Here is my little confession post, I’ve started this blog a little late. I’m two semesters into my first year, I’ve done four modules, two per term and have just handed in my last assignment before summer. this post will. be an overview of what I have covered before now, and it will be brief in comparison to the upcoming blogs but in doing so I’m hoping to give you a good idea of the schedule I have been on regarding modules and assignments.
Semester one, starting January, included two modules. These were professional skills development and principles of project management. Semester two covered Project Schedule and Resource Management, alongside Business Operations and Systems Management.
Semester One
Professional skills development focused on the “GROW” model about self-development in a professional atmosphere. “GROW” stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Way forward; and we used these on ourselves and our professional goals. Our grades on this were achieved through a presentation at the end of the modules, where we presented our portfolio. This portfolio included a breakdown of the grow model on us, I took learning indicator tests and had to relate them to my goals as evidence. This presentation was okay as we were using zoom so I could practice on camera with friends to get advice. Although it was a challenge as my first assignment, and I struggled to find out about myself, I felt the module was a success as I learned what I needed to so I can develop myself in the future.
Simultaneously, I was working on another module, Principles of project management. This was a good insight into the future of project management in a career. it gave a brief overall of what the ideas of project management were, and the reasoning behind them. This gave me a solid foundation of how I will be spending the next few years on the course as I had a 2500-word essay on project management, and its use in my company, Inspire4Design. The content of this module was varied as it tried to touch on many aspects of projects but was good to relate it to my job, so I get a better understanding of it. This essay was also the introduction to referencing (in my case APA7th), which was a point on which I will be continuing to improve. The University of Portsmouth give a lot of support regarding this, and I believe all unis have a similar process, so if you worried about this DONT! Be sure to just keep in contact with the study support team and it will be ok. Again, I found this successful as I could relate the future of the course to my working life, but the academic writing was a big step up from my previous exam experiences so just be wary!
Semester Two
This semester started with a lecture about resource and scheduling management. This module was by far the most interesting to date. we covered the use of many tools such as Gannt charts, Network Diagrams and Resource Histograms as well as more basic ones like project objectives and work breakdown structures. normally, the university computers would allow the software to help you do this assignment, but as we were doing lectures from home, there was no access to the university equipment. this meant I spent 15+ hours learning to plot these in a basic excel sheet, and although it was frustrating at the time, I now understand them and how they work a lot better than if it was generated by the software. This was an individual assignment where we were given a case study on the construction of a terminal in an airport located in the midlands. they gave a long explanation of works to write a report on and create a timeframe, schedule and use the tools we had learned about within it. it was a 2000-word essay which wasn’t too hard but trying to fit in the content whilst relating it to the airport was the challenge.
Apart from the hours spent on excel, this assignment was good fun as it had visual aid and you could go about it in whichever way you’d like. It gave me a better understanding of my work as I’m in construction and got to see another perspective on the industry.
Business operations and systems management. However, was a focused on main programmes rather than projects (the difference being projects have a start and finish, whereas programmes run the business as usual). The modules covered lots about manufacturing and layout, sustainability and capacity management and many more. Although the head of this module was one of the best lecturers so far, I personally didn’t click with the whole module, I understood it, but I didn’t enjoy doing it. I think this is due to the nature of the module being above the delivery, for example, is considered the core materials and ran through the whole process, where I can’t relate this to my business as I have little knowledge won the matter within my working environment. What I did like about this project, is that it was graded on 5 tests online, where there were multiple-choice questions that hold 40% of the grades, and one 1500-word essay coving only one of the topics.
In this essay, I covered the layout difference between IKEA and furniture village, and how it affected not only the business and the customers perspective.
Now we’re all caught up, I’m hoping the next blog I post will be more insightful for you, as well as a critical approach and what I thought was bad about it.
See you all in the future; if you have anything you want me to include feel free to leave a comment, so I can include it in the future!