Time waits for no one

I read up on Gantt charts and had intended preparing one, but then was overtaken by events, or rather deadlines. I felt these charts were relevant to much bigger projects, and decided mine would sit quite happily in a timeline - not strictly in chronological order but nevertheless giving task finish dates. As I am on holiday 1^st August and the nursing library closes on 5^th August it was necessary to move quickly in getting something set up as a pilot study, and to get a questionnaire out to seek the information I needed from my focus group. I therefore prepared a hard-copy questionnaire in the first place which I could leave out on the counter for completion until library closure, confident that the only students visiting were nursing students. I have now had successful contact with Academic staff who are to host an online version (SurveyMonkey) of my questionnaire on Blackboard - but not until Monday 1st August.  I would have liked to narrow down to a specific group of nurses, but given the limited timescales,  decided the opinions of all current nursing students would be valid, as they have all been through the experiences of the first year undergraduate cohort who I would eventually be targeting.

For the social media tool I have had to get something up and running quickly that students can at least look at, so decided on a Facebook page to begin with. I will be adding content in the form of screencasts, but hopefully when there are one or two ‘likes’ in place – the intention being to dripfeed material rather than bombard.


Here is a link to my timeline:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1J1r0DhRHgqVaOC6vR0LPKxLFR8G4tH_9fkdQSnJb0HA/edit?hl=en_US


Here to my introduction to my online questionnaire, with links to surveymonkey.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vDkbYPVsbFyjHOp-PQjHrf1O7iO_pXcz_xVtiC2C5Wk/edit?hl=en_US


and my FB page is 'NurseInfoDMU'.

Elements of risk in my project

When defining my project I selected something that I knew would be helpful and complementary to my existing role in order that I could be confident of a reasonable amount of support and 'buy-in’ from library colleagues. Unfortunately I have yet to have any response from academic staff, and here lies one element of risk to the project, that in not having their support it may lack credibility and be difficult to drive forward. I don't think it is a matter of resistance as much as one of workload - it is easier to ignore rather than engage with something that might involve input and commitment when the relocation of the faculty is really at the forefront of everyone's mind. By the time this project is to get off the ground however, minds will hopefully be focussed again on the new intake of students and their learning requirements, and using pull styles of influencing, involving, building and then attracting will hopefully be successful.

Other risks may involve the students and whether they are willing to engage with the proposed tools, and again I would see involving and building as key to bringing them on board, but would not rule out some ‘pressure’ techniques such as rewarding students who participate. I think the whole show-feel-change idea rather than analyse-think-change will be useful to bear in mind - particularly in planning screencasts and YouTube videos rather than just text based delivery.

Risks lie in the technologies themselves, such as whether they will continue to be the preferred methods of delivery, and whether there are changes in terms of use which affect choice, factors to be closely monitored. And of course the whole environment and organisation in which I am operating can change, depending on political and economic factors.

Please follow these links for:
Stakeholder Analysis
https://cacoo.com/diagrams/EJwbyfJ7P1xK1LEr

SWOT Analysis
https://cacoo.com/diagrams/SF3dVT4GHwFIut5Z