PM-Mastery

Exploring Angela Thurman's Innovative Project Management Learning Platform

• Walt Sparling • Season 1 • Episode 45

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In This Episode:

Join us for another insightful session as we reconnect with Angela Thurman, making a third appearance on the PM Mastery podcast. Angela, with her rich background in aerospace and telecommunications, gives us a walkthrough of her history from an electrical engineer to the founder of a project management consulting firm. We discuss her latest venture - a robust Learning Management System (LMS) she introduced on her website aiming to provide project management training to clients and more.

We discussed Angela's unique LMS, a white-label product designed to nurture essential project management skills. The platform is a treasure trove of resources, encapsulating self-paced courses on project management essentials and core project management skills curated with Angela's expert insights. Tune in to discover how Angela's platform includes learning with gamified features, fosters student interaction, and offers a versatile learning pace catering to both aspiring project managers and seasoned experts.

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Intro/Outro:

Welcome to the PM Mastery podcast. This podcast is all about helping you master your project management skills by sharing tips, tricks, tools and training to get you to the next level, while sharing the stories of other project managers on their journey in project management. Now here's your host, Walt Sparling.

Walt Sparling:

So welcome everybody to the current edition of PM Mastery. Today I have back for the third time Angela Thurman. Welcome, angela.

Angela Thurman:

Hi, walt, glad to be here. Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Walt Sparling:

My pleasure. So Angela was first on in episode 16, which was a standard interview, and then she came back again in episode 25 to talk about the difference between the big A and the little A of agile. So that was good. And today she's back to talk about her new learning management system that she just launched on her website recently, and we're going to learn a little more about it.

Angela Thurman:

Well, thank you.

Walt Sparling:

Alright, so first of all, real briefly, because you've interviewed before, but just what do you do? And then we'll launch into talking a little bit about your new product.

Angela Thurman:

Okay, so I'm an electrical engineer, my background is primarily in aerospace and telecommunications and I have a 30 plus year career in technical project management, and in 2010, I got my PMP, and shortly before I went to work no wait in 2009,. I got my PMP in 2009. And then in 2010, I went to work for a major aerospace company and worked as a subcontracts program manager. So I was working on large, complex products that were later integrated into the systems that my company sold to the OEMs like Boeing and Airbus, bombardier and all the other manufacturers of aircraft.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, and now?

Angela Thurman:

And now, after finding myself without a job at the end of 2020, I reevaluated what it was I wanted to do with my life and I decided to launch my own project management consulting firm here in Houston, and I have a team of PMs that work with me and we do all types of project management. One of the PMs really enjoys the more of the software side of life implementations of ERP systems and CRMs, other types of software products and then one of the PMs really he's more of the building construction and road product projects, utilities, those kinds of things and I like still the new product introduction, supplier management and those types of projects.

Walt Sparling:

And now you've launched a learning management system.

Angela Thurman:

Yes.

Walt Sparling:

And that's what we're here to talk about today.

Angela Thurman:

Yeah. So I've been getting calls from time to time about offering project management training and I was always like, well, no, no, I do the project management, I don't teach it. And then at one point I'm like, well, why, why don't I teach it, why don't I have project management training? And the opportunity came across my desk to partner with an organization that had a really robust back office system that I could basically white label, and I took a look at their offering and I decided I didn't want to just reuse their content. I just wanted to create my own content and use their platform. And so, after months of creating that content, as of last Friday we decided to go live, and so Friday we published the training page from our website. It links to the LMS website and we have our first customer already, so I'm really, really excited about it.

Walt Sparling:

And I've seen a little bit of it, and right now you're starting out with project management essentials.

Angela Thurman:

Yes.

Walt Sparling:

And you plan to go from there and launch into other areas, but focused on project management.

Angela Thurman:

Right. So that's my core skill, my background, what I know best and what people identify me for. So I'm not going to be teaching, you know, hr Gotcha. I'm going to stick to project management and also those core skills that a project manager should have to be a better project manager, time management, communication skills. One of the courses that's on the platform right now is motivating a team. These are essential skills for a project manager to have, besides all of the more technical project management skills like balancing a budget and building a schedule.

Walt Sparling:

So all key things to know.

Angela Thurman:

Yes, so right now we have 10 project management essentials on the platform and I've already drafted out the next 20 courses and I'm ready to start writing those transcripts. And then the team that develops the video content. They're ready to go as well. Okay so it's just a matter of getting enough hours in the day to do everything.

Walt Sparling:

Oh, I hear you, so why don't we start? I mean, we did a little walk through earlier, but if we could start at your homepage, show us how the people would connect to it, then we can jump over to the learning management page and talk a little bit about that.

Angela Thurman:

So this is the Thurman Co website and you can see here is our bar to look at all of our content and here's the new training page. So if you click on the training page link it brings up, this is our new content that was just published last Friday. It introduces you to Our training. Our learning management system tells you what our courses are designed for, who they're designed for and what each course contains. So each course will have a video that is 15 to 30 minutes long and then the the course also includes a transcript of that video. So you can it's a PDF file, you can download it for study purposes.

Angela Thurman:

And then there's a quiz. But before you can complete the quiz you have to do your homework. So there are some assignments associated with each of the courses. Part of those those assignments one is more reflective, more of a self-evaluation type of assignment, and that doesn't have to be graded, so you can immediately go on to the next set of activities which do have to be graded. So there is some interaction between the students and the instructor, which at this point is me, and then, once the assignments are completed, you can begin the quiz. Each of the quizzes is a five-question multiple choice quiz. It's not anything that's meant to be tricky or overly burdensome. It's just a final caption to ensure that you understand the content.

Walt Sparling:

Right, that makes sense.

Angela Thurman:

Yeah, and then once for someone that has already enrolled in the course, then clicking here will take you to the LMS site and you can see here I've already, I'm enrolled here as a learner. And these are the 10 courses, the essentials, that are already on the site. These are active. Anyone can enroll and begin to take these courses.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, so you have all of the courses up here once, because you've paid the full price, so you have access to all of them.

Angela Thurman:

I do. I do see you're behind. Yes, yes, I am, I'm behind.

Walt Sparling:

But I'm betting you know the material since you created the course.

Angela Thurman:

Since I created the course, I do know the material.

Walt Sparling:

All right. So You've got a couple things. Okay, you've got your course catalog, which is basically in front of us. You can track your progress, you can join a group or a discussion, and then there's a calendar. Can you tell us a little bit about what those are for?

Angela Thurman:

Absolutely so. Tracking your progress, you can see if I think it's well, this will help here. So this I love how all the graphics work. You can see how many times I've logged in course completions. Now I've only 1.1% completed all my assignments. But I love how there's a lot of gamification involved with this platform and you can see all the different badges I've recently earned. You could compare me to others that are that are in the platform as well. Oh so, different points level. You know point levels and I can compare, you know, over the month, the week, just yesterday, and here are my total points earned. I Could view this as an infographic as well. It is 100%.

Walt Sparling:

Good deal.

Angela Thurman:

So I really I mean I, I love how this, this is all, all contained in in the platform, mm-hmm, and I can see my certificates. And then we look at my, my groups. I have a. I have a group set up for beta testers right now. Here's where I have messages in and out. So we mentioned the, the discussions and joining a group. Let me just do a quick search here. Here we go so I can create a group, or students can even create a group. If you wanted to create a Study group with your fellow students, or if I wanted to create a cohort For students that are going to launch Into a learning path at the same time, we can do that. We also have the calendar. So let's say that I was going to host a webinar at at the midpoint of this learning path that would host a special topic or just some Some special discussion. I could, I could schedule that here in the platform as well.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, there's a lot of communication Available within the platform and then it it's connected, so you would get it gets delivered to your email and you're just getting started with this, so I'm sure as you get into it more it will develop and get even better, as you yes get your feet under you there, so that's awesome so one of the things I wanted to just just bring up to is, under the more we've got this schedule tutorial hours and we're planning on moving a button down here to make it more obvious.

Angela Thurman:

but one of the things that differentiates my LMS from Others is that I'm actually planning I actually already have it in my calendar is twice a week I have reserve time to host live Tutorial hours with the students so they can come here, they can schedule tutorial hours. This actually takes them to my, it takes you to my Zoom and you can choose a date and a time so you can enter your name and email address and register for my tutorial hours.

Walt Sparling:

Okay.

Angela Thurman:

So I really think that that is something that students will find useful. So if they have questions about, let's say, agile, the difference between Big A and Little A, you can schedule a meeting with me during my tutorial hours to have a further discussion about that. Or let's say, I didn't understand the difference between critical path method and critical chain method. Can we go over that? Of course, we can Sign up for a time during tutorial hours. It's already pre-scheduled in my Zoom calendar and we can talk about it.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, and you have different pricing structures depending on how many courses are taken. If you do a package, you can get some further detail or discounts.

Angela Thurman:

I should say Of course, yes, okay. So obviously, if you just want to tip your toe in the water, you can register for one class, and that's $99. And now you can't just leave that indefinitely. You probably should expect to complete that within, say, three months, but we can talk about it if something is preventing you from completing the class. So one single class is $99. And then, if you choose to sign up for a package deal, we do have different levels for five classes, 10 classes, 25 classes and even a monthly subscription. So all of those have different prices. I'd be happy to discuss those with anyone that has questions, and you can reach me through my website, just by hitting the Contact Us page.

Walt Sparling:

Okay.

Angela Thurman:

That'll send me an email, or you can even phone me.

Walt Sparling:

So we have 10 active. You've got 20 more planned that you're working through, which will be up at some point soon. $99. Single course discounts when you do multiples. Join groups, get tutor, or what do you call them tutoring? Was it tutoring?

Angela Thurman:

hours Tutorial hours yes.

Walt Sparling:

Okay and so on the oh, and I think the big thing is they're actually worth PDUs.

Angela Thurman:

Yes, each course is made up of a video, and then there is the assignments and the quiz, and my intention is that it would be at least a half an hour to complete all of those things. So you should be able to earn at least a half of a PDU through each class, and some may be long.

Walt Sparling:

Okay, so I will include a link to your website and a link to your LMS page and a link to your LinkedIn profile. So people want to learn a little more about you individually, and I'll also throw in your past two episodes so they can go back and listen to those if they'd like. Maybe learn a little more about the big A versus the little A in that job. Anything else you want to add?

Angela Thurman:

Well, one thing I would like to say is that all of these videos feature a generative AI avatar as the presenter, because one thing I wanted to introduce was this element of DEI. So, rather than watching me present all of this content, hours and hours of content we're using this avatar, and it's different avatars for different courses, so when you start the course, you don't necessarily know who's going to present today. So one day it may be this young Asian woman and tomorrow it may be an older African-American gentleman. So it brings about a certain element of fun as well, and I just really like that. It makes it a lot easier to produce the videos, because the avatar sticks to the script and they're not saying, um, okay, you know every other phrase and it just, it just is a lot more fun. I think that that also will be interesting and encourage people to try this new LMS as well.

Walt Sparling:

Okay.

Angela Thurman:

So you've got the avatar, you've got gamification, you've got this great back office. See, there I go um. You've got the great back office to show you your progress, and there's the communication within the tool, as well as having the tutorial hours for one or one or small group communication about any specific questions you might have. So it's a little bit different than your standard online LMS and hopefully the students and clients will find value in that.

Walt Sparling:

Well, I'm looking forward to checking it out.

Angela Thurman:

Thank you.

Walt Sparling:

All right, Unless you have some more information, I think we're good. I'm going to go ahead and get your information put together, get your links out there and get it shared. We'll probably have it out, I'd say, in the next week or two. I've got a couple other episodes that are going to come out, but we'll get it posted and in the meantime I'll check out the uh, the LMS system.

Angela Thurman:

Thank you all. It's been great talking to you.

Walt Sparling:

Thank you, Angela, For everyone else. We'll see you on the next episode of PM Mastery.

Intro/Outro:

Thanks for listening to the PM Mastery podcast at wwwpm-masterycom. Be sure to subscribe in your podcast play. Until next time, keep working on your project.