EDTC 6332

Capstone Project Part III Lessons Learned

Gustavo Garza
Spring 2015

Completing a college course in your own time!

The EDTC-6332 capstone class allows the learner to proceed through a project of their
choice with the intent of allowing them to practice what they have learned in the journey of
obtaining their Masters in Educational Technology. The project proposed at the beginning of the
semester for this course was to convert a traditional face-to-face class into a conventional online
class. The class that was proposed is one that is offered at South Texas College in the Electronic
and Computer Maintenance department. The class that was picked for this project was the CPMT1404 Microcomputer System Software, this is a software class that focuses on installing a
computer system on a hardware that runs a Window based operating system. The logistics in the
project and the creation of its modules has given me a glimpse into the world of an educational
designer. The lessons learned extend well beyond the work that was required and performed in
this project.
Many lessons were learned throughout the progress of the project. The learning took
place right from the beginning of the project and continued throughout. One of the lessons
learned is that before a topic can be selected, it is critical to identify the gap or issues the
stockholders need in order to provide the best resolution. The next question after the gap has
been identified is identifying if the problem can be resolved by educating the people with the

gap. Once the issue has been identified, the audience and their needs must be taken into
consideration. The gap that this project presented was that potential students wanting to pursue a
Computer Maintenance degree but were challenged with working a full-time job or the potential
student might not have the means to present themselves in traditional classroom environment.
What has been learned is that when beginning a project there needs to be organization and
preparation. Preparation is an essential aspect for any project. The preparation for this capstone
project was difficult due to my limited experience as a project manager. Early on, one should be
prepared for the unexpected which allows for a more manageable end product. Preparing for a
project does not have a clear cut method for anticipating issues since all projects are unique and
present their own challenges. An example of an issue presented in this project was when the
tutorial videos could not be easily viewed by the audience. The issue was resolved by converting
the videos into a format that was generally accessible to all computers. The solution required the
format was to convert my videos to MP4 or MPEG-4. This example shows the risks and benefits
that can be factors in a project. The benefit in this case is the ability to identify the different
methods a video can be uploaded into Blackboard and identify which would have a less impact
with respect to time and effort. Being prepared and keeping organized gives the project manager
the ability to tackle any issues that might arise as the project matures.
Projects are completed in a timely and orderly fashion when there is good planning and
an organized method to them. At the beginning of this project, the professor asked the class to
create a proposal of our project and a timeline with strategic milestone planning. At that time this
seemed to be just another part of the preparation; however, I have come to appreciate the
necessity of proper planning. The lesson learned is that the timeline is used to keep all parties in
the project aligned with important dates while keeping the project team informed with deadlines

and advances required to mature the project. In the past I have included weekly outlines to my
classes without giving them much thought, but now, I have come to appreciate how a little thing
such as writing detailing a timeline can have such a big impact with the overall time management
of a project.
When planning a project, one of the determining factors in the quality of the project is the
time allotted. A proven fact to the lack of quality in a project is when time management is not a
priority and the project is rushed or presented prior it being completed. During the third phase of
a project where all of the work is carried out, the project manager must be diligent with their
teams production and the ability to manage the time allotted to all aspects of a given project. I
must confess, I was having issues trying to juggle my time between work, school projects, and
services in which I am in charge of and the class project presented for this capstone class. The
lesson learned was that a project manager needs to find the balance between the many phases a
project traverses through. In the case of my experience, I had to prioritize the time schedule of
this semester and my own lifes challenges. What I did to elevate the time spent on this project
was to decrease the time allowed to other projects and focused more of my time to my capstone
class project. For example, I mentor a high school robotic team which competes in the For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) competition every Spring
semester. The time I spend helping these students are well over fifteen hours a week. This
semester I could only make myself available to them no more than eight hours a week. Although
this seemed to short-change the students I was mentoring, this actually allowed the students to
lead themselves more autonomously which was an added benefit to the team. The commitment
and responsibility a project manager must incur are crucial to the quality and success of the
project.

In closing, I can honestly say I have learned much this semester. I have learned that
projects are developed out of necessity. A project arises by stockholders that require a solution to
an issue. A project has four phases in its life cycle. The first step of a project begins with the idea
(what is the proposed solution to an issue). Next, the idea is managed by the organizing and
preparation phase (the planning and organization takes place in this phase). Once the planning is
done, the next step is to carry out the work of a project (this is where the bulk of the work is
done). The final phase is the closing of the project (delivery and acceptance or cancelation of a
project is submitted). The class project has made me aware of the projects lifecycle and the
aspects of each cycle. I have learned that time management, planning and organizing, and the
monitoring of a project are crucial components to the delivery of a high quality project. A project
manager is responsible in communicating with the stockholders and the team members of a
project. A project manager keeps the project moving forward by monitoring and controlling the
milestone timeline created in the planning stage of the project. A well-planned project might
avoid issues that could otherwise make a project fail or be stopped in its tracks.