Project Management in the Public Area is the art of finding effective solutions and compromise.

It was the fifth time that the Swiss-Ukrainian Decentralization Support Project (DESPRO) invited the representatives of local authorities and public to take part in the training on Project Management, in experience exchange and cooperation aimed at the development of communities and regions, in order to acquire competence in practical exercises on preparation of projects and involvement of stakeholders. Thus, in December 2015, the branded e-course Project Management for Local and Regional Development(hereinafter – “PM-5”) was finished, after it lasted five weeks on the e-platform of the Community of Practice on Local Self-Government udl.despro.org.ua. More than 700 participants enrolled in the e-course, and 185 of them can be congratulated on its successful completion. It should be noted that with each course the number of participants increases, the activists from the previous e-courses support the pitch of discussions in forums and help those for whom it is their first experience of eLearning.

Tutors, experts, lawyers, representatives of the Regional Reforms’ Offices have ensured continuous and effective learning process in the e-course, with the support of facilitators – active participants of the previous e-courses, who were invited by the organizers to try themselves in a new role.

The course consisted of four modules: Project Management in the Public Area; Basics of Project Analysis; Planning and Monitoring of Project Implementation; Budgeting and Funding Sources for a Project. The peculiarity of the e-course “PM-5” was its new – 24/7 – format of learning. The participants had the opportunity to study the materials and pass tests to the particular module at any time comfortable for him/her and were receiving access to the materials of the next module after they passed the tests in the previous module.

In addition to the tests, tutors offered the participants an interesting individual task where learners had to analyse the concepts of existing projects and to offer their own variant, adapted to the realities of the respective community. The best individual works of the participants were posted on the main page of the course so that other interested participants could get acquainted with them.

Besides, the participants of the “PM-5” course had the opportunity to join a team working on the case studies, after they selected one of the seven cases proposed by the experts. The cases varied in subjects and the levels of difficulty: Creating a cultural centre for the development of the amalgamated territorial community; Creating the integrated waste management system through cooperation of local communities; Creating a service cooperative for the collection, cooling and partial processing of milk received from dairy farms of the community members; Creating the agricultural production-and-sales complex (“From Farm to Fork” cluster); Creating a municipal energy service communal enterprise; Developing the Concept for improving the quality of service in the Centre forproviding administrative services (CPAS); Forming the network of integrated CPASs for the united territorial communities (UTC). After working for two weeks, the teams received the experts’ comments to their presented works, and also extended their cooperation and friendship outside the course. There were other teams that barely reached the finish line. Nevertheless, it will be a useful experience for each members of the teamwork when they start forming their own teams and implement their own projects.

Special attention during the learning process in e-courses is paid to forums. The e-course participants note that even if they skip some practical tasks or tests, they can get all necessary knowledge in forums where experts, lawyers, and other participants share their knowledge and experience. The e-course “PM-5” had the whole range of various forums:

• renowned experts provided answers to the crucial questions the participants had concerning the specific features of local development projects, preparation of projects using the state budget funds, prospects of the investment development of a united territorial community, cluster technology in managing local development;
  

• the ‘Legal Advice’ Forum offered this time to the participants opportunities to explore the issues related to the procedures and regulations, support of the activities of permanent and temporary committees of district (rayon) and regional (oblast) councils, specific activities of village, settlement and city (small town) councils in terms of regulation of their work;
• in the forums of Directors of the Regional Reforms’ Offices, the participants discussed the mechanisms and tools used to achieve economic, legal and social sustainability of communities and councils which create amalgamated territorial communities, the provision of administrative services in amalgamated communities;
  
• forums on the course materials were functioning throughout the e-course duration, where the participants had the opportunity to discuss the course materials with tutors, according to four main modules of the e-course;
  

• one of the most valuable gains was the Forum of participants with its discussions opened by the course participants themselves. They raised a lot of topical issues, and they also offered no fewer options to address them, the diversity of ideas and project proposals.

Although the “PM-5” has come to its finish and has already become history, those interested can learn from its achievements: the course materials will be publicly available for the participants of the Community of Practice on Local Self-Government from January 2016 onwards (one can join the Community at any convenient time).

In this case the newcomers will not get feedback on the individual and team tasks or communicate with the e-course experts, but the Forum of participants continues there as well as the e-course materials and possibility to check the knowledge with tests.

The value of the Community of Practice on Local Self-Government has been and will be the exchange of experience, knowledge, and ideas, networking and establishing new relationships between the participants as well as starting new joint projects. The Community of Practice on Local Self-Government and materials of the e-course “PM-5” will be useful to all those who work for the development of their territorial communities.