FMA 2: Milestones

Milestones are significant steps toward achieving our project objectives. They are a great way to monitor our progress and help keep us on track so we can finish our projects on time.

For CWTS 2, you may present your milestone through a POSTER with text description, or a VIDEO.

You may choose to create one of each, or have both milestones of the same type.

How do we set milestones?

Study the steps of your plan, and look at which two steps are the most significant ones. Ideally, they should also be close to our milestone deadlines.

For example, if you will be doing a book drive, your milestones could be:

Milestone 1: Official launch of the book drive, complete with information materials that will be disseminated to gather book donations.
Milestone 2: Attainment of the target number of books.

Your project may or may not end at the second milestone. In this example, there is still a third very important step: the turn-over of books to the partner, which will be highlighted in the final report.

Depending on how your project goes, your milestone 2 could also be the turn-over of books already.

Why a poster?

A poster shows us important information in a concise, attractive form. This term, we will explore it as a way of sharing what we have done so far, and where we are on our projects. If you are pressed for time, this is also a less time-consuming option than a video.

If you choose to present your milestone via a poster, make sure to include:

all required information for the milestone (details below); and
a text description of the elements of your poster, and important information that may not fit into the poster, but are relevant for the class to know.

Your description should be detailed enough so that members of the class who are using screen readers will be able to understand what you have done so far even without actually seeing your poster.

Maximize the medium by following basic design principles, keeping in mind that the class will be looking at your poster either with a laptop or with a mobile phone.

If you are new to making posters, you can explore the features of Canva and other open source graphic design tools, and learn more about these through tutorials. To help get you started, we have video on poster design below.

Sample poster by Brgy. Luntian, CWTS 1 (T1 AY 2022-2023)

From: Satori Graphics

Why video?

Video is a great way of sharing what we have already done and where we are on our project.

We will report on our project milestones (or where we are towards achieving them) through 3-5 minute video presentations that will be posted on MyPortal.

Depending on your technical savvy and time available, you may do a simple video that requires no editing (e.g. recorded zoom presentation or a straight on-cam report with printed visuals) or a fully-edited one if you have editors onboard. It could be just one member talking, or all of you.

Just make sure to maximize the medium of video to capture visuals, audio, and present a lot of information in a short period, and make sure you have all required information.

Yes, you can put in everything into 5 minutes if you prepare a concise script!

Show and Tell!

Since video can show movement, images, and sound, put this to good use by documenting everything you do so we can “see” you at work!

For example, show us:

Video clips of:
- meetings
- members working
- materials/supplies
Screengrabs of:
- email/ message exchanges and agreements between you and your partner org (make sure you don’t include any sensitive information!)
- online transactions (orders, Gcash, etc)
- meetings

If you will be doing a vlog-type video, you can present hard-copy visual aids and actual objects.

In case of delays...

In an ideal world, we would all be reporting on finished milestones. However, things don't always go the way we plan.

If “life happens” to you and your project, don't worry. Just give us a status report of where you are in relation to the milestone.

In cases when you can actually achieve the milestone some days after the deadline (for example, your partner agreed to meet you two days after the deadline), then it is better to submit after the deadline, rather than meet it but with no substantial information yet to report.

Just make sure that you already (1) have a partner; (2) conducted your needs assessment; (3) and have an approved plan.

After all, our milestones are based on the plan! :)

MILESTONE 1

Your first milestone poster/ video should have the following:

Short introduction of your barangay
Brief overview and status of your chosen advocacy
Introduction of your partner organization (don’t include any sensitive information such as names or faces of children in shelters, etc.; make sure to ask permission from your partner on what info and images you can share)
The need you are addressing and why it is important to address it
Objectives of your project
Description of milestone 1
The significance of milestone 1 to your project
What you did for milestone 1
Status of the milestone as of the time of posting/deadline (achieved or still getting there?)
Flowchart with finished steps filled in
Challenges you faced, if any, and what you did to overcome it
Lessons learned so far
Message for the other barangays

Don't forget to include your updated progress chart to show which step you are at. Here is a sample of the chart, from the initial plan (all gray), to Milestone 1 (40% filled in), Milestone 2 (80% filled in) and completed project (fully filled-in).

MILESTONE 2

Your second milestone poster/ video should include the following:

For video: 2-sentence recap of milestone 1 (barangay intro, project, milestone 1 description)
Description of milestone 2
The significance of the milestone to your project
What you did for milestone 2
Status of the milestone as of the time of posting/deadline (achieved or still getting there?)
Flowchart with finished steps filled in
Challenges you faced, if any, and what you did to overcome it
Lessons learned so far
Message for the other barangays

Grading

Each milestone constitutes 10% of your grade. Together, both milestones make up 20%.

Each milestone will be graded according to the following:

Contains all required parts and information (3%);
Well-documented with photos/ screengrabs/ videos (3%)
Followed the plan or made effective adjustments (2%)
Clear and easy to understand (2%)

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER:

Posters may take less time to put together than a video and would be great for barangays pressed for time during the milestones. Keep in mind, however, that our final report now includes a 5-minute video.

Which would work better for you? To spend less time on the milestones by creating posters for both, then spending more time on the final video, OR already creating video milestones that could just be reedited for the final report?

Page updated

Report abuse