Course Project and Time Managment: Using Project Management Tools to Communicate with your Supervisor

The course A1001/10 Project and Time Managment: Using Project Management Tools to Communicate with your Supervisor is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2024.

Information: Please be aware that the pre-assignment is due 1 week before the course begins, and the post-assignment is due 4 weeks after the course ends.

Criteria for participation: Health Ph.d. student, recommended that you have been enrolled for approximately 3-12 months

Aim: To create a framework for integrating  project management tools into the interaction between supervisors and Ph.D. students.  The content includes time to reflect on meta-communication strategies to discuss your work together with your supervisors. This includes integrating planning for key decision points related to your Ph.D. project.  In addition, you will be introduced to the PDCA framework, which stands for Plan-Do-Check-Act.  This framework will be used to reflect on how to optimize your independent work through Plan-Do; and your work with others through Check-Act.

Learning outcomes: At the end of the course, the participants will be able to revise their project overview and integrate key decision points.  In addition, they will have learned how to make connections between the high-level planning using project management tools, and approaches to planning in daily work.  Finally, they will build strategies for discussing progress with their supervisors which allow for considering progress separately from content. 

Content: The process of “how” to use the project management tools together with your supervisors will be reviewed. You will be asked to ensure your supervisor (main or most appropriate of your supervisors) approves part of your final assignment.  For the Project and Time Management content, emphasis will be on using the PDCA cycle as a means of connecting independent and team aspects of the Ph.D. work.  Ph.D. students will work on assignments and activities designed to support them in establishing a dialog related to Ph.D. progress.   This dialog strategy will be grounded in Project Time Management tools such as the IPTO, the PDCA cycle, and Timebox. Furthermore, the course will touch on considerations for identifying and planning your communication with key Ph.D. project stakeholders, as well as identifying key decision points that affect progress, including the relationship between stay abroad, developing research networks and finding the right committee to judge your work at the end of the process. The course includes introductions to key content alternating with exercises designed to help you reflect on your work processes, establish effective habits for ensuring you finish your Ph.d. and connect with your supervisors about the process of using project management tools to communicate your progress.

Pre-Assignment Description:  2 documents need to be submitted 1 week before the course begins:

1). Self introduction to yourself, your PhD project, your motivation for taking this course, and what you hope to learn about Project Management

2) Make an IPTO (Intended PhD Training Objective) using your PhD application and PhD project. Details can be found at Planning your PhD with IPTO (au.dk).  https://phd.health.au.dk/doingaphd/supervision/planning-your-phd-with-ipto/

Post-Assignment Description: 3 Documents need to be submitted within 30 days of completing the course:

1). Revised IPTO with decision points created together with your appropriate supervisor during the workshop. 

2). A signed copy of the Check/Act agreement with your supervisor, explaining how you plan to work with the IPTO together

3). A reflection (approximately 2 pages) on the Plan-Do -Check-Act model as a tool for controlling your PhD project. 

Potential questions to answer include:

How does the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle help you deal with the social aspects of knowledge production? 

To what extent does the IPTO make the social aspects of knowledge production explicit?

How you move back and forth between the Plan-Do -Check-Act cycle and the IPTO to control your project?

How did the decision points exercise affect your understanding of your PhD process?

Hours for Student Presence: 4

Hours for Assignments: Hours  11 hours for written assignments (pre +post)

Instructors:  Constance E. Kampf, Ph.D.

Venue: Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year students and Health Research Honours Programme students from Aarhus University
• PhD students enrolled at partner universities of the Nordoc collaboration
• PhD students from other institutions in the open market agreement for PhD courses

Course dates:

• 27 September 2024 09:00 - 13:00