Information on Project Work

In contrast to most Bachelor programmes in Germany, Cultural Engineering runs for eight semesters of study. Students will devote one semester’s extent of work (30 CP) to transdisciplinary projects with social relevance.

 

Goals

The project module aims at fostering cultural engineers’ specific skill set and their ability to manage interfaces by putting these skills and abilities into practice in transdisciplinary projects. At the basis of the project module are identifying cultural processes or problems, combining cultural studies methodology with methodologies from logistics, economics, and computer sciences, and, finally, implementing them in projects with social relevance. These may be research-oriented projects in an academic context or, fir instance, cultural industry events in cooperation with external partners. In so doing, students will harness and cultivate their abilities to formulate, structure, and research cultural inquiries, to aim their research self-reliantly at user- or product-oriented needs, to plan, implement, and present interdisciplinary projects, and to reflect on and evaluate their own academic work process. Concomitantly, students will learn communication skills and to work in teams. The project module consists of an introduction to project management (PM 37, 5 CP) and project work (PM 38, 25 CP).

 

Introduction to project management

At the start of the second year of studies, students are offered a block seminar (3 semester periods per week) which covers the basic knowledge of project management according to PMI standards. Thus, students will be equipped to recognise differences between different project types in the cultural field and to define SMART project goals, to devise a project plan which covers the main phases, and to adjust the project organisation accordingly. Moreover, the block seminar will cover methods to regulate projects and basic principles of team leadership. Besides working on exemplary projects, students are expected to devise a plan for their own subproject.

 

Project forms

The project module can be completed over the course of several semesters, even cumulatively. This opens up many opportunities both within the university and in cooperation with external partners.

Seminars

Especially in the first semesters it is recommended to embrace the project seminar offers by the different OVGU faculties which are involved in the Cultural Engineering programme. Most of them are of an introductory character in, for instance, cultural studies, IT management, logistics, or economics. Among the recurring course offer the following seminars are recommended:

Student projects

Students can implement their own projects if they are planned independently and grounded empirically. These projects are supposed to aim at working self-reliantly on a cultural studies topic (i.e. develop and work on a social, economic, political, cultural or geographic research question). At the heart of the project is the identification of current cultural phenomena or problems, which are tackled with the help of these academic short-term projects. Thus, analyses during the study abroad lend themselves perfectly to project work as they foster the understanding of foreign cultures. Students can, of course, also design studies which investigate cultural and economic aspects in Magdeburg in an anthropological or socioempirical manner.

In any case, students are recommended to consult with the student advisor before planning their own projects. Furthermore, student projects should ideally be supervised by an academic instructor. The empirical phase of the project should consist of approx. five to ten days and the results should be presented in a project report. As a general rule, these reports should consist of approx. ten pages full text, follow the general form of an academic term paper, be ordered thematically, and include empirical data which the student gathered themselves. The report should conclude with a short list of works cited in order to make the reference to relevant academic literature clear.

Other, also supraregional, examples can be found in the projects database. It is recommended to consult with the student advisor re the project choice. The workload will be credited according to the students’ individual working hours which have to be documented in the portfolio.

Besides the "Introduction to Project Management" (third semester), the key skill module PM 45 "Academic Identity and Conduct" (fourth semester) supports the students’ development of a disciplinary-specific self-image as cultural scientists as well as interdisciplinary communication and creative techniques to develop research ideas and practical projects. The seminars in the module PM 46 "Communication Training" (e.g. "Moderation and Communication Training", "Organisation and Personnel Development for Teamwork") foster project-relevant competencies such as rhetoric, moderation, and presentation skills.

 

Project portfolio

The project work has to be documented in a portfolio in order to record the project steps from planning to completion, document the workload, and to provide evidence for the work carried out. Moreover, the portfolio serves as a reflection of methods and tasks. The presentation of applied and transferred methods should focus on the one hand on project management methods and on the other hand on subject-specific theories, models and methods. The project manual offers help with putting together the portfolio. Please note, however, that the manual offers only guidelines for framing your portfolio and can and should be adapted by you to your project(s) before submission. In particular, the tabular presentation of the individual projects serves only as an overview; you should also frame your projects within a cultural studies question. Please note further that the principles of academic writing also apply to the writing of the project portfolio.

The portfolio should include the following items:

  • Title page
  • Introduction
  • Overview of all projects: Name, duration, workload, tasks/position
  • Individual projects: Short summary of the project, goals and social relevance, project plan, phases, time sheet, explanation of individual tasks, reflection of the lessons learned
  • Conclusion
  • Appendix: Illustrative material such as flyers, pictures, poster designs, social media postings, newspaper articles, etc.

The creation of the portfolio can be included in the workload for the project module with appropriate documentation. As a rule, however, the time for creating the project portfolio should not exceed 28 hours (corresponds to 1 credit point).

 

Presentation

The progress and the results of either one bigger project or several subprojects have to be presented in the context of a public event organised either by the university or the Cultural Engineering student and teaching body. The following regular events are, among others, suitable for presenting a project:

Current events suitable for presenting projects are regularly announced on our website's news section. Besides talks you can use, for instance, academic posters or other means of presentation. Please see the FAQ for further information on the project presentation.

 

Credit recognition

Students will have to present the student advisor with the project portfolio in order to get credits for the project module. The portfolio will have to include evidence for the total workload of 750 hours and the project presentation in order for the student advisor to issue a certificate for 25 CP which has to be submitted to the examination office. For this purpose, please use the examination office's template for the confirmation of module completion.

 

Please turn to the FAQ section to find answers to frequently asked questions with regard to the project modul.

Last Modification: 24.06.2024 - Contact Person: Carsten Kullmann