Faculty Best Practices
- Begin communicating with client before the beginning of the semester to start building your relationship and scoping the project. Starting off on the right foot is key.
- Make expectations very clear both to the client and your students at the onset.
- Schedule dates for tours, calls, meetings and presentations as early as possible.
- Have your students communicate with the client frequently. We recommend bi-weekly calls or weekly emails with questions or updates on progress. Making this a requirement is also recommended.
- Support your students – many students lack experience working with clients and will often find themselves out of their field of expertise. Keeping an open line of communication for them to air their grievances or ask questions is essential.
**For all vehicle rentals, please contact the PALS Coordinator AT LEAST two weeks in advance**
- Throughout the semester, there are 3-4 required meetings that you and students are responsible for setting up with the client These meetings should include the point of contact and the PALS GA.
- Kickoff meeting – First month of semester
- Midterm meeting – mid-semester
- Final Presentation – before finals week
- **Showcase – before finals week
- **Pertaining to those who are working with Prince George’s County Planning Department, or Prince George’s County Department of Parks and Recreation at least one student must attend the showcase to give a 10 minute presentation to the broader organization.
- At least one student from the team must submit a DRUM copyright release form to a PALS GA before the end of the semester.
- Final deliverables should be submitted to a PALS GA during finals week. These should be submitted in editable formats (no PDFs).
- Support your students as best you can in interacting with the client, and remain in contact with the PALS GA to ensure that we know all is well.
Kickoff meeting – An introductory meeting for the students to be introduced to the project from the client and faculty. Include client, faculty, and PALS GA
Midterm meeting – a mid project, informal progress meeting with the client to ensure that students are still on track with the project and are going in the right direction. Include client, faculty, and PALS GA
Final presentation – Formal presentation at the end of the semester to the client and any other related contacts, faculty, Kim Fisher, and PALS GA,
Showcase – Event where all PALS projects present to the client jurisdiction. This is typically an informal charrette-style format where at least one student from each project will give a shortened presentation summarizing the course’s final deliverable. PALS will provide event information for any interested persons. (COVID-19 Update: Showcases will be via Zoom)
- In Spring 2021 we had over 150 people join our Zoom meeting to learn about student PALS projects at our showcase!
Deliverables – the final deliverable(s) are any products which students, in conjunction with faculty and county partners, produce over the course of the semester. These can include reports, presentations, data sets, web designs, sample communication tools, etc. Typically the deliverables may be any format that the client and faculty agree to – however we prefer a format that can be edited. Submit to PALS GA by end of semester.
- Past projects can be found in the DRUM archive
- Templates for reports, presentations, etc. can be found below
- Kick off meeting – September
- Midterm meeting – Early November
- Final presentation – December
- Showcases
- Prince George’s Planning Department – TBD
- Prince George’s Department of Parks and Recreation – TBD