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Course Project Overview: Performance Improvement Intervention Project
You will be working on a course project beginning in Module 1 and culminating in Module 6. The objective of your course project is to produce a comprehensive written proposal for a Performance Improvement Intervention of your choice for an educational or corporate organization. You will identify a performance gap or need related to employee or organizational performance and propose a //technological// solution with appropriate justifications.

A Dropbox is provided for each part of your project in each module so you can receive instructor feedback on your work. The assignment will be graded in Modules 3 and 6. Please review the project rubric (located in the “Rubrics” section under the **Course Home**) for details. The ultimate goal of your Performance Improvement Intervention Project is to gather and create all the components needed for developing an actual grant at a future date after you have completed this course.

You will submit your proposal in a suitable format for submission to your administration, manager, and/or appropriate stakeholders. A template is provided for your written work that is formatted using the 6th edition of the APA manual. After you have developed your ideas in your wiki, please formalize them in your wiki. You may want to paste the template into your wiki to guide the development of your project.

Following are some possible suggestions for your project:
 * Remodeling or facilities design project to accommodate new technologies
 * Large equipment or materials acquisition
 * Establishment of a new service or resource (electronic, interpersonal, or collaborative)
 * Development of an in-service or client program (digital)
 * Anything that will improve human performance within the organization and “fill” the performance gap through the use of technology

If you are not currently employed somewhere where you have access or knowledge regarding performance issues, you must select and then visit a company or organization and perform a Needs Analysis. Then you may propose an intervention. Throughout the course, you will interact with your learning community while developing your project. Although each student is responsible for his or her own proposal, your learning community will provide feedback, suggestions, and support during each step of the project. This collaborative interaction is excellent preparation for your future as a leader and manager in educational technology. Following is a general overview of what will be expected in order for you to complete the course project:

**Module 1: From Chaos to Definition**
 * One member of your learning community creates a group wiki where each member can work on his or her project.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Create an individual page in the wiki where you will work on your own project throughout the quarter. By having the projects of each member of your learning community in one wiki, it will facilitate collaboration.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Begin your wiki by identifying the name of your organization and writing a brief description of the problem the organization identified, as well as a summary of the organization’s history and background, and where the organization would like to be in a reasonable period of time.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Module 2: The Performance Gap**
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Clarify the problem identified in Module 1 based on your work.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Based on your own analysis, determine the existing performance gap.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Conduct a Cause Analysis to discover reasons why the performance gap exists.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Continue to compile background information and history about your organization, including goals, objectives, vision, and mission of the organization, along with insight into the stakeholders and decision-makers for the organization.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Copy and paste your work from the first two modules into the PII Template and post it to the Dropbox for Instructor evaluation and feedback (ungraded in Module 2; your work will be graded in Module 3).

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Module 3: Three Intervention Strategies with HPT-Based Solutions**
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop three intervention strategies for your intervention: one low-end, one middle-end, and one high-end.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using feedback from your learning community, decide which solution would work best for your organization.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make modifications to your Instructor’s suggestions for your work in Modules 1 and 2.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Add your three intervention strategies with HPT-based solutions to the template so your work for the first three modules is in one document. Post your work to the Dropbox for Instructor evaluation and feedback.

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Module 4: The Manager's Many Roles**
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Write a justification for your choice of intervention strategy, describing the strengths and limitations of the strategy you selected. Share why this strategy is more likely to resolve the problem than the other two. Include supporting information such as data from documents provided by the organization, interview data, or other information and research gleaned from the Web.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In your justification, share the strengths and weaknesses of the two intervention strategies you did not choose. Share why you didn’t select these two interventions strategies.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Describe your role as project manager in this intervention, including the document project management techniques, the document resource management techniques, the document delivery system management techniques, and the document information management techniques.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make modifications to the instructor suggestions for your work in Modules 1 through 3.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Add the Manager’s Many Roles to the template so your work for the first four modules is in one document. Post your work to the Dropbox for Instructor evaluation and feedback (ungraded until Module 6)

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Module 5: The Manager as Change Agent**
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Summarize financial and budget information, along with supporting documentation.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Develop a project assessment/evaluation plan that measures the effectiveness of your intervention, including both formative and summative assessment instruments. Put the instruments in the Appendices.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">In your Appendices include (a) a list and description of the appropriate technical information for implementing your intervention, (b) any layout sketches, (c) specifications of equipment and purchases, (d) data charts and graphs, and (e) other resources to support your proposal.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make modifications based on your Instructor’s suggestions for your work in Modules 1 through 4.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Add the Manager as Change Agent to the template so your work for the first five modules is in one document. Post your work to the Dropbox for Instructor evaluation and feedback (ungraded until Module 6)

<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Module 6: Applying Theory to Practice**
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Make modifications to your Instructor’s suggestions for your work in Modules 1 through 5.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Add a title page, an executive summary, a reference list, and an appendix to your document.
 * <span style="color: #333333; font-family: Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Submit your completed Performance Improvement Intervention Project to the course Dropbox for final assessment (graded in Module 6).