Course Time and Project Management: Using the IPTO to Communicate with your Supervisors

The course A1001/12 Time and Project Management: Using the IPTO to Communicate with your Supervisors  is being offered by the Graduate School of Health, Aarhus University, 2025.

Criteria for participation: 
University degree in medicine, dentistry, nursing, or Master’s degree in other fields and/or postgraduate research fellows (PhD students and research-year medical students).

Requirements for participation:
Health Ph.d. student, recommended to be least 1-2 months into the PhD

Aim: 
To create a framework for integrating project management tools into the interaction between supervisors and PhD students. The content includes a post assignment asking you to work together with your advisor, agreeing on how to use these tools in your communication about progress.  These tools enable you both to integrate 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 IPTO planning tool and integrate key decision points together with their supervisors.  In addition, they will have learned how to make connections between the high-level planning in the IPTO, and more detailed planning in their daily work.  Finally, they will build a vocabulary for discussing progress with their supervisors which allows for considering progress separately from content. 

Workload:
The full workload of the course is expected to be 14 hours

Content: 
The process of “how” to use the IPTO (Intended PhD Planning Tool recommended by the PhD School) together with your supervisor will be reviewed. For the Project and Time Management content, emphasis will be on using the PDCA cycle  (Plan Do Check Act) in a new way, as a means of connecting independent and team aspects of the Ph.D. work.   In the course post assignments, Ph.D. students will work together with their advisors in order to establish a dialog related to Ph.D. progress that is 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.   Other key activities include identifying key decision points that affect progress, such as the stay abroad, developing international and local 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.  It also raises awareness of how to establish effective habits for ensuring you finish your Ph.D. Finally, it asks you to connect with your closet supervisor about the process of using the IPTO and other project management tools to communicate your progress.  This approach to time and project management is intended to empower PhD students in their communication with their supervisors related to progress and career development.

Assignment Descriptions:

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

1). Write a self-introduction including information about 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?

Instructors: 
Constance E. Kampf

Venue: 
Aarhus University, Aarhus

Participation in the course is without cost for:

• PhD students, Health Research Year 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:

• 07 March 2025 09:00 - 13:00