PMP®:PMI-ACP®:CAPM® - Learning to learn

Learning is the key to success and learning to learn is secret code to success. In this post, I will be sharing few fantastic websites which will help you in your learning regardless of what course it is. 

These websites help you upload your own content and learn them through innovative fun ways. In the first 3 websites, try to search for the content created by other users,if you are lucky, you will land on some goldmine already created and available for your use. 

https://quizlet.com/

This site allows you to upload your content and allows to use as Flashcards, Learn mode, Test, Scatter modes. A sample PMP quizlet (use in Learn mode, link in below post) will help you in learning the ITTO in an intuitive way, as it provides you the inputs or outputs or tools and techniques of a process and lets you answer the related process. If you play few times, you will remember the ITTO with a good understanding instead of just memorizing. 

http://vc4u.blogspot.in/2015/06/pmpcapm-useful-urls.html

http://www.studystack.com/

This site allows you to upload your content and present them in a variety of innovative games like Hangman, Matching, Crossword, Quiz, Study stack, Study table,Unscramble and Chopped etc.  

https://www.coursehero.com

This site allows you to create Flashcards. The presentation is simple and neat.  When you use the flashcards in this site, say for e.g. for terms and definitions, first see a term and then flip to see the definition. Next, click on the next button to see the definition and then flip to see the term. This adds thrill to the participants when you try this for the participants to answer in a round robin. 

https://www.instagrok.com/
This site is  useful for people who do research as it presents your search findings in a mind map like picture. Try searching 'pmp scope management' , it will show key facts, websites, videos, images and concepts on scope management. This site surprises you with quiz on scope management and lets you change the difficulty level of the search result content.   

As these websites are accessible using your mobile, it means you can access them any where any time without losing touch with your subject of study. These kind of learning will help you get a crystal clear understanding of your study materials and increase your confidence level to a right, realistic level. 

Brain Breaks - Energize your mind

Brain Breaks are a quick and effective way of changing or focusing the physical and mental state of the learners in your group. They are also a useful tool for students to use to help activate, energize and stimulate their brains.

It is difficult for our brains to focus on some topic continuously for some time. This gets more difficult when the some topic is a formal training and the some duration is the session duration. The most testing time is the after lunch session. 

At VC4U, we understand this and have brain breaks at regular intervals. The tea breaks and the lunch breaks are effectively used for the brain breaks. 

We conduct some creative puzzles, show a mind blowing technology video or a motivational video which will energize the participants minds. It is easy for an energized mind to understand theory or concepts.  

The following are few puzzles are videos that we use. 

>Picture puzzles

>TED videos - flying robots,Intelligent crows

>Video of a Russian female athlete falling down during a race and still struggle to win the race.

>The US kid who became a overnight superstar 

>A little boy failing many times and finally succeeding in breaking a board

Sometimes our participants too suggest inspirational videos. 

For a list of brain break activities other than the ideas mentioned above, visit the below site. 

http://brainbreaks.blogspot.in/

These are not meant only for school kids. The brain breaks are needed for anybody who is undergoing a training or doing a self study. When you prepare for an exam, when you become tired due to concentration, you can motivate yourself by purposely deviating your mind away from the subject using a brain break. You can continue the next hour of study with an energized mind. 

Gamification - The new buzz word

Gamification is the application of typical elements of game  playing (e.g. point scoring, 

competition with others, rules of  play) to other areas of activity. 

At VC4U, we love games and we understand the effectiveness of games in training.

The following are the few games we play during our training. 

Answer Question game:

In this game, a participant will say an answer and the next participant will have to say 

the question. This game is very flexible as there is lot of scope for saying the questions 

which suits the answer. This game picks up speed as the participants start saying the 

'answer' creatively. Since the answer is told first and then the question, generally coming 

up with answer takes time.

Inter group Quiz game:

In this game, the participants are divided into groups. One group will ask a question to 

the another group. The other group has to answer within the stipulated time. The groups

takes turn in asking the questions. This is played in 2 modes Open book and Closed book. 

In Open book mode, both the question group and the answering group may use the books 

provided as part of the training. The ground rules are generally framed by the groups. 

Crosswords:

Crosswords are a different learning tools. They are tests with clues replacing the 

questions and the hint of number of characters for the answers. 

The crosswords listed in the below post are used. 

http://vc4u.blogspot.in/2015/06/pmpcapm-useful-urls.html

PMP®/CAPM® Process game:

This was detailed out in one of our earlier posts. The link is given below. 

http://vc4u.blogspot.in/2015/07/pmpcapm-knowledge-area-and-process.html

Online games: 

Quizlet:

We use quizlet.com which provide various gaming options like Flash card mode, Learn 

mode, Scatter mode. Especially for learning the ITTO (Inputs,Tools & Techniques, 

Output) this kind of game is very useful as it helps in learning the ITTO in an intuitive 

way. It helps the participants in learning the unknown through the known. 

Rita Process Game:

This is a game of mapping the process to the correct Process Group. In most cases the 

direct process description is given instead of the process name itself. This lets the think 

about what is done in the process and map it to the Process Group. 

https://rmcls.com/process-chart-game-v9 

projectmanagement.com: 

Write about gamification, you can't miss the PMChallenge quiz of the projectmanagement.com. Membership is free. They have 1000s of questions related to PMP. You earn badges based on the number of questions you answer correctly like Brain, Einstein, Rocket Surgeon etc. The quiz motivates you as you keep giving correct answers continuously and it is also soft on your wrong answers. The questions are not like real exam questions mostly. This quiz is useful to evaluate your knowledge on PMP in a pure academic style. 

How to study effectively? (Applies to school/college students and PMP®/PMI-ACP®/CAPM® aspirants)

SQ3R
SQRRR or "SQ3R" is a reading comprehension method named for its five steps: survey, question, read, recite, and review. The method was introduced by Francis Pleasant Robinson in his 1946 book Effective Study

SQ3R stands for

1. Survey (the book/a chapter to get an overview)
2. Question (ask one or more questions for each section in a chapter)
3. Read (and mentally answer the questions)
4. Recite (recall the answers to a section’s questions from your memory and write them down)
5. Review (a complete chapter, by answering the chapter’s questions from your memory)

To know more about SQ3R refer the below link
http://remembereverything.org/the-sq3r-method-of-studying/

Cornell Notes

The Cornell method provides a systematic format for condensing and organizing notes. The student divides the paper into two columns: the note-taking column (usually on the right) is twice the size of the questions/key word column (on the left). The student should leave five to seven lines, or about two inches, at the bottom of the page.

Notes from a lecture or teaching are written in the note-taking column; notes usually consist of the main ideas of the text or lecture, and long ideas are paraphrased. Long sentences are avoided; symbols or abbreviations are used instead. To assist with future reviews, relevant questions (which should be recorded as soon as possible so that the lecture and questions will be fresh in the student's mind) or key words are written in the key word column. These notes can be taken from any source of information, such as fiction and nonfiction books, DVDs, lectures, text books, etc.

Within 24 hours of taking the notes, the student must revise and write questions and then write a brief summary in the bottom five to seven lines of the page. This helps to increase understanding of the topic. When studying for either a test or quiz, the student has a concise but detailed and relevant record of previous classes.

When reviewing the material, the student can cover the note-taking (right) column while attempting to answer the questions/keywords in the key word or cue (left) column. The student is encouraged to reflect on the material and review the notes regularly

How to take Cornell Notes (for readers)

http://www.wikihow.com/Take-Cornell-Notes

How to take Cornell Notes (for viewers)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3pM5hEgBk4

PMP®:CAPM® - Knowledge Area and Process Group mapping chart and a Game

As per PMBOK® there are 10 Project Management Knowledge Areas. Each of the 10 Knowledge Areas has set of Processes. There are 49 Processes. These 49 Processes can be mapped to the 5 Process Groups based on the time period when these Processes are performed. 

As part of the PMP®/CAPM® classroom training, we provide 4 pages of laminated sheets consisting 3 pages of Formulae and 1 page of the Knowledge Area / Process Group mapping sheet. 

Using this sheet you can view the Processes of each Knowledge Area horizontally and the Processes of each Process Group vertically. 

The reason these pages are laminated is, as these sheets will be used frequently by the PMP®/CAPM® participants. A laminated sheet will be easy to hold and refer the contents comfortably than a paper. 

During training we involve the participants in a game which will help them familiarize with the Knowledge Areas/Process Group and the 49 Processes.

The participants will be given a set of 49 bits of paper each having one Process name printed on it. 

The objective of the game is to recreate the Knowledge Area/Process Group mapping chart on the table without any help. 

Of course the participants will make mistakes. Mistakes are golden opportunities for learning, we shouldn't miss them. As per the quote "If you're not making mistakes,then you're not doing anything", mistakes are common when we do anything new.

The common mistakes by the participants are as follows.

1. Mapping "Manage Quality" process to Monitoring & Controlling Process Group.

2. Mapping "Identify Risks" to Initiation Process Group

Once the mapping is done by the participants as a group, we ask them to evaluate their mapping with the help of the Knowledge Area/Process Group mapping chart.

We provide the following tips during the mapping process i.e. which words indicate which process.

1. Activity - Schedule Management

2. Plan - Planning Process Group

3. Manage - Execution Process Group

4. Control - Control Process Group. (Validate Scope is the only exception)

5. Close - Closing Process Group

6. Team - Resource Management
7.  Project Work - Integration Management 

PMP®:CAPM® - Mind maps - Inputs,Tools and Techniques,Output (ITTO)

A mind map is a diagram used to visually organize information. A mind map is often created around a single concept, drawn as an image in the center of a blank landscape page, to which associated representations of ideas such as images, words and parts of words are added. Major ideas are connected directly to the central concept, and other ideas branch out from those.

VC4U PMP/CAPM Training includes interactive mind maps for the  Inputs,Tools and Techniques,Output (ITTO) for each knowledge area. 

"A picture is worth a thousand words!" . Pictures add clarity to knowledge. How about a picture with which you can interact?. Isn't that cool?

Refer to a sample Scope Management animated gif below.As you click on the Process the Inputs,Tools and Techniques and Outputs unfold. As you click on them the picture reveals the list of the Inputs, Tools and Techniques or Outputs depending on what you clicked. 

They are different view points are whether one should memorize the ITTO, as there may be only couple of questions about them. Whether one 'memorizes' or not, one should 'know' the ITTO, the knowledge of which will help in answering even the situational questions. VC4U Interactive mind maps will serve as a learning tool first, then as an evaluation tool. 

These interactive mind maps are available as part of our Online training materials. We provide the  Online training materials at free of cost for our Classroom/Online Live (Skype) training participants.