13. What are your plans for handling project risks (e.g. conflict resolution processes)?

A realistic and therefore effective project management implies risk management, too. Thinking that
a good project planning, a harmonious communication among partners and a careful use of
resources is sufficient for a successful implementation of the project is wrong.
Therefore, the team members will make, before the project starts, a risk management plan: first,
they will identify the potential risks, at transnational level and within their schools; then, they will
analyse risks at the team meetings, this being a priority both for the project manager and the
partners. A permanent communication through email, facebook and Skype will help partners discuss
upon any critical situation that might occur. Also, the project coordinator will register project risks
into the project diary. This will enable him to track risks and generate responses.
We will take into consideration
Risks in planning the project:
- overestimated objectives and unrealistic project outcomes could lead to underachievement in the
projects results. To prevent this, we carefully established clear and achievable project aims by
considering the needs, the possibilities and the expectations of the target groups. At the same time,
we had in view the priorities of the European Commission for education and the fact that other
potential beneficiaries, educational institutions and NGOs, could be interested in the projects
results. Activity planning, task distribution and outcomes were together decided during the process
of conceiving the project. Each partner chose those responsibilities that he considered achievable
within his school. All project outcomes imply the participation of all partners, but each partner is
responsible for the finalization of one of them, as chosen. If some external risks occur for a partner
jeopardizing the project activities or results, another partner will take responsibility for carrying out
the given task.
- overloaded tasks that do not match the partners strengths; this could lead to delays and low
quality work in running the project. Therefore, the project activities and products were designed so
that they could be easily attained, not to mention the fact that all partners have experienced teams,
of both teachers and students, in developing transnational projects and journalistic activities. But, if
any problems are perceived, we are ready to reconsider the activity planning and redistribute the
tasks, in order to bring recovery and efficiency to our work.
- schedule, resources, and outcomes might not be in balance, therefore the set deadlines cannot be
met. Considering this, we precisely planned the calendar of activities and granted sufficient time
and human resources to produce the project outcomes. The project coordinator will strictly monitor
the balance by asking the partners to report monthly on the positive and negative findings, which
are to be introduced by him in the evaluation fact-sheet.
Risks in project management:
- bad budget management could endanger the finalization of some outcomes. Our project aims
mainly at multimedia products which require minimum costs because the necessary equipment
already exists in the partner schools. The common newspaper brought out in annual editions and the
Guide to Good Practices, one in print for each partner country, will be subject to exceptional costs.
Regarding teachers and students mobilities we agreed on the cheapest accommodation for the
participants. To conclude, we had in view feasible cost estimations in order to avoid budget overrun.

- project activities do not meet the stakeholders interests or expectations, resulting in poor project
implementation. Before deciding on the project objectives, activities and products, each partner
undertook a research in the needs of the target groups. This action will continue all along the project
and the findings will be reported at the team meetings. We will also pay much attention to
information management: the stakeholders will receive sufficient information about the project
through attractive promotional materials.
Risks in managing the teamwork:
- conflict resolution between team members; conflicts between team members can cause poor
communication, poor designs and extra rework; unless the problem is solved, it damages overall
team motivation. The project coordinator plays an important role. He is the one to save
relationships, time and resources. Therefore, he will: 1. promote mutual respect and courteous
behaviour; 2. find out information about each partners interests to really understand how the
problem is affecting him; 3. identify the problem and then bring the partners together for a
brainstorming session to resolve it, making everyone understand they are part of the solution; 4.
negotiate a solution and remind the partners that the whole team struggles for a common goal.
Above all, keeping team members motivated is the best way to avoid disagreements.

14. Which activities and indicators of achievement (quantitative and qualitative) will you put
in place in order to assess whether and to what extent, the project reaches its objectives and
results?
A plan of performance measurement in developing the project has been from the start a concern for
us. Therefore, we decided together on the following activities and performance indicators which
will give us a clear feedback on the progress of the project:
- improvements in developing childrens lifelong abilities with reference to self-confidence, selfesteem, adaptability, spontaneity, self-motivation will be the subject to a survey in each partner
school, through personality questionnaires applied to all participant students. These questionnaires
will be elaborated by the project coordinator and his school counselor. They will be distributed to
all partners and applied simultaneously in all partner schools, before each project meeting. The
results measured in percentages will be centralized by the team members and sent to the
coordinator. He will introduce them into a progress scheme which will be presented and debated
during the project meetings. Thus, we will estimate both the number of the students who have
improved their abilities and the level of improvement.
- entrepreneurial abilities- willingness to learn for personal and professional development, learning
to learn, fructification of any encountered opportunities will be the topics of debate sessions in
each partner school. At these sessions students will watch videos about different professions and
they will draw out conclusions on the needed learning strategies, also they will come with solutions
to possible problems that could occur during their learning. These sessions will be the responsibility
of each partner within his school in collaboration with the counselor from his school; the students
conclusions will be introduced into an informative report and presented by each partner at each
project meeting. Also, they will be the start point of the debates on the online forum. Thus, we will
estimate the level of the students awareness regarding their participation in employment and civil
society or risk of social exclusion. We will also observe the Pisa test results of the participant
students in the project to see the improvements in their overall training due to this project.

- students progress in communication and linguistic abilities in native and foreign language will be
assessed by their teachers through direct observation on the notes and articles they write. The
indicators will be: larger vocabulary and higher level of grammatical accuracy, fluent spontaneous
speech, good listening or reading comprehension. The same indicators will be traced in the
interviews taken by children and in other oral presentations, moreover we will keep a media archive
with these outcomes, uploaded on the project website.
- the level of involvement in the project activities of both students and teachers will be assessed
through a brief online survey after each event. Participants in the project will be invited to speak
about their initiatives and tasks within the project activities on the project website and within the
group account on facebook; relevant photos will certify their implication, while the project
coordinators from each school will register the number of these initiatives and their importance for
the project progress. The bigger the number of initiatives, the greater interest in the project will be.
We intend to run the project in an interactive way, giving the chance to the participants to come with
new ideas and proposals.
- the extent to which the project reaches its objectives and results can be also assessed by measuring
the impact of the project on the participants and other stakeholders. In this respect, the team
members will record, in each school, the numbers of participants involved and the number of
potential participants desiring to participate in similar projects in the future. We will also record the
number of the local institutions that contacted us and actually collaborated with us and estimate the
number of parents and teachers who get involved in the project activities. The findings will be
reported to the project coordinator who will register them into the project diary and upload it on the
project website.
- project team members will also measure the impact qualitatively by considering the positive and
negative aspects of collaboration among participants and stakeholders at different levels: within the
project activities we will trace the information and knowledge share; within the school community
we will observe the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching-learning; within the local community we
will record the reaction of parents, other locals and officials towards the developed activities; at
transnational level, collaboration between partners will be traced by the project coordinator, but all
team members are responsible for supervising the collaboration among students. All findings will be
registered into the project diary, which will provide the necessary information for the final report of
the project.