you trust and whose work you appreciate to build a safe space where you can productively talk through difficult decisions.When you engage in office politics, consider all the ways information changes hands. An example Ive used for years of the tools of office politics are MAMs, or Meetings After Meetings, says Cole. These clandestine conversations represent the dialogue that cant or wont be shared in the public forum and instead takes place in the hallways, on Twitter, or on the phone after the formal gatherings.If you duck into your office after meetings and avoid office lunches , youre likely missing out on important conversations in your workplace. You dont have to give up your lunch break web surfing forever, but make sure youre spending time where the action is at least a few times per week. At all times, stay aware of the impact office politics has on your wertzuwachs and the performance of your team members The focus on politics can often undermine the importance of more substantive work, Cole explains. This can lead employees to devote attention to things that dont necessarily contribute to the productivity (or profitability) of the company when the whole point of the exercise is to optimize others while optimizing yourself.Do you find yourself contributing to the rumor mill? Are you opting to chat with coworkers after meetings instead of completing deadlines or attending to long-term projects? Then youve dipped your toe too deep in office politics. Reset your expectations to make sure that productivity comes first and that the politics you engage in only serve to make you work better. The next time you feel yourself being pulled into a political conversation at work, dont try to back out of it. Take a deep breath, organize your thoughts and throw in your two cents to have a positive and productive impact on your workplace.

The Resume Mistake Even Savvy Job Seekers Make

The Resume Mistake Even Savvy Job Seekers MakeResume Mistake Even Savvy Job Seekers MakeThe Resume Mistake Even Savvy Job Seekers MakeIts relatively easy to avoid the most obvious resume mistakes (typos and such) but theres one resume mistake even the savviest of job seekers often make. Its so obvious once you think about it, yet so easily overlooked amid all the other things youre proofing and verifying and remembering as you submit your application. Its a small, simple thing, but it can either support or detract from the first impression youre making on a prospective employer.Im talking about the fileanthroponym you give your resume before you email it.Think about it. Have you been sending attachments that are clear, professional and show your attention to detail, such as MaryJones-MarketingAssistant.doc?Or have you been sending attachments with names like Res14.doc, which gives an impression of Ho-hum, here we go again for the 14th time.This topic came up when I was having dinner the other night with friends. They were talking about a recent group of job candidates they had interviewed for an open position at their company. My friend Kate said a majority of job candidates who submit their resumes and cover letters by email dont seem to realize that the hiring manager will see the filenames of the attached documents.Never submit your resume as an email attachment with a filename containing any of the followingAnother companys name (e.g., J.Doe-Consultant-ABC Company.doc but its being submitted to DEF Company)Old dates (e.g., JensResumeSept06.doc)Typos (e.g., B.Jones-AdministraticeSuperviser.doc)Names that are just for you (e.g., ManufacturingResume.doc)But perhaps the most common resume-naming faux pas is simply titling it Resume.doc, or MyResume.doc, which makes it next to impossible for the hiring manager to distinguish that resume from any other without opening the document.Next time you customize your resume for a particular job opening, be sure you give it a meaningful, professional name that makes it easy for the hiring manager to identify in the future.As a rule of thumb, its helpful to use a formula, such as lastname_firstname followed by the position youre applying for (either by title or reference number).Acceptable examples includeBaxter_Kim_Sales_Manager.docBaxter_Kim_JobRef_345678.docCooper, James, Sales Associate.docTaylor - PR Director.docResume-L.Delgado.RadiologyTech.Clark Hosp.docIt may also help to indicate whether the document is a resume or a cover letter, if youre sending them as separate documents (e.g.,Smith_J_Machinist_Res.doc and Smith_J_Machinist_CL.doc).Details are important. Make sure your resume - and cover letter - have names that identify you and contribute to a great first impression.

Everyday office horror stories that still keep us up at night

Everyday office horror stories that still keep us up at night Everyday office horror stories that still keep us up at night Halloween is an annual opportunity to scare yourself. Some of us mark the tradition by donning masks and watching spooky films that keep us up past our bedtimes. I would like to mark Halloween by sharing office horror stories that may not contain supernatural evils, but are an employee’s nightmare.Throughout my career, I have experienced minor, everyday office horror stories (that do not include traumatic events like layoffs and workplace harassment, which are actual horrors). My horror stories are more like PG-13 psychological thrillers that still raise the hairs on the back of my neck.There was the job where I was seated next to a guy who chewed with his mouth open, day in, day out. The memory of hearing his lips smack and his molars gnash up food still brings a shudder up my spine. There was the time I could not figure out how to turn off the volume to my work laptop, so I subjected my entire corporate office to two minutes of my bubblegum pop music. Just last week, I experience d the fear factor of 100 unread emails after returning from vacation. It’s too easy for me to recall all the incidents that make my heart race!I can take comfort in the fact that I am not the only one who remains haunted by the ghosts of their office boogeyman. When you’re an employee, every day can become Halloween.Here are your (mildly) terrifying office horror tales:1) A spellcheck suggestion gone wrongWeldon Adams told CBS a cautionary tale about why you should always check what your spellcheck automates. Adams was working in a buttoned-up office as a Certified Public Accountant when he needed to apologize to a big client about the delays in processing. Except in his rush to write the email, he misspelled “inconvenience.” Spellcheck helpfully offered a word suggestion of what it thought he was trying to write.   “I clicked accept without double-checking. And I ended up sending the client an email saying that I ‘apologize for any  incontinence,'” Adams said.Sorry for my inconvenience!2) The wrong dress code memoDressing up for Halloween only works when everyone joins you, as one employee who dressed as Star Wars‘ Darth Vader to work found out.“I went to our meeting room, threw open the door, and marched in with this loud dramatic music,” the BuzzFeed community member, meigana wrote. “Only to realize  my meeting had been moved to another room  and another department of very serious people I didn’t know were staring at me like I was insane.”Cue the Darth Vader scene: Nooooooooooooooooooo!3) An email that infected an entire company with virusesA job seeker who chose to remain anonymous told Resume Edge about an email that tanked the applicant’s chances of getting a job as a technical writer (it will soon become clear why the job seeker is anonymous): “I sent a digital resume and cover letter via email to apply for a position as a technical writer. Within a few hours, a message from the director in charge of hiring came via email. Full of anticipation, I opened the email to find a terse message: ‘your resume is infected with a virus and has been quarantined.’ A person cannot recover from an infected resume. I did not pursue the position further.” This isn’t a career-ending mistake, but if this had happened to me, I would renounce my name and kin, and become a hermit in the woods. For at least a month.4) A toilet paper roll that stuckSpencer told Business Insider that when he was working as a dishwasher at a for a popular Italian restaurant, he experienced one of the most embarrassing moments of his life. After returning from the bathroom on one of his breaks, he noticed that people were laughing and whispering at him.“Eventually, I came to the realization that I had a string of toilet paper flapping out of the rear of my pants the entire time. It was so long that it was literally dragging on the ground behind me,” he said. “That was when I first started, too, and so the others workers never let me live it down. I continued to work there for another two years.”Workplace shame is your co-workers never forgetting who you used to be.5) The sick co-worker who refuses to go home“Currently working with a person who has h ad a sinus infection since November 2016. That’s right: wet, chunky coughs, nine hours a day, five days a week, for going on ten months,” Reddit user 84th_legislature wrote. “She does not leave the team area for coughing attacks, she just retches up whatever it is and gulps it back down.”Although the Redditor noted that their workplace was “very flexible with working from home for people with health issues,” the sick co-worker refused to see a doctor or work remotely. Loud coughing is the kind of mundane yet annoying background noise that drives many an employee up the wall.6) The picky boss with a specific requestAndrea Meno told Cracked.com that her boss “used to tell us to wear specific colors on specific days. There was no reason for it. It was just so that she knew we were ‘listening.'” This request is one of those nitpicky demands that show a lack of trust in one’s team, and is an everyday nightmare many of us experience.

20 Ways to Have Effective Business Meetings

20 Ways to Have Effective Business Meetings 20 Ways to Have Effective Business Meetings 20 Ways to Have Effective Business Meetings Leist, CPO, productivity consultant and author of Eliminate the Chaos at Work:  25 Techniques to Increase Productivity (Wiley 2011) Meetings can consume the better part of your day and leave you wondering, “What did I accomplish by attending one meeting after the next?”  Before you schedule or attend another meeting, consider the goals and objectives of the meeting first. Is it for informational purposes only?  If so, can you obtain the necessary information from someone else? Is it because you have something to contribute? If so, do you need to stay for the entire meeting? Are you scheduling the meeting?  If so, what steps will you take to ensure that it produces the results you need  â€" without the attendees feeling as though you’ve wasted their time? Here are 20 techniques you can implement to ensure you are scheduling, managing and participating in productive meetings. 1. Start meetings on time.  This shows you respect everyone’s time.  If you always start meetings late, you are setting an expectation and people will arrive late.  Be in your chair a few minutes before the start time. 2.  Show up on time.  When you show up late, you are telling everyone else that your time is more valuable than theirs - combined. 3.  Use an agenda.  Meetings that last more than 20 minutes need an agenda to ensure the group remains focused and the appropriate items are covered. 4.  Distribute the agenda prior to the meeting.  This allows for prep time that may be necessary, rather than catching attendees off guard or risking those who will attend unprepared. 5.  Keep it short.  A shorter meeting can accomplish just as much as one that is twice as long. 6.  Schedule a 45-minute meeting instead of an hour.  Meetings have a way of filling the time scheduled - don’t allow this to happen.  Use the extra 15 minutes to accomplish another task, such as:   filing meeting notes, inputting tasks as the result of the meeting into your task management system, check voicemail and return a call, grab a snack or take a break! 7.  Don’t allow scope creep.  Discussing an unrelated topic is one of the easiest ways to derail a meeting and will frustrate others.  This is another reason an agenda is necessary.  If a topic comes up that isn’t on the agenda, put it on the parking lot and return to it at a later date, or address it at the end if there is time. 8.  Acknowledge the elephant in the room.  If there is something standing in the way of making forward progress, acknowledge it up front and move on. 9.  Choose an effective moderator or facilitator.  If this is not your strength, enlist someone to help.  Someone must be responsible for keeping the meeting on topic and moving forward. 10.  Conduct meetings while standing.  Can you accomplish just as much in a short meeting where you stand than in a longer meeting where you get comfortable in a chair? 11.  Listen.  Show respect to the person speaking because you’ll want the same respect when it’s your turn. 12.  Stop multitasking.  Establish a policy of no e-mail, texting, or web surfing during meetings.  If the meeting is short enough this should not be problematic. 13.  Be prepared.  Don’t be caught off guard if someone asks for your opinion or advice.  No one appreciates the person that doesn’t participate; what’s the point of attending? 14.  Don’t speak just to be heard.  Speak only if you have something meaningful to add.  People stop listening to those who speak all the time but never really say anything. 15.  Follow up.  Most meetings are likely to create action items.  Though everyone should be responsible for their own to-do’s, people get busy.  They might forget what they were asked to do or fail to communicate the completion.   Designate someone to record action items and post them to a shared document.  Someone will still need to remind others of their commitment. 16.  Cancel a meeting.  If you are the meeting organizer and you realize that you aren’t prepared for it, do everyone a favor and reschedule it. 17.  Can the meeting be replaced by a phone call?   Ensure that every meeting you attend or schedule can’t be replaced by a phone call.  If a meeting is needed later as a result of the call; schedule it at that time. 18.  End the meeting on time; if not early.  Never assume that you can continue a meeting after the scheduled end time; you may not be aware of what attendees have scheduled next. 19.  Use the calendar scheduling feature in Microsoft Outlook to schedule meetings.  You will save time using this feature when scheduling a meeting with those in your company where you can view their calendars.  You can also use this to schedule meetings outside your company; you just won’t be able to see when someone is available. 20.  Use Doodle.  Doodle did a study in September 2010 that determined that professionals spend 4.75 hours a week to arrange 8.9 meetings. That amount of wasted time translates into a Friday afternoon off each week!   Wouldn’t that be more fun? Productive meetings are possible when you implement these techniques.  What can you do immediately to ensure that you’re scheduling and managing a productive and efficient meeting? Author Bio: Laura Leist, CPO is a productivity consultant and author of Eliminate the Chaos at Work:   25 Techniques to Increase Productivity   (Wiley 2011).  To learn more, visit www.eliminatethechaosatwork.com, follow her on Twitter @LauraLeist or on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/eliminatethechaosatwork. Streamline your system Just because your company has been doing something- like meetings- the same  way since day one, there is always room for improvement. Even something as simple as a meeting can be restructured to better fit your teams needs. After all, the only standard in business is change. Could you use some more out-of-the-box ideas to shake things up?  Sign up for exclusive https://www.youtube.com/ advice  and we’ll send you the latest recruiting tips, hiring trends, management strategies, and even some awesome deals. Boost performance and productivity (not to mention overall morale) with a little help from the experts at Monster.

The Dangers of Sitting and Healthy Habits for Writers

The Dangers of Sitting and Healthy Habits for Writers The Dangers of Sitting and Healthy Habits for Writers Attention all writers: Sitting down and writing for hours on end, hyper-focused in a flow state, is actually hazardous to your physical health. While its a necessity for book authors, among other writers (and editors), studies have shown that sitting for long, unbroken periods of time is linked to significantly higher health risks like: A significantly slower metabolism- which reduces the bodys fat burning ability, makes you more prone to gaining weight and makes weight harder to loseObesity- which in itself is linked to a host of medical issuesIncreased insulin resistance- that is, a higher risk of Type II diabetesCardiovascular diseaseDeep vein thrombosis- sitting for extended periods of time can lead to blood clots, which cause can cause pulmonary embolismsCancer (potentially) For those writers who do get in their regular gym workouts, merely taking a rigorous Zumba class a few times a week, for example, is not the solution to long hours of having your butt in the chair. That is, even regular gym workouts dont counteract the effects of a habitually, sedentary profession. Tempering the Health Risks of Prolonged Sitting Activity is the key to counteracting the risks of a sitting profession like writing. There are a variety of practices and technical tools that can help writers become less sedentary. Make Your Writing Time More Physically Active Use any of the following devices to get more activity into your writing sessions: A standing desk, or an adjustable desk that allows you to raise and lower your desk position from sitting to standingA treadmill desk, which might take some practice, but will keep you moving and active throughout the dayA pedal device, used under your deskAn exercise ball to sit on, because the act of balancing engages the muscles and makes your sitting more active Take Frequent Activity Breaks Writers and others who tend to become hyper-focused know the difficulty of stopping for breaks. But breaks are necessary for long-term health. Bestselling author Dan Brown (The DaVinci Code, Angels and Demons) is reported to take hourly breaks from his writing to do calisthenics. Sources recommend breaks from sitting every 20 to 30 minutes. Even a couple of minutes of movement helps maintain glucose control and insulin response. You can work regular movement into your writing sessions in the following ways: Use a timer or a computer program to remind you to take activity breaks.Wear an activity tracker such as a Fitbit and use a fitness app on your smartphone to motivate you to move.Pace the room rather than sit while youre on telephone calls.If you have a standing desk, allow yourself to check your email and/or your social media only when standing. Walk for Improved Health and Better Writing As good as it is to take sitting breaks and do something physical, experts recommend a regular habit of a 30 to 60-minute daily walk outdoors because it has great health benefits and may offer some creative rewards as well. Science has proven that even the mild bodily exertion from walking gets the blood flowing for brain benefits, and has been shown to improve creative thinking. Strolling in a green space even boosts your psychological mood. These factors are especially important to writing performance. Here are two anecdotal examples of writers who benefited from daily walks: Virginia Woolf famously took long, daily walks.  She used her daily tramping near her own neighborhood, the village of Rodmell in Sussex, England, to “have space to spread my mind out in.”  Of her urban strolls, she said, “…to walk alone in London is the greatest rest.”Inspired by a Paris Review interview with Haruki Murakami, an avid runner, novelist Mohsin Hamid (How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia, The Reluctant Fundamentalist) began taking a first-thing-in-the-morning walk. Eventually, he was walking five miles every morning, a practice he credits with making him more productive at his writing. Read Get Fit With Haruki Murakami: Why Mohsin Hamid Exercises, Then Writes, by Joe Fassler.

Critical Path Project Management

Critical Path Project Management Critical Path Project Management The field of project management offers a variety of tools and techniques designed to simplify and help control the work of doing something new. By definition, projects are all of the work we do once- they are temporary and unique activities- in contrast to the many daily operations activities in a business. The discipline of critical path project management (CPM) was established in the late 1950’s and remains widely practiced today. This article offers an overview of how the critical path approach is used to help teams complete their project initiatives.   Definition of the Critical Path The critical path by definition is the longest sequence of events in a project plan. They are the events that must be completed without delay or the project risks running longer than the planned duration. Another view of the critical path suggests that it is the sequence of events with the smallest amount of slack (extended time). This technical terminology is easier to understand by describing the process of identifying the critical path for a sample project.   Drawing upon the example of constructing a house, the steps below define the process for identifying and using the critical path.   Define Your Project Scope and Key Features Whenever a group is assembled to work on a project initiative, there’s excitement and energy to move forward quickly with the work. However, a disciplined project manager understands how important the planning phase is to the ultimate success of the initiative. The work of identifying the critical path starts with clarifying the scope of the project and determining the most important outputs or features.   Imagine you are building a house. Before initiating any actual work on the house, it is important for you to scope the project and describe the key features. In this example, let’s assume your scope calls for a 2,000 square foot home with three bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, three bathrooms, and an unfinished basement at a cost not to exceed $200,000.   While the specifications offer a good starting point on the scope, you still have to define the construction materials- wood or brick- and identify other key features including heating, air-conditioning, and others. Last and not least, you need a target for the completion of this house.   Define the Detailed Work to Be Completed The project manager using the critical path method will work with her team to translate the scope and key features into a listing of all of the work that must be completed to create the project. A tool used for identifying the work tasks is the work breakdown structure.   The project manager works with the extended team to brainstorm on all of the tasks needed to produce the home complete with the key features we described in our scoping activities. A simple technique of jotting each key task down on a sticky note often results in walls covered with the output of this brainstorming. The process ignores the sequence of events and the availability of resources and focuses exclusively on identifying tasks. Once the group has confirmed that all of the work necessary to deliver the project has been identified, they create time and cost estimates for each discrete activity and then turn their attention to identifying the critical path.   Sequence the Work Tasks to Find the Critical Path Armed with the contents of the work breakdown structure, including the time estimates for each of the work items (also called work packages), the team members focus on defining the sequence of events necessary to complete the project. They use the key features or deliverables identified in the scope materials as a starting point and build out the different project paths. In our example of constructing a house, we would logically sequence of digging and pouring the foundation and framing the house before adding the roof. Our challenge is to find the right sequence of events that enable the project to proceed smoothly without significant downtime.   What emerges after this sequencing activity is a project network diagram complete with different paths. Using the duration estimates, the project manager typically relying on project management software calculates the earliest and latest time each activity can start and finish. The process identifies those items in the sequence that have extra time (float or slack) and those items that absolutely cannot be delayed without delaying the entire project.   The path that defines the longest duration or least amount of slack through the network is the critical path. And while technically there can be multiple critical paths in a project network, most project managers and teams work on adjusting the sequence of events to minimize this possibility.   How the Project Manager Uses the Critical Path Armed with clarity on those items that must be completed on time or the project risks delay, the project manager focuses considerable time and attention on monitoring and controlling these activities. If an item on the critical path will potentially run late, the project manager might allocate additional resources to accelerate completion. If there is a resource conflict between two activities on the critical path, the project manager will resolve this in a way to minimize any delays.   Understanding the critical path dramatically simplifies the process of scheduling resources. The project team can focus on ensuring the availability of the right resources at the right time. As described below, if necessary, resources can be borrowed from non-critical activities to help keep the time-sensitive tasks on track.   While items not on the critical path are ultimately essential to the project’s completion, by definition they have extra time or slack and their delay is unlikely to delay the target finish date of the initiative. To compensate for potential critical path delays, project managers frequently borrow resources from non-critical items, taking advantage of the flexibility of slack for those items.   The Bottom Line The critical path project technique offers the project manager a set of tools critical to managing risk and optimizing the chances of completing projects on time. The background planning time is considerable with this method, yet the benefits for control and coordination are priceless.