In December 2019, the online course “Project Management for Local Development – 9”, which is traditionally held every year on the web-based platform Community of Practice for Sustainable Development, was completed.

This year, over 900 participants enrolled in the e-course, which was open to all those interested in the topic.

The peculiarity of this year's course was that in its starting module, the participants were able to choose the level of completion of the e-course: only THEORY or both THEORY + PRACTICE.

Those participants who needed to know "What a “sound” project is; How to prepare it" were able to study course materials, pass tests, ask questions and discuss various issues in the expert environment of the Community of Practice for Sustainable Development.

E-certificates for successful completion of the course “Theoretical Foundations of Project Management for Local Development” were awarded to 234 participants who scored 60 points (out of maximum 100) in the course program.

Participants who sought effective solutions to community problems and tried to develop a competitive project proposal for raising funds, attracting resources and mobilizing the community, as well as for sharing their experience and learning from the experience of other Community members through peer review of project concepts, in addition to learning the Theory, took part in the Workshop on developing and peer-reviewing project concepts.

114 participants completed two stages of the Workshop “Preparing a Local Development Project Concept”:
• each participant developed a concept of his/her project for local development and presented it to other participants for evaluation, and
• took part in the peer review of the concepts: each participant acted as an expert – reviewed three project concepts developed by other participants and provided evaluation and comments.

According to the participants’ feedback, the Workshop significantly increases the effectiveness of eLearning, allows taking a critical look at one’s own concept, at the local problems and opportunities to solve them at a basic level.

As a result of the full completion of the e-course, namely:
• successful completion of the course “Theoretical Foundations of Project Management for Local Development”;
• timely submission of one’s project concept for peer review among the participants of the course and timely evaluation and provision of an expert opinion (feedback) to three concepts prepared by their peers in the Workshop on developing and peer-reviewing project concepts; and obtaining a passing grade of 12 points (out of 24) for the prepared project concept and 8 points (out of 16) for working as an expert,
77 participants received printed certificates on successful completion of the e-course “Project Management for Local Development – 9”.

The innovation of this year's course was the introduction of individual awards for the best expert work on the review and evaluation of three concepts. These printed awards for the best expert work during the Workshop were granted to 13 participants.

Participants of the Community of Practice who took part in the eLearning had a chance to develop their project management competence that will ensure their ability to:
• identify needs and problems in local development, find new approaches to meet the community requirements in line with the priorities of its development strategy;
• formulate the components of a project concept, namely: purpose, project goal, project stakeholders, their needs and requirements for the project product, project decisions, expected results, main activities of the project and project implementation stages, necessary resources, risks and sustainability factors project results;
• formulate the components of the project concept, namely: project goal and objective, its purpose, project stakeholders, their needs and requirements for the project product, project solutions, expected results, main types of project activities and project implementation stages, necessary resources, risks and factors that guarantee the sustainability of project outcomes;
• evaluate the content of components of the local development project concepts and provide recommendations for their improvement;
• communicate and share experience with fellow practitioners and experts in the Community of Practice;
• disseminate good practice of managing by projects in their organizations and communities (hromadas).

As a result of the course, communities (hromadas) across Ukraine will be able to have new ideas, to develop and successfully implement programs and projects aimed at ensuring sustainable development!