Extend Activity #1 – Misunderstood: Project Management

A response to the Misunderstood Activity
created by Tam Visser (@t_visser2)

Number of views: 134

In the Extend Teacher for Learning Module, the activity “Misunderstood” helps teachers realize that student’s misconceptions can become obstacles to further learning, and how to prevent them. In the course I am teaching this term, Project Management, there are a few concepts that can easily be misunderstood. One of these is Effort vs. Duration – understanding the difference between these terms is vital for accurate project planning and management. An effective way to show the difference between these terms is to use a visual representation of baking cake:

This image shows how effort only includes person-hours to create cake, but the duration includes the baking time as well. If you were to plan your project schedule based on effort alone, you would be missing the crucial non-person-hours that are also included in many activities. Providing a visual representation with a common analogy helps students grasp the concept much easier than using textbook definitions alone.