TCO 630 Fall 2005 Syllabus

TCO 630.001 Managing People and Projects Syllabus

What is the purpose of this course?	What will we be reading?
What are the learning objectives?	What are the assignments?
Who are the course instructors?	What is the course schedule?
How do I contact the instructor?	What tools will we be using?
How do I contact other members of the class?	What are the course standards?
How will my grade be determined?

What is the purpose of this course?

Managing projects and the people who staff them is a more complex task than simply extrapolating from our personal experience. Other employees often have standards, work habits, and expectations quite different from our own. And estimating projects, juggling resources required for multiple projects, and keeping both customers and staff satisfied can be daunting tasks.

This course is intended to familiarize you with methodologies, tools, and practices that will help you to be a more effective manager of people and projects.

What are the learning objectives for this course?

By the end of this course, you will be able to do the following:

Define the process maturity of your organization
Estimate, plan, track, and measure the success of projects
Ensure that projects are completed within schedule and budget constraints
Prepare job descriptions for a range of positions within a publication organization
Plan career ladders for employees
Evaluate employee performance
Develop organization and project budgets

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Who are the course instructors?

My name is Helen Grady, and I am an Associate Professor in the Dept. of Technical Communication, School of Engineering, Mercer University. During my 14 years at Mercer, I have been actively involved in the curricular design and assessment of Mercer's engineering core courses, in addition to teaching a wide variety of undergraduate and graduate technical communication classes. I founded Mercer's Center for Excellence in Engineering Education and, after four years as Center Director, I became director of Mercer’s MSTCO program. Prior to joining Mercer, I managed a large technical publications organization for Northrop Corporation in Research Triangle Park, NC. This organization grew from 8 to 24 editors, writers, and graphic artists in the 10 years I ran it and had an eventual budget in excess of $1 million.

How do I contact the instructor?

The easiest way to contact me is via email (grady_h@mercer.edu).

I monitor my email regularly and will try to respond to you within 24 hours. You may also contact me by telephone during my office hours (M-F, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Eastern time) or at home:

Office: 478-301-2211, or toll free at 1-800-MercerU, x2211
Home: 478-471-1869

How do I contact other members of the class?

We will use a listserv to distribute email messages to the entire class. Here are the directions to subscribe to the TCO 630 listserv. If you download the contents of the listserv, you will be able to retrieve the preferred email addresses of your colleagues. (Note: you may subscribe to the listserv using multiple email addresses, i.e., home, work, etc.)

You may also use the online chat feature of WebCT for synchronous communication.

What will we be reading?

All students enrolled in the course must have access to the following texts:

R. Stanley Dicks. 2004. Management Principles and Practices for Technical Communicators. New York, NY: Longman.

ISBN: 0-321-16523-3.

This book is available from Amazon.com and other vendors.

Hackos, JoAnn T. Managing Your Documentation Projects. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

ISBN: 0471590991.

This book is available from Amazon.com and other vendors.

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What are the assignments?

There are seven assignments. The due date for each assignment is listed below. You will find detailed instructions for completing each assignment by clicking on the assignment links. You can also access this information from the assignments page.

	Title	Due Date
Assignment 1	Process-maturity Description	9/1
Assignment 2	Information Plan Outline	9/22
Assignment 3	Project Estimate	10/13
Assignment 4	Content Specifications	10/27
Assignment 5	Job Descriptions	11/10
Assignment 6	Salary Range Descriptions	11/17
Assignment 7	Calculating Added Value	12/1

You are responsible for critiquing at least one other student submission for each major written assignment and completing your peer review in a timely manner so that your fellow students can make the appropriate revisions to their work prior to submitting it for a grade.

The final version of each written assignment is due no later 8 p.m. on the due date specified in the table above.

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What is the course schedule?

The Fall semester officially begins on Wed., 17 August and ends on Tues., 6 Dec. Our class will meet for synchronous chat on Thursdays from 8:00 to 9:30 p.m. EST. View the course schedule by clicking the schedule button in the left nav bar of this web site.

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What tools will we be using?

We will use WebCT, installed on a WebCT server, as a primary means of interaction in this course. If you have never used WebCT or don't remember how to use it, you can get help at Mercer's WebCT help page or by clicking on the FAQ button in the left nav bar of this web site. Here is the chat protocol.

All students enrolled in TCO 630 are expected to have access to Microsoft Word to create and view word processing files. In addition, you should be able to create and edit simple Web pages. All of your written assignments should be saved as .html documents and emailed to me.

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What are the course standards?

You must submit each assignment no later than the date and time specified in the course schedule. An assignment submitted after the specified deadline will be penalized one letter grade. Assignments more than 48 hours late will not be accepted and will receive a grade of 0 (zero).
You may request an extension without penalty on an assignment deadline but you must request such an extension in writing no later than 24 hours before the original deadline. In no case will an extension of more than 48 hours be granted.
You must submit each assignment in the electronic form specified on the corresponding assignment page.
You must properly name the file you submit for each assignment in accordance with the naming convention specified on the corresponding assignment page.
You must use standard written English (grammar, usage, spelling, and punctuation). Errors count in the course, just as in the real world.
If you work schedule requires that you miss a chat, please send me an email explaining the absence as far in advance of the chat as possible.
If you must unexpectedly miss a chat, please send me an email explaining the absence for the next chat.

How will my grade be determined?

Your final grade for the course will have three major components:

The quality of your seven written assignments (50%)
The quality of your peer reviews of the major assignments (20%)
The value of your participation in leading and responding to threaded discussions as well as your participation in chats (30%)

In graduate courses, grades ordinarily have the following significance:

A indicates outstanding achievement in an assignment or in the course.
B reflects acceptable work at the graduate level, either on an assignment or in the course.
C is considered a failing grade for a graduate assignment or course.

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This syllabus is subject to change at the instructor's discretion.

Mercer University
1400 Coleman Avenue
Macon, GA 31207-0001