Progress Report: Week 6

Introduction
Our Proposal was directed toward the work study program at USM, with purpose to develop a system to assign students more work study jobs in areas specific to their major and interest. This creates the opportunity for a student to learn the practical sides of their career field as well as cost benefits for the university. The more money is paid out to students the more it comes back through tuition. This is only the surface of the idea. The deeper aspects of the proposal reached into the idea of creating better students which validates USM's credibility, thereby increasing the value of education received at the university.

Facts and Discussion 

Though this proposal put forth a good creative idea it was not as developed as we would have liked it to be. It was difficult to find information concerning the universities current budget and the costs of work study. This can cause it to be less credible so we had hoped to find some more details regarding costs. It was difficult getting everyone together and communicating; we still have not really coordinated information back to each other so the proposal remains incomplete. We did not expect for the different events in our personal life to come up, one group member was on holiday and another was dealing with a loss in the family. I also had family plans I was trying to work around on top of other work that needed to be completed, but these all are perfect examples of things that can happen when you are working with several people on different schedules. I personally recommend getting started early. One way you can do this is effective brainstorming. Brainstorming is not just thinking of good topics; it is taking a topic and seeing how far you can go with it by picking it apart and organizing a plan of action. This will help you have plenty to talk about and research. It always better to have more aspects in the beginning because you can always use less than you started with instead not having enough to begin with.

Conclusions

In preparing for this project difficulties should have been expected and avoided, but there is no going back-in-time with learning experiences like these. We do however plan to complete the project and get all the details worked out. Our timeline has been pushed around a bit, as some valuable time has been spent waiting to hear from group members (I too being a member waited on). I know that the members in this group are all focused individuals, and once we pull together, the project will not be as difficult and we can discuss how to get back on a progressive path to success.

Recommendations

It would have been helpful had I known whether to ultimately finish the project alone, and if I continued to wait on group members how that would effect my grade. I have been anxious to complete this project, but have not received any notice to do so and have been waiting because I was advised at first to wait on my group members. I am not placing any blame because this project should have been anticipated to a greater extent and the course requires a lot of work so it is difficult not only for the students but for the teacher, especially in making exceptions here and there. I find my discussion leader to be very helpful with great ideas and an encouraging attitude; I just think that the summer class is a hard one to contend with.