Project Management and Presentation Skills Training Webcasts

• Project Management Webcast by Fred Aebli, Organizational Leadership Program Coordinator – Penn State Worthington

• Presentation Skills Webcast by Michael Harrison, Trainer – New Horizons Computer Learning Centers

Important Dates and Deadlines

March 1, 2011 – Final Project Submission Date:

All Entries must be submitted, along with your project management plan.

• Send submissions to karla@wilkes-barre.org

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March 9, 2011 – Contest at King’s College McGowan School of Business:

(click the name of the college to go to the map with directions)

Timeline/schedule for day of contest:

STUDENT SCHEDULE

8:00 to 8:45 a.m.: Registration (If you are using powerpoint, you must bring your presentation on a USB Flash Drive for turning in at registration.)

CLEARLY LABEL YOUR USB FLASH DRIVE WITH YOUR SCHOOL OR PLACE IT IN A SEALED ENVELOPE WITH YOUR SCHOOL AND TEAM ON IT.

8:45 to 9 a.m.: Opening Remarks (Mr. Dawe)

9  to 9:45 a.m.: Period 1

9:45 to 10:30 a.m.: Period 2

10:30 to 11:15 a.m.: Period 3

11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Lunch

12 p.m. to 1 p.m.: Top 5 Teams Presentations

1:15 to 1:30 p.m.: Awards Ceremony (Mr. Mera)

TEACHER SCHEDULE

8:00-8:45 a.m.: Registration

8:45 to 9 a.m.: Opening Remarks (Mr. Haran, Mr. Dawe)

9:00 to 9:45 a.m.: Visit the NEPA Tech Expo (Students will also have  an opportunity to attend this during one of the 3 program periods – please provide this link so they can plan which vendors they would like to visit)

9:45 to 10:30 a.m.: Roundtable Discussion: GVHS Computer Contest 2012 Planning

10:30 to 11:15 a.m. : “Wordpress as a Content Management System” (Mr. Dawe)

11:15 a.m. to 12 p.m.: Lunch

12 p.m. to 1 p.m.: Top 5 Teams Presentations

1:15 to 1:30 p.m.: Awards Ceremony (Mr. Mera)

Posted by Chelsea Uselding – HR/Marketing Intern – Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber

Assumptions: 1. Each team has access to a personal computer and a printer. 2. Each team has access to the Internet. 3. Each team has access to project management tools. 4. Each team’s computer has presentation software. 5. Each team will research and select host and publish a website to a third party location.

A school district will not be permitted to serve as the site host. This would not happen in a “real world situation.” Also hosting a for-profit website on a school website may violate ethics regulations.

Expected Result: Students are to partner with an actual business or non-profit organization and research, design, and develop a web site for their business. The web site may be informational or transactional in nature. Teams must publish their entries to the Internet.

Entries will be evaluated and scored in terms of the following: 1. Design Criteria – judges will subjectively assess web sites on the aesthetic design of the homepage, sub-pages, common elements, uniformity of the web site, and Web 2.0 element(s). Judges will analyze the programming style and code. A member of the team should be able to answer questions about the programming process. A list of criteria the judges will evaluate in this area may include the following:

• Must Contain Homepage
• Common Navigation Element
• Live Links (No dead links)
• Graphics/Images Dynamically, Relatively Linked
• HTML w/ CSS
• CSS is External
• Doctype Defined
• SEO – Title
• SEO – Keywords
• SEO – Description
• SEO – Image Alt Tags
• No Script Errors
• Cross Browser Compatible (Tested in Internet Explorer 7, 8, Firefox, and Safari)
• Web-Standard Fonts
• Web-Standard Images (Sized for the web)
• Load Speed
• Spelling / Grammar Errors
• Consistent Logo/Nav Placement
• Web 2.0 Implementation (Technical)
• Can the business partner update the website themselves with little or no knowledge of HTML?

2. Partner Component – the business or community partner will be asked to determine if the team met the following: -Were the students professional? -Did the students effectively communicate with frequency? -Were all students involved in the planning of the project? -Did each student invest time and energy into the project? -Were the expectations of the community partner set and met? -Overall, was the community partner satisfied with the project and the team? **the partner is urged to attend the contest

3. Project Management Component - -Initiation -Planning & timeline -Resource utilization -Flexibility -Teamwork -Closing -Other

4. Exhibit Hall Presentation Component Judges will subjectively assess teams to determine if each team member can intelligently discuss the team’s web site and team process.

5. Group Presentation Component - -Team participation (did all participate?) -Quality of presentation aides -Project management process (description provided) -Design process (description provided) -Programming process (description provided) -Timeframe (not to exceed five minutes) Contest Format: 1. Each team will display entries for judges and guests to review (PC’s will be provided by host of event). 2. Teams will give informal presentations to the judges in an exhibit hall format. 3. The top five teams will present their entries to the audience. 4. The judging committee will select the winners. NOTE: Teams that are selected to present to the audience will be limited to a five minute presentation. Presentations that are longer than five minutes will be penalized. So practice your timing beforehand.

************** ADDITIONAL RULES

• Each team will be responsible for securing third-party hosting.
• Hosting may not be provided by the school district. The goal of the contest is to have teams create a website for a business. It is not possible for businesses to be hosted on a school host. It is an important part of the web development process to research and secure hosting for clients. Preferred vendors will be provided shortly.

Use of Content Management

• Use of content management software, such as Wordpress, Drupal, or Joomla is strongly encouaged.
• Use of “packaged” design templates (free or purchased) is prohibited.*
• Custom templates are allowed.
• IF a content management system is used the contest entry must include an administrative login and password.

* It is OK to use a CMS default template as a base for customization. Business Contact

• A good relationship with the business owner is important. A log of contact with the business and copies of correspondence should be kept in the project portfolio.
• The use of a team member’s relative’s business is strongly discouraged.

Submission of Contest Entries

• In the past, teams have submitted their websites on CD. This year, websites will be submitted as URLs of the “published site” – No CDs will be sent.
• The team’s project plan and portfolio must be published to the website and the URL to download it must be provided.
• The team’s powerpoint presentation must be brought the day of the contest on a CD clearly labeled with the school and team number. It is strongly suggested that you bring a copy of the presentation on a USB memory stick. Presentations will be collected at the beginning of the day.

Day-of-Rules

• Student Laptops will be prohibited. (Teams should test the functionality of their websites in multiple browsers from a public computer – like at a computer lab or a library – that the website has never been accessed from for final testing.)
• Advisors, Chaperones and Teachers will not be allowed in the contest area after judging has started. A separate room will be provided. Chaperone, Teacher, and Advisors may bring laptop computers. We are unable to guarantee the availability of a Wi-Fi connection at this time.

New Horizon’s Computer Learning Center, Dawe Consulting Group and Penn State Worthington Scranton instructors will present important information about this year’s contest in a half-day training at New Horizon’s Learning Center in Pittston, PA on January 7, 2011 in the morning.

Given the timeline involved, please be sure to plan to attend NOW… as we know that getting a substitute and transportation paperwork can take a while.

1. Create a Twitter Account for your client.  Add a Twitter feed to the client’s website and teach them how to update it.  It’s a quick way to post updates without knowing any programming.
2. Create a Facebook Page for your client.  Incorporate the client’s logo and messaging.  Add a “Facebook Connect” button to the main website to encourage visitors to connect.
3. Do a video tour of the business.  Create a youtube account and embed the video tour on the website.  Do this for your client’s existing TV commercials.

One note about video and load times:
Stay away from embedding Windows Media.  With services like YouTube, there is no reason for you to host or stream media from your server.  Upload the video to YouTube and use the embed code to make load times fast and efficient.

At a minimum, you need a plan.  This plan, however detailed, should at least provide the following:

• Communication Plan
  Know how you will communicate with other via email, txt messaging, online meetings, etc.
  Know when you will meet.  Set at least one day a week to meet at a set day and time.
• Timeline
  Know when the project needs to be completed, then work backwards to fill in all the deliverables such as the framework of the website, content pieces, graphics, scripting for functionality, video, etc..
  Be prepared for things to not always go well.
• Delegate
  Everyone on the team has a role to play, otherwise you wouldn’t need a team.  Use your team wisely by knowing who is capable of what and tasking them.  Once you give someone something to do, make sure they know when to turn it in!
• Status
  Eliminate surprises by having status updates for all to see.  Everyone needs to report to the team lead as to what they have or have not accomplished.  If you find out you still have much to do, reassign people who are done to a task that needs help.

Communication is the key to project management.  If you can all work together and communicate well, there isn’t a project that you can’t handle.

This year, we are providing the images.   There are two formats.

http://www.gvhscontest.com/images/sponsorsrow2.jpg

http://www.gvhscontest.com/images/sponsorscolumn2.jpg

You should insert this image into your design and link it back to this site (http://www.gvhscontest.com).

You should NOT use the image from our server, but rather download the file and upload it to YOUR project’s hosting.  The image will not be available if hard-linked on the day of judging.

Your sites could collect e-mail addresses through a web form and your community partners then can e-mail them (making sure to use a good e-mail marketing software like Vertical Response to comply with e-mail privacy regulations.)

At any rate, no matter how you manage it collecting e-mail addresses is a great way to build loyalty.

Speaking of which, use the links on the left navigation to sign up for the contest e-mail lists.