Executive Vice President and Practice Lead at S3 Strategic Selling Solutions
As a leader in the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device training industry for many years, my experience focused primarily on the business side of training (building training organizations). I became interested in further developing my credentials in instructional design and performance consulting to better assist organizations, departments and individuals in improving workplace performance — this is when I landed at Boise State!
When evaluating instructional design graduate programs, I found Boise State’s organizational performance and workplace learning (OPWL) master’s program unique in its hands-on approach to improving workplace learning. Although an online program was initially challenging, one of the most valuable aspects of the program was the ability to learn from others by communicating and collaborating with colleagues as members of virtual teams. Learning from organizational problems and solutions across multiple industries proved to be an enlightening experience and significantly contributed to my learning.
The OPWL curriculum is a comprehensive and rigorous program that emphasizes knowledge application, and each course we completed included project work with real clients to solve real organizational problems.
The faculty communications, guidance and feedback throughout the curriculum facilitated my learning transfer by linking course content to workplace problems and the selection of appropriate solutions. Additionally, the staff efficiently oriented new students to the online program and advised us along the way, making this transition seamless.
Overall, this program has exceeded my expectations, and I would highly recommend this curriculum for those seeking a performance improvement degree.
Article
Wessel, J.*, Bowden, D.*, & Horveath, B.* (2012, June). An Evaluation of Presentation Skills Instruction PerformanceXpress Newsletter, June, ’12 issue.
Award
Outstanding Graduate 2014