Academic projects

Ross Woods, Rev. 2018, '22

An academic project is a task that it written up like a thesis or dissertation. From an academic viewpoint, its purpose is to enable the student to demonstrate expertise that significantly contributes to professional practice. Projects always have an beginning and an end, even if the "end" is to bring it to stability so that it can continue on afterwards. An evaluation is essential. In education, projects might be the establishment of an innovative new program, or to teach a university subject.

First, identify the group of people for whom you will do the project. These are the target population. Define them specifically.

Second, define a need that they have. Verify the need for the project by a field survey or a survey of knowledgeable people. Your project will be assessed based on its potential benefits.

Third, define the project topic as a task that:

• requires planning (i.e. it is not routine),
• will contribute to profesional practice in your field,
• is sufficiently ambitious for the degree level and contains a possibility of failure,
• is feasible, considering the resources availabe and the time available for the project.
• is not a simple repetition of work that you or somebody else has already done,

Fourth, identify stakeholders in the proposed project, that is, those who will depend in some way on the project to succeed. For example, in a college these include teaching staff, board members, students, administrators, extension students, employer groups, professional licensers, alumni, donors, the school library, etc.

Show them that it is important to meet the need that you have identified, and build a constituency of interested or supportive people and organizations as necessary.

Fifth, negotiate with organizational supervisors and colleagues as necessary, including:

• develop appropriate communication patterns (e.g. regular meetings or reports), and,
• lines of accountability (which may be multiple if the student is working within several organizations or departments simultaneously),

Sixth, determine the scope of the project, and develop a realistic timeframe. Does the project meet the requirements listed for your qualification? Give preliminary indications that the task is sufficiently complex to show mastery of the competencies, but can be reported in a report of the required size.

Seventh, take on some of the concrete planning:

1. identify the likely constraints and possible outcomes,
2. identify and consult resources as sources of ideas,
3. write a purpose statement for the project that is sufficiently clear for the personnel involved,
4. identify factors critical to the success of the project and develop suitable strategies to deal with them,
5. identify the main stages of project implementation, the constituent tasks, and necessary resources,
6. identify cultural factors that might impinge on the project, and,
7. anticipate ethical concerns in fieldwork and propose suitable ethical strategies.

Eighth, articulate and defend the rationale adopted, including:

1. What will be the major planning and operational decisions?
2. What changes in purpose could be brought about by implementation?
3. You decided against some alternative courses of action. What would have happened if you had followed them? (That is, give plausible forecasts of implications of avenues not chosen.)
4. What is your rationale for ethical issues? Ethics is important when working with people. (Are there issues of privacy, disclosure, organizational procedures, discrimination, etc.?) Articulated your ethical rationale where necessary.

Make sure that you have worked though each of these steps carefully. You are then ready for implementation.

Project implementation

At this stage you actually implement the planned project out there with people. This involves:

1. gathering human and other resources,
2. negotiating with stakeholders (including any stakeholders from the target culture),
3. making operational decisions in real situations, and,
4. adapting the project as necessary according to cultural factors that emerge that affect the style, content, structures, relationships of what you do.
5. adapting the project as necessary according to feedback from project stakeholders,

Describe the implementation of the project:

1. gather human and other resources,
2. negotiate with stakeholders (including any stakeholders from the target culture),
3. make operational decisions in a real situation, and,
4. adapt the project as necessary according to emergent cultural factors (e.g. style, content, structures, relationships) and feedback from project stakeholders

Make sure that you have worked though each of these steps carefully. You are then ready for project evaluation.

Project evaluation

You now need to bring the project to a sufficiently stable state so that you can evaluate it. This does not mean that you must close down the project. In fact if is is well-done and needed, you should probably keep it going.

You need to develop unique, appropriate assessment criteria. Look through the methodology literature. For example, it could be a stakeholder evaluation or a means-ends analysis.

Then evaluate the effectiveness of the project using the methodology. In your evaluation:

1. Notice and compare any changes in understanding of project purpose. For example, the purpose might now be clearer or it might have changed.
2. List the strengths and weaknesses of the project, and explain why you came up with those conclusions. That is, give the reasons and rationale for your conclusions.
3. List and explain recommendations for project improvement.
4. Explain the reasons for differences between stakeholder responses if necessary to make the best use of those responses in the project evaluation.

When you have worked though all these steps carefully, you are ready to work on your final written report.

Project report

You are now ready to work on your final written report. If you have done all the other stages correctly, this should not be too much trouble. Most of it would be already done.

1. Explain the purposes and rationale of the project and a description of the cultural context in the introductory section.
2. Describe the implementation of the project in the main body of the report
3. Present any original teaching materials developed by the student for the project in either the main body of the report or in an appendix,
4. Present an evaluation of the project’s effectiveness in the conclusion.
5. Use a publishable standard of layout and typing. Check that your grammar and language style are accurate, and include a statement of sources.