Planning and managing organisations/PMAN103/Activities and challenges

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

(: update challenges at end)

This micro course is skills-based and uses a "learn by doing" model. It is structured according to a number of learning pathways (see the learning pathways menu option above). Each learning pathway will include a number of activities and learning challenges.

OERu does not provide tutorial support, but we are an open learning community. We use forums.oeru.org to support each other on our learning journeys. If you have a support related question, please post this on the respective forum. If you know the answer to a question, please share the gift of knowledge by helping your peers.

• For general questions about the OERu, please use the OERu FAQ forum
• For course specific support questions, please use the general PMAN103 forum. Don't forget you need to add the PMAN103 tag to each of your posts.

Types of learning activities

The following table summarises the types of activity:

Type	Description
Learning activities	Learning activities are embedded in the learning pathways, including for example, invitations to: Watch a video Read an article Annotate a reading Share a comment in the WEnotes course feed Participate in a forum discussion etc. Complete a poll
Mini learning challenges	Some courses include mini challenges which are the building blocks for achieving the course learning outcomes. They are published on a single page within the learning pathways and will include the purpose, resource links, and tasks your should carry out.
Learning challenges	Learning challenges are more substantive activities requiring between 1 to 2 hours of effort. They typically require you to publish the outputs of your learning on your personal course blog. They are subdivided into three pages: Start page which provides a summary of the challenge, the purpose and corresponding stimulus resources; Tasks page which lists the steps you must complete for the challenge; and Outputs page which details the learning outcome actions and products of the challenge.

Here is a list of the mini and major learning challenges for each learning pathway in the PMAN 103 mini-course:

Session	Title
Session 0	Declare yourself learning challenge
Session 1	Setting goals, objectives and measures learning challenge
Session 2	Planning and strategy learning challenge
Session 3	Decision-making learning challenge
Session 4	Managing the unknown learning challenge

Orientation

Title	Type
Declare yourself	Mini learning challenge

Setting goals, objectives and measures

Title	Type
Managing versus leading (Blog)	Learning challenge
Managing versus leading (WENotes comment)	Learning challenge
Managing versus leading quiz	Quiz

Planning and strategy

Title	Type
The happy workforce (Blog)	Learning challenge
The happy workforce (WENotes comment)	Learning challenge
The happy workforce quiz	Quiz

Decision making

Title	Type
Conflict management (Blog)	Learning challenge
Conflict management (WENotes comment)	Learning challenge
Conflict management quiz	Quiz

Managing the unknown

Title	Type
Strategic human resources management (Blog)	Learning challenge
Strategic human resources management (WENotes comment)	Learning challenge
Changing role of human resources management quiz	Quiz

Relevant skills

Here is a summary of the relevant skills needed to complete each learning challenge in this course:

Learning challenge	Relevant skills	Outcomes
Setting goals, objectives and measures	Analytical skills Ability to differentiate between goals, objectives and measures Ability to identify unrealistic/poorly defined objectives Ability to define an objective out of a set of goals	A set of goals, objectives and metrics.
Planning and strategy	Analytical skills Ability to differentiate between planning and strategy Synthesizing skills	A roadmap for managers and employees to follow.
Decision-making	Analytical skills Ability to identify poor decisions Ability to select the appropriate decision in a particular context	A series of decisions in reaction to specific events.
Managing the unknown	Analytical skills Ability for abstract thinking Flexibility to adapt to future changes	A series of principles to live by in order to be ready for the unpredictability of the future.