Failure as a learning experience

[fieryred1]

Hi all

I found Thomas Cochrane’s paper and the other content in 9.1 brought back memories of one particular project I did a while a go. I won’t name the project to protect the participants but you will note there are more failures than successes. My role was as a freelance supplier initially of video content but I ended up writing some of the content where there were gaps and also providing the materials for evaluating user responses to the content. My opinions are as an outsider coming to the project for one year on a part-time basis at the end.

Key successes

The project launched and is online
All stakeholder countries produced content
The content works on the platform it was built on
The project is innovative within its subject area

Key failures

The project was delivered late
The quality of the content is not consistent across areas
Pedagogical requirements were ignored by some areas
No one seemed in charge
The post project evaluation was not conducted by some areas
There were unresolved disputes between different areas
The content when constructed wasn’t actually used by many people
Users feedback was not used to change anything
The platform it was delivered on was very limited by the skills of the support staff involved
An opportunity seems to have been missed to create a useful tool
An initial requirements survey was not adhered to

I’d like to also add that it was difficult coming in as a freelancer to a project that was in trouble and trying to backwards engineer in some structure. I don’t think that there is one person alone that is to blame for any issues. It was just a combination of different factors that compounded some initial failures.

Personally I actually learnt a lot from this project.

Sandra
FieryRed1

[ElizabethECharl]

Sandra – thanks for sharing. We often learn more from mistakes than from things that run smoothly as you can then see clearly how the individual parts contribute to the whole – so I would agree with your takeaway message. I am sure that as a result when you are involved in a project you are more likely to ensure that the issues you raised as going wrong are addressed or acknowledged.

[fieryred1]

Elizabeth – thank you for your comments. I think the whole project management area requires more support and training as often a diverse range of colleagues come together without having the appropriate support and resources.

It is really helpful to see it here as a subject

FieryRed1

Sandra

[AngelaSmith]

Thank you to those who have shared their experiences so far and encouraged me to reflect on a similar experience I recently underwent. I will keep the details sketchy as it is still undergoing development and will hopefully meet with success in the near future, but the project involved introducing a new programme of study.Interestingly, the failures came first but I am hopeful that the overall outcome  will show more success than failure. Here goes:

Key failures:

New programme not approved

Key decision making personnel not consulted( lack of knowledge of processes led to this)

Time wasted in creating documentation which was then invalid

Marketing not pulled together into coherent whole

Internal staff keen, external team resistent

Duplication of resources

Key successes

Better working relationship for more diverse  teams involved

Regular liaison and expertise identified

Clearer picture of provision elsewhere

More evident what our USP is

Closer adherence to institutional processes and targets

Joined up thinking- chance of success second time around

Out of the frustration, a better programme has emerged with a potentially greater rate of success and more support across the institution- that has to be a positive outcome and sound basis on which to move forward,

As others have stated, a painful but ultimately valuablelearning experience!

Best wishes

Angela

 

 

The success

[Jillian Pawlyn]

Hi Sandra FieryRed1,

Yes I also went down memory lane – my blog post is here 

This is also my last activity for ocTEL, thanks everyone… again….

 

Jillian

[Author]

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