OPEN is the Institute of Project Management’s proprietary Online Project EducatioN platform.
OPEN’s instructional design intentionally leverages the new digital paradigm of microlearning. Microlearning refers to a connected series of short, focused learning nuggets – often 3-5 mins in duration – that each point at a specific learning outcome. By reducing the cognitive load on learners, it ensures that knowledge can be easily accessed (and re-accessed), quickly assimilated and readily applied.
Following a lifecycle approach, the 12 online units in OPEN – each with 10 featured topics with 2-5 microlessons – address all aspects of contemporary project management.
Designed and delivered in rich media formats, OPEN facilitates learner-centric, just-in-time training across multiple devices (extending from desktop and laptop computers to tablets and smartphones); technologies embedded in the daily routines of today’s knowledge workers. There are no advertisements or subscription pop-ups on OPEN – learning content is front and center and allowed to speak for itself.
OPEN is an active learning repository, regularly reviewed and updated by our industry and academic advisory groups. Each topic is also supported by a dynamically responsive quiz. The 500+ quiz questions engage learners through multiple choice, drag-and-drop, hotspot and open math’s problems. With more than 2,000 customized feedback statements, the quizzes assist learners to link knowledge to meaning and develop higher-order thinking. Learners can therefore attempt the quizzes an unlimited number of times.
Learners who successfully complete all the online quizzes with a passing grade of 70% are eligible to be admitted to the Institute of Project Management as a Certified Project Officer (CPO). This Certification is a foundation level project management Certification that can be articulated into higher skills and experience-based Certifications.
Those exceptional learners who attain an overall grade of 100% in the OPEN quizzes are also entered into the Institute of Project Management’s Order of Merit.
OPEN is also mapped to a number of well-known and highly regarded project management methodologies, including:
- PRINCE2
- PMBOK / ISO 21500
- Agile / Scrum / Lean / Kanban
- Extreme programming (XP)
- Waterfall
OPEN nevertheless rejects didactic methodological arguments in favour of educating practitioners on good-practice approaches to optimising their own project performance. In other words, OPEN graduates are not just good at passing tests, they are independent project decision makers capable of critical thinking and taking charge of their own professional self-development.
OPEN is made available as a free, self-paced learning resource that can be studied via a traditional, linear progression. It takes the average learner 30-40 hours to progress through OPEN in this way. Alternately, it can be accessed referentially on a needs basis, independently of a course of study; in fact, many learners continue to use OPEN as a guide long after they have been Certified.
OPEN also acts as the underlying multi-media resource, grounding our instructor led face-to-face and online (webinar) training, and all content can be downloaded or printed for offline viewing.