Mentoring Programs in Organizations: An Online Graduate-Level Course Design Case

In this article, I present the design case of a fully online graduate-level course intended to prepare instructional designers and human performance improvement practitioners with an introduction to the knowledge and skills that are foundational for the design and implementation of mentoring systems to improve individuals’ and organizational performance. In addition, the course design case provides an opportunity for instructional designers and faculty instructors to observe how learners can engage in an organizational mentoring systems feasibility study and as mentees in a mentoring relationship, in a fully asynchronous online course. The purpose of these two projects is to provide learners with an experience to reflect upon their personal mentoring systems experiences thereby becoming better informed for future engagement in the design, development, implementation, and maintenance, of an organizational mentoring system that would deliver desired results. Further, the political environment in which the design case took place, the theoretical framework, and instructional sequencing, are made transparent so that other professional instructional designers and instructors can “observe” the decision inputs and immediate outcomes of the design to add to their store of design knowledge.