INTRODUCTION TO COURSE

The goal of this course is to help you develop a proposal for an educational or development project for which you could seek funding. This is one course in a three-course series about managing projects.  The three courses are:

1. Project Planning and Proposal Development
2. Project Management and Implementation
3. Project Monitoring and Evaluation

Together, these three courses are designed to help you develop knowledge and skills in planning, designing, implementing, managing and evaluating projects in an area of your interest. 

Central to this course is applying these knowledge and skills to the development of a project proposal.  The logic here is that a project proposal must include the design of a project, based on a needs assessment and problem identification; a budget and management plan; specific activities and timeline for implementation; and a monitoring and evaluation plan.  Each of these elements will be covered in the course.

COURSE ORGANIZATION

There will be two parallel tracks in this course, relevant to the two types of proposals with which you are likely to work:  reactive and proactive. 

A reactive proposal is one that you will usually write in response to a Request for Proposal (RFP) or Request for Application (RFA) that is put out by government-funded or international agencies.  These types of proposals are usually written as a team with others from your organization.  Therefore, throughout the course of this semester, we will be working together as a class to read and analyze a real RFP (Education for Marginalized Children in Kenya), and to use this RFP as an example for which we can design a full proposal in response.

A proactive proposal is one that you write on your own (with input and feedback from two other class members) in order to seek funding for a project that you would like to implement.  Therefore, throughout the semester, you will work in small groups of three to give each other feedback and ideas about the proposal that you will be writing, based on a project idea of your own.

In other words, as we learn about project design and proposal writing by responding to the RFP (Education for Marginalized Children in Kenya), you will be applying those same skills to developing a proposal of your own for your own individual project idea, and this proposal will be your final paper for the class.  In both our group work and your individual work, we will be covering the following steps in project planning and proposal development:

1. Problem identification and statement
2. Needs assessment (including tools such as PRA and other participatory tools for determining what people’s needs and problems are)
3. Rationale for the project (including a literature review citing research that the project is building on what has been learned in the past)
4. Goals and objectives (including tools such as the logic model, results-oriented planning, ZOPP, and outcomes mapping, as well as SMART objectives; the goals will also include how the project can be sustainable beyond the initial project funding)
5. Project activities (including tools such as log frames)
6. Project workplan and timeframe (including GANTT charts)
7. Budget development
8. Monitoring and evaluation plan
9. Management Plan and Institutional Capability
10. Appendices (resumes)

 Most likely, a typical class will be broken into three segments:

• Time for “planning trios” to discuss and give each other help in thinking how to use the theory, approach or tool for their individual project proposals.
• Overview of specific planning theory, approach or tool; discussion of readings
• Application of said theory, approach or tool to your own or a sample proposal

REQUIREMENTS & GRADING      

This course requires the active participation of all class members.  For your participation to be helpful to everyone, it is essential that you attend all classes and complete the required readings before class.  However, the focus on this class is on writing, rather than reading, so I will try to keep reading assignments to a minimum.

The writing assignments are designed cumulatively; in other words, you will have 8 short pieces to write, corresponding to the various components or sections of a proposal (problem statement, rationale, goals and objectives, activities and workplan, budget, etc.).  Almost every week or every other week, you will bring a draft of one of these parts to class to share with the members of your “planning trio”, get their feedback, and give them feedback on their parts.  Your final product will be a complete project proposal for a project of your choice, which incorporates all of the various revisions of components/sections you wrote throughout the semester.  If you stay up to speed with the short assignments, then your final proposal will not be too difficult to put together.  However, if you let these short assignments slip, you will have a pretty big job of pulling it all together at the end, and you will not have gotten feedback from your “planning trio” to help you, either. 

The specific course requirements/assignments, along with the grading calculation for each, is presented below.

Requirement	Description	Grade Calculation
Quality and quantity of classroom participation	Be fully prepared to participate in class by coming to all class sessions, reading the assignments for each session, and being ready to discuss them critically.	15%
Trio brainstorming and feedback	Participate fully as a member of your small group, giving others feedback on their project design, and coming to class with your own writing tasks completed so that others can give you feedback.	20%
Short drafts of proposal components (to share with your “planning trio” and get written feedback from instructor)	“Plain language” description of your project (2 paragraphs):  DUE Sept 10 Problem statement (1 page):  DUE Sept 17 Needs assessment (1 page):  DUE Sept 24 Rationale (1 page):  DUE Oct 1 Project goals and objectives (1 page): DUE Oct 8 Project activities (3 pages): DUE Oct 22 Workplan/timeframe (chart): DUE Nov 5 Budget (table):  DUE Nov 19	20%
Preparing and presenting a short overview of your designed project	During the last two sessions of the class, everyone will provide a 15-minute overview of their proposed project and receive feedback from “funders”.  The cases will be presented to the class during class time on Dec 3 and Dec 10.	20%
Final paper	Your final proposal (no more than 25 pages), including all of the sections mentioned above, plus management plan, institutional capability, and resumes of key project personnel.  DUE Dec 10.	25%

I encourage you to use my office hours as a time for us to discuss your paper, the readings or questions you have about the course.  All assignments are due when indicated.  You will be graded on a pass-fail basis, UNLESS you wish to have a grade.  If you want a grade for this course, you must let me know in writing (NO E-MAILS!) by September 17, 2008.  After this date, no changes will be made in your grading status (i.e., you can’t ask me for a grade, rather than pass-fail, 3 weeks before the end of the class.)

 

TEXTS READINGS, RESOURCES AND COMMUNICATIONS

The readings for this course will all be available on the SPARK course website.  There are no books to buy.

Accommodations

If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify me within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements.

Academic Honesty

The integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research.  Academic honesty is therefore required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Academic dishonesty (cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, facilitating dishonesty) is prohibited in all programs of the University.

 

                        

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