The Ultimate Team Work Management Tool - Kanban Boards
About This Page
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Each PBL project involves students using the subject content to develop the major project product.
For example, in the Alien Animal Design project, students used what they learned about animal adaptations, the flow of energy through the ecosystem, animal interactions, and protein synthesis in order to design an alien animal adapted to the environment of one of the planets in the Star Wars movies.
Project Based Learning allows us to help students build essential skills that students will need to be successful in the careers they choose to pursue because PBL mirrors the work often seen in professional settings.
One of these important skills is learning to manage the work needed to achieve a goal. To do this, I have students use Kanban Boards to the tasks they need to complete in order to create the project product.
Kanban Boards are a workflow management tool often used in professional settings most notably design, software engineering, and manufacturing.
This page describes how I have students use Kanban Boards to manage their work with their group in order to support student independent work and team collaboration.
Note: The contents of this page are based on an article I wrote for PBLWorks’ education blog titled: “The Ultimate Team Work Management Tool: Kanban Boards”. You can read the article here, or by clicking the picture on the right.
How the Kanban Board Works
Example of Kanban Board layout in a PBL unit
In PBL, the product is developed iteratively through out the unit as students learn the content. This is what separates Project Based Learning from the traditional sense of doing a project where all of the product work happens at the end of learning the content.
The Kanban Board is organized around how the product is developed iteratively.
The rows in the column indicate the key iterative steps of developing the product. Post-it notes in each row indicate the discrete tasks that need to be completed in order to develop that component of the product.
The columns indicate student progress on those discrete tasks. Students write the tasks on separate post-it notes and place them in the “To Do” column on their Kanban Board. When students begin one of the discreet tasks, they move the post-it note to the “In Progress” column. When they finish, they move the post-it note to the “Done” column. Students then move the task they need to begin working on next from the “To Do” column into the “In Progress” column.
Note: due dates are indicated in the “Done” column for each key component of the product. This indicates when all post-it notes should be in the “Done” column and the component of the product is complete. In PBL, this usually indicates a place where students can give and get peer feedback on the product they are developing and use that feedback to make revisions.
Kanban Board in Context of a Project
Student group planning their work together using the Kanban Board at the start of class during a PBL unit
Let’s look at an example project. I have a project where students create a podcast show about an environmental issue happening in their home countries. Students create these shows for listeners in their home countries as a call to action. The major project product is the group’s podcast show, but the show is developed iteratively from the start of the unit until the end when it is published. The Kanban Board on the top right represents this project.
There are three major milestones that need to be completed for students to make their podcast show. The first is the individual research connected to their environmental issue. The second is the development of their podcast storyboard and script. The third is recording, editing, and publishing their show. The rows of their Kanban Board correspond to these three iterative steps of developing their podcast show.
At the beginning of class, or after I facilitate a mini-lesson/ activity related to the content, each group has a 5 minute power meeting where they discuss how they should update their Kanban Board and plan what they each need to do using the post-it notes.
Note: At the beginning of the project, students need help moving through this process, but as time passes, they begin to be able to manage this work themselves. Eventually students are using the Kanban Board organically as they work together and independently.
Modifications to the Kanban Board
Student groups using the whole class Kanban Board to plan their work together at the start of class during the Cookbook Project PBL unit
The above describes one way I have modified the agile process use of the Kanban Board in the context of Project Based Learning. However, at the beginning of the year, I use one Kanban Board for the entire class.
The video on the right depicts students using a whole class Kanban Board.
One of the benefits of using a whole class Kanban Board is that it helps introduce the classroom experience of project based learning to students who are used to a more teacher-centric classroom.
When using one Kanban Board for the entire class, the categories of the board remains the same, in that the major milestones of the product development still dictate the title of the rows.
In place of the discrete tasks for each milestone, teams write their team name on sticky notes - one sticky note for each column.
In the appropriate moments to do so in the project, the groups reflect on their progression towards the development of the project product and place their teams post-it note in the appropriate column. When using the Kanban Boars students build connections between the intent of their daily work towards the development of the project product, which helps the students feel a stronger sense of purpose for the class lessons/ activities.
Note: It’s a good sign when students struggle as they think about where to place their sticky note as they look to clarify the purpose of their daily tasks in your class. Be patient and supportive as you connect the purpose of learning the content of class to the work of project.
As the project progresses, be sure to:
Connect students learning to use the Kanban Board to develop the project product to skills they’ll need to use to work successfully beyond high school. Often, this can occur through bell ringer and exit ticket reflective prompts.
Remind students that in place of the class Kanban Board, their team will need to maintain their own in the next project. The purpose of the whole class board is to learn about the concept in order to manage one with their own team.