I think interpreting the intention of the author and the students should take into account that the author's research is in human-computer interaction and that the students most likely are aware of that fact as well.
that's fair, and maybe if they wanted a "project" then project management was the right thing to look at.
But a project manager would allocate 2 hours just for the initial project discussion meeting, so 2 hours and 4 hours are obviously not project manager estimates.