Tips for Getting Started in This Course

This course can be beneficial to those of you who work or plan to work as a project manager, as well as those of you who have never worked formally as a project manager. Chances are that most of you have worked on a project team or have undertaken a personal project at home and understand that project management basics can be beneficial to you in your personal life as well as your work on a team. During the course, it might be difficult for some of you to relate to the material without formal project experience. For those of you in this situation, try to relate the material to a personal project, whether that project is planning and executing a birthday party or wedding, or building a deck in your backyard. Being able to connect the information to a tangible project will help you to understand and apply the various project management concepts. A key to successfully undertaking the project as well as the rest of the lessons and activities in this course will be effective time management. Keep this in mind as you establish your study regimen and team modus operandi.

Please be sure to read through the Syllabus, and let me know if you have any questions. To help everyone get to know each other better, you will be creating an introduction video biography for one of your assignments in this lesson. Be sure to watch your instructor’s video when you work on the activity.

As described in your Syllabus, there are some assignments, such as discussions, that require you to submit your initial assignment (video or response to a discussion prompt) by 11:59 p.m. (ET) Thursday to allow your classmates time to view your video or read your response to the discussion prompt, and post a comment by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on the following Sunday.

Project Management Software: Microsoft Project (MS Project)

Your course textbook relies heavily on MS Project to illustrate important concepts throughout the course. You will need access to MS Project (or an equivalent such as Project Libre—a free open-source project management tool) to complete components of the course project starting in Lesson 4.

Please note that MS Project is only compatible with Windows operating systems. Mac users will need to use Project Libre.

MS Project via Microsoft Azure

You also have the option to access MS Project 2016 and MS Project 2019 via Microsoft Azure Website. You will need to sign in with your Penn State WebAccess account and agree to the Terms of Service before you access the software. You can review the steps via Accessing MS Project Through the Microsoft Azure Website document. But, please note that there could be a potential conflict with Office depending on the version that it installed. If you have any problems with the process, please contact the World Campus HelpDesk for assistance.