MSD Faculty Guide “Training Manual”

Updated 5/23/14

MSD Course Syllabi – emphasize the course objectives, high level schedule

Program History and Facts - # of students per year, teams per year, disciplines involved, types of projects (initiated by faculty, students, or industry), Affiliates program,

Projects – tracks, families, budgets

Disciplines – faculty points of contact in each department, the skills all students should have by discipline, the skills some students have

Edge – the website for all the project specific activities; is a public website, some parts are limited access

MyCourses – the content info students need to design, plan, and execute their projects

Roles: (2 page document in MyCourses)

  • Faculty Guides – help the students navigate 30 weeks
  • insure the team has or has access to the needed technical skills
  • insure the team follows the process and manages the project well
  • insure the needed accountabilities are in place for behaviors and results
  • Department Faculty contacts – provide connections to faculty with needed technical expertise
  • Technical Consultants – faculty “recruited” by students to help with design and implementation challenges
  • MSD Program Director – overall program management, communications, stakeholder interfaces, manages funding, drives continuous improvement
  • Clients – faculty for some projects, industry person for others

Expectations of Students

  • Rubrics – one for each quarter; some elements are team, some individual; in some cases, may make sense to grade sub-teams differently (could be by discipline, or by a subsystem)
  • Grading – overall picture of an A, B, C grade (Mark and John are developing this)
  • Effort– students should be working 9-12 hrs per week (consistent with other 3 credit lab courses), focus is on Tuesdays but not only Tuesdays
  • Managing the projects – project leader selection and role
  • Directing the teams vs. letting them struggle – it’s a tradeoff, situational

Getting started:

  • Mark and Chris will make sure you have access to RIT websites, etc.
  • The role of the Project Readiness Package (PRP) – the importance of certain elements, the amount of detail needed to set students up for success
  • Decide when to meet with your team(s) as a group or individual teams, how often for each
  • In MSD I and II, the norm is faculty guides meet with their teams weekly

Managing a Student Project as a Faculty Guide

  • MSD I is quite structured – workshops, deliverables. 3-week “cadence” is adopted to emphasize iteration.
  • After the Systems Level Design Review in week 6, the structure loosens somewhat. In the interest of striking a balance between structure vs. independence, the following have been found to be best practices (in the context of weekly meetings with teams):
  • MSD I
  • Following SDR, have team members create 3 week individual plans (see template)
  • Review performance vs. these plans in weeks X and Y.
  • Meet with the team in week X to get a sense of status vs. readiness for the detailed design review in week X
  • MSD II
  • Team members create 3 week plans in weeks 1, 4, and 7
  • Review progress vs. plans at end of weeks 3, 6, and 9
  • Week 3 – demonstrate key functional areas
  • Week 6 – preliminary system demo
  • Week 9 – full system demo for customer
  • Feedback to students – positive reinforcement and correcting mis-directions
  • Mark sends weekly emails describing key activities and milestones
  • Verify the team has a budget, and that there is a funding source