> [!summary]+ Summary > This page describes some background to the PFMx course and demonstrates how whiteboarding was used to bring some consensus to course design. (See the bottom of this page for the results of this activity.) # Public Financial Management (PFMx) course design One of the hardest courses that I ever worked on was this PFMx course. For one, there were extensive internal politics between my department and the department with subject-matter-expertise. Additionally, the project manager in the other department wanted to prove her abilities. And then, there were maybe 10 subject-matter-experts (SMEs), all with their own opinions. **This project was a test in calmness, negotiation, influence, discretion, and long hours.** (And a few late nights in the office.) The plan involved having interviews with government officials from specific countries. These interviews provided important context to the issues in the course. But the interviews were unstructured and captured so much content that nobody wanted to cut. In meetings we found ourselves stuck on if an how to chunk. I on the other hand, wanted to make the conversation about the overall learning experience. ## Expert interviews and unit arrangement The following is the map options created and discussed for arranging the interviews in PFMx. ![[20161022_FAD_Interview_Model.jpg]] This course we had 9 interviews with government officials for course modules. Additionally, we had to plan the order of the course content, learning activities, discussion forums, and assessments within the "10-10-10 model". This whiteboard demonstrates **3 different frameworks for how to fit the interviews**. One decision was to chunk the interviews across multiple units/pages, or instead have 1 unit/page with the entire interview. If the latter, then we could provide a textual outline below it using timecodes as a map of the interview. Nonetheless, each model provided units/pages for introduction, concepts, assessments, information about the interview, the interview, an activity, and a conclusion. ## 🎯 Results This activity allowed the team to have joint discussions around the course design with the interviews. This board and options were use as a discussion piece with colleagues across departments. With these concepts in mind, we were able to reach consensus quickly. ## References - Public Financial Management (PFMx) — IMF Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) - [Online training course catalog](https://www.imf.org/en/Capacity-Development/Training/ICDTC/Courses/PFMx) - [edX promotional video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHvxtW_ypwU)