Industry-based learning experiences in Project Planning and Scheduling

Guest speakers are notorious in bringing value to classroom through current and updated information and best practices implemented in companies they are working for. Sharing knowledge this way benefits everyone. However, going out in the field and investigating collaboratively all the pertaining issues regarding these practices motivates students to go into deeper understanding of all related class topics because they are transposed into real scenarios. Also, exchanging communication with Superintendents (SI) and Project Managers (PM) will clarify certain topics or questions if they are having difficulties understanding the materials presented in Planning and Scheduling classes - options that weren't really available in the past without the help of industry video materials. The complementary live industry-based educational model is intended to validate the concepts learned in class. Through a series of interview questions performed by students, SI and PM are imparting knowledge about major topics learned in class: project description and details of activities with their durations, development of initial schedule, maintaining and updating the schedules during the project, schedule changes and their effects, technology usage in the respective company setting. Using a reversed model (industry-based) will enable students to account effectively for the challenges and duties they will face in the future jobs, therefore becoming more marketable for a difficult job market. This is evidenced by detailed description and analysis of two case studies collected by team of students assigned to work on real case issues that dealt with scheduling the respective projects.