In Summer of 2022, Dr. Seth Martinez, Assistant Professor of the Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) department, mentored a team of five OPWL master’s students as part of his Learning Strategy Lab activity to provide an organizational improvement service to Humentum, a nonprofit that supports various humanitarian and development organizations by making the global community more equitable, accountable, and resilient.
This virtual research team was composed of students across three different time zones – Claudia Achilles from Idaho, Scott Harrington from Oregon, Alejandro Maya from Illinois, Halah Mohammed from Colorado, and Patricia Tjan from California. With Dr. Martinez’s minimum guidance and coaching, the virtual student team completed a comprehensive evaluation and its executive report entirely on their own.
The evaluation included a thorough review of Humentum’s training program such as learning objectives, course structure, activities, assessments, multimedia, and accessibility. The student team then verbally presented the key findings and recommendations back to Humentum leadership in a concluding meeting at the end of summer. Because of how beneficial the evaluation was, Humentum has expressed wanting to collaborate further on an article, and to continue the partnership with OPWL going forward for future organizational consultation.
About the OPWL Program
The Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning (OPWL) program helps prepare students for careers in the areas of instructional design, training and development, e-learning, workplace performance improvement, organizational development, program evaluation and performance consulting.