PROMOTING COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY USING PROGRESSIVE CASES: DEVELOPING PROJECT MANAGEMENT SKILLS BY INTRODUCING AUTHENTIC AND UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES

Progressive cases, cases with changing constraints during a learning process, were used in an online, graduate, project management (PM) course for instructional design (ID) and education students. The ongoing developmental study investigates how introducing authentic and unexpected challenges, zingers, to cases may promote cognitive flexibility (CF) and develop deeper PM knowledge and skills. Researchers collected course documents (discussion boards, project drafts, and final exams), recorded synchronous video sessions, and administered the Cognitive Flexibility Scale [1]. Preliminary review of the data suggests that progressive cases may prompt students to deal with changing problem constraints.