What is a project plan?

The project plan includes your goals, resources needed, technical requirements, and an outline. It may also specify learning objectives if you know them. A good plan will make the execution of your project much easier and will help you avoid mistakes such as going down the wrong path and having to revise the project in the middle of production. These types of mistakes can cost you time and money and may result in a project that never reaches its potential.

Let's assume you have a specific reason for creating an e-learning video. The reason or reasons can be stated as goals you hope to accomplish by creating the project. You have some goals in mind, right? Think about those reasons and goals and then write them down in the plan. This will help you understand—and perhaps modify—the scope of your project. It is normal to include many extraneous goals in the project plan. Human nature is to try to accomplish everything at once. But thinking about and writing down all of the goals that have been rattling around in your brain will help you see the bigger picture; where your goals fit into the current project or perhaps overlap and necessitate multiple projects. In fact, it is not uncommon to plan an overall project and define your current one as a part of the whole.

For example, if you were creating a video tutorial on using Camtasia Studio, when you examine the subject you might decide you actually have three subprojects: using Camtasia Recorder, using the Studio Editor, and using the Camtasia Production Wizard. For each one, you would define the specific goals of your tutorial. This will help you later in defining the learning objectives.

For an e-learning project, a project plan is a formal written document where information about the project is recorded and maintained. The main purposes of the plan are as follows:

• Identify the subject matter
• Define the scope of your project
• Set the goals and objectives of your project
• Identify the learners
• Specify resources needed to complete your project
• Create the subject or detailed outline of your project

Why is planning important?

One of the keys for creating an effective instructional video is planning. Your e-learning videos will be better organized, better focused, and more effective if they are planned appropriately. As an added benefit, whatever time you put into planning will be rewarded with fewer revisions and less cutting during production.

What will a plan accomplish?

If you buy into the concept that multiple eyes and brains on a project are beneficial, allowing others to review your plan and provide feedback is important. It is a good idea to consult others before starting the actual project creation. As an example, suppose you begin creating an e-learning video and plan to post it on the company intranet, along with a quiz at the end. After speaking with your IT department, you learn there is currently no way to keep track of who has taken the quiz on the intranet. A solution to this problem must be found since management wants to access that data. This issue could have easily been identified early and avoided by having the appropriate technical people review the plan and offer suggestions.