March 2019

Beach University was a collaboration between Bournemouth University students from the MSc Management with Project Management and a team of second-year students from the BA (Hons) Event Management course that was supported by PMI (UK) South East Branch. A one-day industry engagement event took place in March 2019 that brought together students and project professionals to share new ideas and discuss feedback.

In October 2018 students from the MSc Management with Project Management were set the challenge of creating educational resources to help Project Managers develop new competencies and behaviours that are required for sustainability using virtual reality.

Projects can be planned and implemented in a virtual world. Virtual reality software such as ‘Second Life’ and ‘Minecraft’ can be used to create simulations for the practice of project management, such as building a house, project planning, team working, stakeholder engagement etc. A virtual world provides an opportunity for participants to experience alternative ways of being through an avatar.

In a virtual environment, an avatar can take on a role and behave in ways that may not be possible in the external world. There is the potential to practice project management within an environment that is much safer and without the physical consequences associated with practice in the external world. A situation or scenario can be experienced from different perspectives, and the consequences of different behaviours and decisions can be explored.

Students worked in small teams to create scenarios that could be implemented in a virtual simulation. Beach University was the culmination of the students’ projects where they presented their work to project professionals, received valuable feedback and had the opportunity to practice their networking skills.

We started the day indoors at our Lansdowne campus with introductions and talk by guest speaker Mark Crisp of DXC Technology and a volunteer from PMI (UK) South region.

Other visitors included Russel Jamieson and Elizabeth Russel both from the Wessex Branch of APM (Association for Project Management, the professional body for the project profession in the UK), Wendy Drake from the University PMO, and games designer Stuart Connor.

Practitioners and students working on a simulation in the classroom.

After the introductions, some of the scenarios built by project management students were then experienced first hand by the practitioners.

A walk down to the sea front and along the beach was next on the agenda. Along with organising the whole day, the Event Management students facilitated the walk and ensured that everyone arrived safely at the Pier View Room, near Boscombe Pier.

Project Management and Event Management students

Walking meetings and informal networking were included. There is anecdotal evidence suggesting that walking meetings are good for brainstorming, increased honesty and boosting productivity, and have been prescribed by Public Health England as an antidote to a sedentary lifestyle. Research has found that walking increases creative thinking (by 5.25%) and cognitive engagement (8.5% increase, see Harvard Business Review).

Our rationale for going to the beach was to help us to connect with our natural environment. There’s plenty of evidence that exposure to nature is good for people’s health, well-being and happiness.

We were grateful for good weather and arrived at the Pier View Room to a warm welcome by the Event Management students who had been preparing for our arrival and lunch overlooking the sea.

After lunch, there were more demonstrations of virtual reality scenarios by the project management students. Some of the practitioners then had the difficult task of judging the work of the project management student teams and selecting the best project. While the judges were deliberating, Shirley Thompson, another PMI (UK) volunteer ran an interactive session on “Listening with Intention”.

Prizes for the best project were then awarded by PMI (UK) Volunteer, Mark Crisp. To finish the day there was a yoga and meditation session on the sand (sadly I don’t have any photos - sorry).

Watching a presentation at the Pier View Room

Mark Crisp (PMI UK) awards prizes for the best project

Epilogue

Work undertaken by the students provided a proof-of-concept demonstration for the role of virtual reality simulations in developing new competencies for project management. Using this experience, we have since developed a bid for funding to research to develop, test and implement at least two scenarios in virtual reality. As of March 2020, we are pleased to announce that the bid was successful. The start of the project has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and is now expected to commence in September 2020.