Welcome to CSDi Online Learning’s OL 102. Sustainable Development Course: Project Architecture

Class Home Page

The Course
Welcome to the Center for Sustainable Development’s online learning course OL 102. Sustainable Development Course: Project Architecture. In this course you will continue to build a project around community need.

Logistics
The class week begins on Tuesdays; assignments need to be sent to me by the Monday 7 days later. This allows students without Internet at home to access Internet at work on Mondays in order to send their assignment in.

You have signed up for a specific course within specific dates. If you are not able to complete the course within these dates, the Center allows you to take the course again for 50% of the normal course fee if you enroll in the very next scheduled course and use the very same project. Unfortunately, we can’t make exceptions.

The Student Resource Page contains:

1. Links for downloading the weeks’ documents: be sure to save the documents for future reference.

2. Links for the background Discussion on the week’s homework assignment; in this case – OL 102 Discussion 1; read this first each week

3. Links to the week’s Assignment; in this case – OL 102 Assignment One Homework

4. Links to the Magee Example Project Assignment for each week.

5. This, the ‘Class Home page with the class rules and logistics

6. A link to the Email & Homework Etiquette page in the Download Class Documents gives the rules of the game for corresponding with us and for posting assignments. Please print it out and read it first.

Each week I will ask you to download my example project to use as an assignment template. Your assignments can be uploaded to me on this training site.

Important: The Email & Homework Etiquette page in the Download Class Documents gives the rules of the game for corresponding with us and for posting assignments. Please print it out and read it first.

You are logged into the Online Learning section of our website; courses are only available to course participants such as yourselves.

The Class Project
This class is designed to be fun. We are each going to continue developing our own project – hopefully a real one. Each one of your assignments is actually a concrete element in building your project. I will comment on the development of each of your projects and have posted my own project components as examples for you to see and use for ideas.

Please use my Magee examples as templates for your project. They are formatted such that one week is the building block for the next week and therefore we need to maintain the format of the examples I provide. Download my examples and just write right over the top of what I’ve written. In this manner you will learn the system and be guided in thinking through the components of your project. This will also make it much easier for me to read through each of your assignments as each participant’s will all have the same look and feel.

Save your completed assignment using the format described in Email Etiquette. Then, upload the assignment. I will be notified of your submission.

I will review each one of your assignments and make suggestions. In this manner, I get to know you through our correspondence, and I become familiar with each of your projects. My suggestions are meant to keep your assignment ‘on track’. There are very specific steps that we work through and each project usually needs a bit of guidance in preparation for the next assignment. Do not move onto the next assignment until you have received my comments on the current assignment.

Please send photos of you, your project and the community you are working with. For some tips on taking good photos please look at the Newsletter: Capturing Compelling Photos from the Field.

Class Rules

1. Schedule. The work load is between 2 and 4 hours a week. You need to stay on schedule. We all need to be on the same week. If you get behind the rest of the class, you will need to take the class again in the future. We allow you to take the course again for ½ price if you join the very next class and use the same project.

2. Certificates. Course participants who successfully complete a course on time will receive a course certificate. Learn more. Your certificate will be e-mailed within 30 days of the end of your course.

Signed certificates are delivered by email in a PDF format for you to print out. We do not offer paper certificates by mail. The name on the certificate will be your first and last names as they appear on your Student Enrollment Form.

Course certificates are issued for all students from one course all at the same time—usually within one week of the end of the course. Students requesting a replacement certificate at a future date will be charged a $15.00 fee. So save and backup your certificate when you receive it.

3. Email and Homework Etiquette: the rules of the game. We have had students from 153 different countries enrolled in different courses. It is a bit complicated managing all of the incoming emails. We have developed a system that you need to incorporate in submitting homework and in corresponding with us. Please read the etiquette page now.

4. Our Online Course FAQ has answers to most other questions.

Course Syllabus
Week 1. We will take the project challenge, proposed solution, and activities that you developed in OL 101/201, and transform them into a simplified logframe.
Week 2.
1. The focus will be on outcomes and impact, how the current world of development sees them. We will see how we can use them to improve the logframe.
2. We will incorporate outcome and impact statements into the logframe, and begin adding indicators and means of verification in preparation for developing a monitoring and evaluation plan.
Week 3.  We will take the activity list from the logframe and create a budget, and then apply costs to each of the different activities.
Week 4. 
We will take our detailed budget and transform it into a visual timeline/schedule.
Week 5.
1. You will each write a compelling project fact sheet for presentation to donors that is no longer than 2 pages. This concise, quick-to-read document can present a focused message to a donor.
2. Make a list of 2 colleagues, 2 potential NGO partners, and two donors that you can share this working project proposal with. Make appointments with 1 of them.
Week 6.
1. Share your project informally with a donor, your boss, your professor, someone in the development world for feedback. We will discuss why it is a good idea to visit a donor at this preliminary stage, and why you should wait on writing an actual proposal.
2. We will polish this family of documents by including the constructive feedback, and by making sure that the docs are absolutely parallel to each other. We will then carefully print them out and make an appointment with a donor to present your project.

In Summary
This course will take the project concept developed in OL 101/201 and transform it with a powerful set of management tools into a project for presenting to donors. Logframes, detailed budgets, and compelling fact sheets: these tools will communicate to donors, staff, and stakeholders exactly what you are going to accomplish, and lead the effective management of the project once funded.

Now that we’ve gotten past the rules we can begin our adventure together and have a lot of fun in the process.

So what’s next? Click on the Assignment One Discussion and get started in development!

Tim Magee