Developing Professional Competence in Project Management Using E-Simulation on Campus

Introduction

One of the early works on how knowledge is acquired and accumulated, and how obsoleteness and forgetfulness affect the accumulated knowledge, was done by Richmond and Peterson (1992). As shown in Figure 1, they argued that knowledge is accumulated through assimilation, and its value is reduced through forgetfulness and obsoleteness. But more importantly, Richmond and Peterson (1992) argued that the process of learning through assimilation is only part of the big picture; a learner’s knowledge is augmented through rebuilding knowledge, rebuilding knowledge capacity, and through sharing knowledge capacity (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.

Model of life-long learning (adapted from Richmond & Peterson (1992), and Zambon, Saito, Yonenaga, & Figueiredo (2000))

The learning process based on assimilation is the main, sometimes sole, learning process followed in traditional teaching schools (Zambon, Saito, Yonenaga, & Figueiredo (2000). The “flow of knowledge”, as shown in Figure 1, is from the teacher to the students’ knowledge repository (i.e. their brain). It is hoped that these repositories keep accumulating knowledge and that it can be recalled when requested. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case; some of the accumulated knowledge loses its value over time (a certain way of solving a problem might not remain the best practice indefinitely), and the knowledge bank is constantly depleting due to forgetfulness. In order to keep this stock of knowledge refreshed and up to date, teachers (and students) must use the remaining learning methods in addition to assimilation. In some disciplines, such as mathematics and engineering, the current body of knowledge already includes a well-developed set of relationships (Richmond & Peterson, 2000). Therefore, in those disciplines, knowledge is re-created and captured by students through developing problem-solving methodologies by way of assimilation and knowledge rebuild. Students with pre-existing creativity and ingenuity can extend their knowledge bank by rebuilding and extending their knowledge capacity and sharing their new knowledge capacity with others.

In less procedural disciplines, such as management, the effect of assimilation on learning is reduced, as there are less universally applicable sets of relationships and methodologies. In these disciplines, each problem presents unique challenges and hence requires unique solutions. Therefore, it is pivotal that teaching and learning in those disciplines comprise all the learning methods depicted in Figure 1.

This chapter presents the use of simulation technologies in teaching and learning of a project management course at graduate level at an Australian technology-based university situated in Melbourne. A significant number of students undertake this course and study on-campus at a particular University location in the Melbourne Central Business District (CBD). A substantial amount of the teaching and learning is expected to take place on-campus at this location. The context helps to frame the development and use of the simulated environment to enable quality learning. A typical project management course usually only employs the assimilation process as shown in Figure 1, which teaches the principles of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK) or other similar frameworks, and then hopes that students perform well in their professional careers after graduation. As teachers with extensive industry experience, the authors realised many years ago that there is a lot more to successful project management than those frameworks. Team and relation management play a significant role in the success of a project. This is what is known as “Professional Competence in Project Management”. The authors set out to develop an innovative method to enhance the professional competence of project management students. This chapter is a report on how one such innovative method was implemented and evaluated in an actual classroom setting.