PPDI5039 Autumn 2018: Project Report and Learning Contract

This document presents a comprehensive project report and learning contract developed for the PPDI5039 module. The project focuses on a crowdfunding initiative, specifically aimed at raising awareness and funds for disabled students, particularly those with autism. The report details the project's context, literature review, project phases, and skills developed. The literature review incorporates models such as the Gibbs Reflective Cycle and Kolb's Learning Cycle to analyze the project's progress and outcomes. The project phases include planning, proposal development, platform selection, and financial management. The report also highlights the development of key skills, including loyalty, problem-solving, and innovation. Furthermore, it provides a reflective analysis of actions taken and not taken during the project, evaluating the effectiveness of the crowdfunding approach and suggesting areas for improvement. The learning contract outlines the project's aims, objectives, and assessment criteria, ensuring alignment with the module's learning outcomes.

TASK1
Learning Contract Level 5 Project
Section 1: Student and course details
Name:
Tutor:
Project/Placement name:
Section 2: Focus
Aim/Problem Statement
Learning Outcomes
As a result of this project I am able:
1. Build a portfolio of evidence using a range of methodologies and activities (log
books; critical incident diaries; employer or supervisor feedback).
2. Identify and articulate the development of work related skills mapped to
evidence drawn from either the project or placement.
3. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the background and context
relative to the chosen project or placement opportunity.
4. Evaluate the effectiveness of preparation and planning undertaken prior to the
placement or project implementation.
5.
6.

Section 3: Justification

Section 4: Methods
I have chosen the project………….because
Section 5: Timetable

Section 6: Evidence of accomplishment
By the end of this project I will produce a portfolio containing:
The learning contract and associated appendices
Project report
Supporting evidence (log books, critical incident diaries, and employer and/or Tutor
feedback)
Section 7: References

Section 8: List of appendices to this learning contract
What is a Learning Contract/Agreement/Plan?

It is a formal document that defines what is expected from you while working on the
work based project. The learning contract sets out the parameters for the task that
you are expected to undertake so as to meet the assessment criteria (learning
outcomes). You would need to focus on the elements given in the above proforma
for learning and delineate the details in the learning contract/plan and focus on the
following key generic components:
 What are you going to learn?
 How are you going to learn it?
 What objectives are you going to set?
 What are the target date(s) for each activity and completion?
 How are you going to know that you have learned and achieved the set
objectives?
 What evidence are you going to generate to prove that you have learned it?
This is your responsibility to tailor the above learning contract to the case study. You
are required to explicityly articulate what objectives you are going to set, what
activities would be undertaken, which sources of information or data need to be
collected to ensure that the learning outcomes are achieved. You would need to
discuss and seek guidelines from Tutors/supervisors. You would need to agree
/negotiate the learning contract with your Tutor/supervisor, include the signed copy
of the learning contract in final submission and submit it along with the portfolio. It is
to ensure that transparent, feasible and verifiable set of activities are established in
the learning contract which enables you to meet the learning outcomes of the
Module and achieves the assessment criteria.
Signed: Tutor/Supervisor
Signed: Student
Date:
(Insert ethics form as well)

TASK2
Project Report Level 5 Project
1. Context/Background
This project is based on “Hope for Children Project”. This project is based on raising
of awareness for disabled students and especially for autism students. There is a
large population of minority in the United States, which have some special needs.
There are a lot of people who are different from each other in some or other ways.
This project is based on helping the disabled children by understanding their needs,
interacting with them and building a rich culture around them. The project deals with
raising of funds for the children, which would be put together for creating a wonderful
and healthy atmosphere around them (Begoli, DeFalco and Ogle 2018). The main
concentration of the project is based on helping these children to learn activities,
which would help in creating a difference in their lives. The project based on
crowdfunding would be able to collect funds from people who would be willing to help
these children. In the recent times, the activities based on crowdfunding has been
rapidly changing. This form of activity has the potential to disrupt the involvement of
people in good causes for the society. The activities within crowdfunding help in
boosting volunteering activities and raising awareness within the society (Meier-Popa
and Rusu 2015). Despite the activities based on crowdfunding, community groups,
charities and different social entrepreneurs would be responsible for making the best
use of each opportunity. This would help in enhancing the quality of life of the people
and would also bring changes within the society.
2. Literature Review (models and theories)
Crowdfunding is defined as a method based on collection of funds from a wide
number of public based on supporting some social causes and for the welfare of the
people. The different kinds of projects based on this project would range from
magnitude and goal (Gold 2017). Some of the supporting theories that have been
helpful for supporting me in this project is: Gibbs Reflective Cycle and The Kolb’s
Learning Cycle.
Based on the objectives from the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, it has been useful for
making me to think of each of the phases of any kind of experience or activity that
have been performed by me within this project. Based on the overview of the entire
event, I have been able to produce the experience gained from that activity (Schrag
2015). This kind of theory has been able to help me in evaluating the learning
outcomes of the conducted activity.

This Gibbs Reflective Cycle had divided the entire scenario in six stages. This
included:
Description – In this scenario, I have been able to describe the entire aspect of
crowdfunding and the ways in which this aspect could be helpful for benefiting the
society (Vealey and Gerding 2016). I had described the entire scenario to the people
to whom I was approaching. Based on my description of the scenario, people were
able to understand the needs of such events and thus had contributed a little portion
for these children.
Feelings – After the conduction of the activity, I have been able to put forward my
thoughts and feelings based on the conducted activity of crowdfunding. During the
conduction of crowdfunding, I had gathered several experiences from different
people. This has majorly helped me to relate myself with the students who are in
such need of money. I had also learnt about the ways in which different people
would think of these autistic children and donate a little portion of their hard-earned
money for these children.
Evaluation – Based on the conducted event, I have been able to understand and
evaluate various sections that needs to be assessed. The event of crowdfunding had
gave me a positive experience and has also let me to understand the important
aspects related to crowdfunding. My experiences have also led me to understand
about the ways in which I have to approach to people in order to gain their attention
related to my project. There was no such bad experiences for me as I had got help
from maximum people. My approach to them was on a positive side and they had
the urge to help me to fulfil my project.
Analysis – Based on the analysis of my situation, I have gained enough self-
confidence from the report. I have overcome my fear for approaching of people and
making my point to be clear in front of them. Based on my analysing of this particular
role, I have been able to understand that I should be able to cooperate with others in
order to expect high cooperation from them.
Another theory, which I have made use of is the Kolb’s Learning Cycle. This theory
has a clear form of indication that the amount of learning that could be done based
on reflective observation.
The Kolb’s Learning Cycle has helped me to understand the situation based on
certain perspectives:
Experience – This stage within the learning model has made me to understand to
experience new things as there are enough of opportunities. During my experiences
of crowdfunding, I have been able to gain several kind of experiences. I have met
with several people and have shared my idea of crowdfunding. They have kept faith
on me and donated for this noble cause.

Reflect – Based on my experience, I have been able to reflect on the scenario that
have been done by me. I have been trained to perform a reflective analysis of the
entire situation.
Conceptualise – based on the reflections made by me, I have generated a kind of
hypothesis about the meaning formed from my experiences of the crowdfunding
event.
Plan – In this stage, I have been able to plan the next stages of actions that have to
be performed by me after the entire activity of crowdfunding have been performed by
me (Migdadi et al. 2017). This had included the use of my social perception skills in
order to build a good form of rapport with people.
3. Project Phases
Based on the reflections and ideas gained, I have been able to plan the entire project
phases of crowdfunding (Lee 2018). The different phases of my project had included
the setting up of a proper plan for the development of the project, development of a
project proposal, making use of a reputable crowdfunding site and generation of a
banking system meant for collection of money (Berliner and Kenworthy 2017). A
reputable crowdfunding website would be able to put forward the idea of the event
and thus would attract the attention of the people.
4. Skills Developed
Based on the conduction of events, I have been able to develop some kind of skills. I
have been able to develop skills based on being loyal to the people who have
donated money for the affected children (Fund 2016). I should be benevolent to them
who have taken the urge to help me in gaining lots of funds for the people.
I also gained skills based on problem solving. During the conduction of my
crowdfunding activity, I had come across various problematic situations (O'Malley
2014). With the help of problem-solving skills, I have been able to solve the various
situations of problems.
I have also learnt to develop new kind of skills and innovative suggestions to provide
too my team members. This would help in overcoming any form of challenges or
hurdles.
5. Your actions taken/not taken
The main kind of problem that was evaluated in the first case and existed within the
project needed a proper working environment for the Crowdfunding of the platform
(Serianni, Eley and Cannon 2017). If I have to evaluate the entire project on the
actions that has been taken and that have been not taken based on the discuss
problems my analysis would follow the Gibbs reflective cycle and based on that I
would elaborate further as follows:

What happened?: The first task that was to be evaluated by me for understanding
the right platform needed for the project is the understanding of the entire project to
ensure the decision that I would take while I undertake the project. Since I am
working on a platform I would also focus on the large section of audience that the
platform would appeal to manner (Ballesteros-Sola, Stickney and Trejo 2018). This
was what had happened as a precursor since I wanted to create an online platform.
What were you thinking and feeling?: The first thing that I had been thinking about
the entire project was the Crowdfunding and the people the platform would appeal to
over the internet to make them donate money for this noble cause.
What was good and bad about the experience?: The thing that was good about this
experience was my realisation of understanding the funding required for the entire
project and how would the entire project appeal to the people to make them invest in
this noble cause (Van Vleck 2015). The bad experience about this experience was
my realisation that there has to be much more research done on the entire project to
understand what would exactly appeal to the mass or whom the online platform is
going to be appealing to. I would say that this experience is bad because I have
realised that even if I try to my full potential there still would be people who would not
donate money since the donation for this online platform would not access them to
any monetary gains but it was only for a charitable reason.
What sense can you make about the situation?: From the situation I can easily sense
that there is a sorrow need for donation from the audience and it should be cleared
before them with proper evidences and the project should be clearly transfer into the
target audience. I would make sure that people who want to donate money to the
project is offering for an unusual or an interesting reward with the donation of money.
To continue with this they should effectively be clear to everything they are spending
their money for (Van Vleck 2015). They need for spending in the money with proper
realisation about the exact time frame and target table would add value to the
charitable cause.
What else could you have done?: With the entire study of the project and the task
that I have done in the actions that I have not taken can be justified with the other
actions that I would have taken. For this I would like to entrail upon a proper
campaign to make all the investors understand what the exactly investing in and
what would their possible outcomes be. with the help of these campaigns I would not
only reached the people who are already willing to invest in my project but the
campaign would also focus on targeting the audiences as much as possible to make
sure that most number of potential customers are gained from these campaigns.
From the aspect of the customers as well all the expectations would be made from
the perspective of the business.
If it arose again what would you do?: If the problem arose based on the management
of the expectation and delivering of the best possible outcomes the Crowdfunding
event can be considered to go through a one on one meeting to make sure what the

investors are probably looking for and what I am falling short of delivering to them.
Due to this it would be understandable about the development of a realistic time
frame and the understanding of certain problems with delivering of the rewards. On
the other hand I would also be ready to build a reasonable buffer within this time
period so that it can allow much more accurate expectation outcomes that would be
set for the supporters of the campaign.
6. Project Learning
The learning outcome for the project learning that I have reached so far based on the
gathered information from the above project can be concluded by saying that
Crowdfunding has been a form of an activity which has been open online happening
to be an institution, individual, a company or a non-profit organisation which has the
potential to propose day needs to the wider community. The learning that I have
gathered so far is that the individuals had a wider set of knowledge, size and
heterogeneity an undertaking of the task had a variable form of modularity and
complexity that would always entail the mutual benefit towards the cause.
Crowdfunding event and the camping that I am going to present to the general mass
would be about the maximum awareness for the disabled students and my
willingness of enabling an online platform to help them attain their knowledge via the
internet. In this way I can define Crowdfunding as a noble cause and the collective
effort for offering a large group of people. I would want to establish a network for
helping the disabled children be open to the pool of different resources for them via
the platform of internet. I would even like to help the autistic children's to use these
hai resources for achieving success for the event of Crowdfunding. All the works that
I would perform within this event would be based on the works that I have
understood as a fact by studying various events which are non profit in nature and I
meant for a noble cause.
Everything that I would perform in this event would follow the mechanism that social
networking sites uses as well. It would extend somewhat beyond social networking
site as far as I have thought in my mind, since it would not be a part of a web
platform created for incorporating everybody but it would have the participation of the
special and disabled children. through the theories that I have applied to my entire
study for making the campaign possible would utilise the event to promote disability
and overcoming them through internet every time I visit school, colleges or
universities and even different organisations. I would also like to say that on the
basis of this context I would ask the people to propose better solution for the event
by taking random feedback from them and store them that their feedback would be
adding up to the betterment of the online platform. Based on the theories that I have
studied through the research process and reflected up on myself during the study, I
would also start collecting funds. However, if I find that somewhere the collected
fund is sufficient enough to satisfy the needs of the event the massive collection of
the funds would be utilised for all the people who have taken out the time to donate
the amount of money and contribute for the event to be successful. What I have

learnt from preparing and presenting the entire event of Crowdfunding, have been
beneficial for enhancing my idea about the necessity and detailed description of
event and I have also understood that this event can emerge as a form of
consequence while improvement in the existing situation is required.