Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices Specialization
Institution: University of California, Irvine Extension (Coursera)
Date: August 7, 2015 - August 28, 2015
Bio: Introduction to Project Management Principles and Practices is a specialization offered in Coursera made up of three courses and a capstone project: 'Initiating and Planning Projects', 'Budgeting and Scheduling Projects', and 'Managing Project Risks and Changes'. It is based on the book 'A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)' and the Project Management Institute (PMI) standards and certification.
The courses use a different framework from other Coursera offerings, that is more streamlined and light weight. The courses are self paced offerings that will each take around 3-6 hours to complete. While the topics they cover seem initially common sense, they go into enough depth and tie them together to make the material useful. Overall it was a very interesting course.
The majority of the material is presented in a flash based power point style of online text book. In theory it allows them to add interactivity to lessons, however this is rarely used. Mostly this flash format serves as an inconvenience, as students can not even copy and paste from the slides let alone download slides or a pdf for their own notes. The material is good but the format does not seem justified.
Accomplishments: There are multiple choice quizzes at the end of each lesson which require a 80% to pass, but students are given practically an unlimited number of attempts on each and the questions never change. I completed all of the courses in this specialization however I did not pay to attempt the capstone project. The ease of passing did not seem to justify the cost to certify.