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  • Utilization of Social Management Theoretical Framework and Program Management Tool to Successfully Manage Large Multi-Department STEM Projects
Title: Utilization of Social Management Theoretical Framework and Program Management Tool to Successfully Manage Large Multi-Department STEM Projects
The Adapting an Experiment-Centric Teaching Approach to Increase Student Achievement in Multiple STEM Disciplines is a sponsored experiment-focused hands-on teaching pedagogy developed to promote motivation and academic achievement across seven STEM disciplines. The program is a large educational program with multi-Department STEM projects comprising approximately 200 tasks and 40 personnel. To facilitate the successful implementation of this STEM program, an efficient project management tool called Smartsheet was adopted to manage all the tasks to be carried out and the activities involved. Smartsheet software has helped facilitate efficient project coordination, scheduling deliverables, communicating with and assigning tasks to project team members, monitoring performance, and evaluation. The Smartsheet is a project management tool developed for coordinating and monitoring project activities, promoting productive guidance, efficient communication, appropriate supervision of the project team, optimization of the necessary allocated inputs, and their application to meeting the program’s objectives. The paper describes the effectiveness of the team as we utilized project management tools in managing this large group of STEM projects over the past three years. Additionally, the paper elaborates on the social management theoretical framework on which the project management principles are hinged. The impactful outcomes of the STEM program in increasing academic performance as well as improving key constructs associated with student success such as motivation, epistemic and perceptual curiosity, engineering identity, and selfefficacy through the team effectiveness metrics and the results of the Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis presented in the paper revealed an efficient management strategy anchored on the social management theoretical framework and facilitated by the project management tool.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1915614
PAR ID:
10467755
Author(s) / Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
ASEE
Date Published:
ISSN:
https://peer.asee.org/42777
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
Program management tool, Adapting an Experiment-Centric Teaching Approach, Social management.
Format(s):
Medium: X
Location:
https://peer.asee.org/42777
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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