Students' Comments, December 2025

The following are some of the comments left by students who took my classes in the Fall of 2025. They knew that (1) their names would not be revealed, and that (2) I would not read them before I reported final grades. In other words, they did not post this to flatter me and receive a higher grade!

Dr. Olivas–Lujan is an excellent professor who seems to care about the material and the students.

I really enjoyed this course. While it was challenging at times, there profession [sic] provided clear instructions and feedback to ensure student success. This course was well put together and enjoyable for that reason.

Dr. O has provided excellent feedback regarding assignments and where we can improve our work. He is understanding and supportive of his students, and responded promptly to questions about coursework.

The feedback was beneficial, and I can tell Dr. Olivas–Lujan took the time to leave personalized feedback. The announcements also were helpful to keep us on track. 

During this course it has made me reflect on people and managing, Dr. Miguel Olivia's–Lujan has done an amazing job with this course.

Organizational Design and change management were very insightful courses especially when mixed with these practical virtual simulations within the Harvard University . The Learning materials were very challenging and high level . For the first time of my life , I have discovered a Doctor who really deserves the title of Doctor. He is a very savvy scholar and intellectual with a good sens of humility and empathy.

We are at the end of the semester and one thing I'm sure about , I will miss Dr O!

Dr. O truly cares and instructs content that is translatable to the professional environment,

He was always answered questions and emails in a timely manner and was willing to help when needed.  

He was very easy to get in contact with. He had good assignments...

He was always there to help

I think the team projects were good to work with people

He is very easy to get ahold of, and he is always willing to assist students with issues.

I think all aspects of this class will be utilized in my everyday happenings and I appreciate how well the Professor taught the class and was very helpful whenever we needed him.

Dr O provided a lot of instructions and was always available to assit.

Love this course 

Professor Lujan's course is very well structure to follow. It is very beneficial to help my learning. I've learned more regarding hazards that were located around a workplace.

He was always there to help.

I liked the group projects and I think they were fun

The most beneficial aspects for me were the discussions and presentations created by students. Many classes feel like there is an immense amount of information trying to be crammed into a week, and then the next week includes all new information, leading to last week's assignments to be forgotten quick. Using the discussions to reflect on information that we learned before helped the topics really set into my brain. The presentations included real world examples that helped me realize the necessity of each topic in workplaces.

I thought the course was very organized. The discussions with our groups was beneficial to me because I got to emphasize what I learned while also understanding what my group learned.

I think the DB [discussion boards] were beneficial. 

I felt that the class was well structured for learning. I don't think there's anything that I would change in the course to make more beneficial.  

I think as an online student, this class is very well designed the way it is  

Loved the course  

There is nothing to improve, I believe, everything is perfect.

Of course, there was a couple of students who left negative comments, but that's the nature of the job. The comments above really make my day (my year!) and motivate me to give my students even more attention and help their professional preparation and growth! 

Gemini-generated image of "a happy university professor in his 50s"

Why I No Longer Exempt Students from My Final Exams

As a young instructor, I used many of the pedagogical practices I experienced as a student, including exempting my best students from the final exam. The reasoning was, why make them go through the stress if it was almost guaranteed that they would earn a final A? Besides, as a student, I loved it every time I was exempted from a final exam! 

Some conversations made me notice that, as enjoyable and appreciated as this practice was, I was not doing my students a favor; in fact, I was increasing the chances that the content of my courses would be promptly forgotten and unused in professional life. In particular, there is some evidence that final exams provide the following advantages:

• Motivation for Learning - The prospect of final examinations can motivate students to engage more deeply with course material and maintain consistent study habits throughout academic periods.
• Memory Consolidation and Long-term Retention - Taking a test of previously studied material has been shown to improve long-term subsequent test performance in a large variety of controlled experiments, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. This research suggests that retrieval during testing strengthens memory pathways and enhances long-term retention.
• Comprehensive Assessment - Final exams provide summative evaluations that allow educators to assess student learning comprehensively across entire courses or academic terms.
• Holistic Perspective - During the course, we tend to analyze topics on some level of detail, but miss out on "the big picture"! The final exam is a great opportunity to distinguish how the whole class is organized, and where the different parts fit.

On the other hand, I also found these disadvantages of "typical" final exams:

• Stress and Authenticity Concerns - High-stakes final exams create psychological stress and may lack relevance, testing performance under artificial conditions rather than practical knowledge application.
• Limited Learning Enhancement - Summative tests, such as a final exam that measures how much was learned but offers no opportunities for a student to improve, are less effective compared to assessments that provide learning opportunities through feedback.
• Complexity and Format Limitations - Research shows that the testing effect for practice tests may be limited, with effectiveness dependent on question format and cognitive effort required for retrieval.
• Retrievability Requirements - The testing is stronger for questions with a high retrievability, suggesting that final exams may not benefit learning when material difficulty exceeds student capabilities.

In consequence, my final exams are designed as an incentive to re-study the course material, but minimizing the disadvantages. To the extent that my organizations make it possible, my finals:

• Are worth only about 10% of the final grade – This helps me differentiate hard-working, ambitious students from those who just want a passing grade, without adding too much stress.
• Take place during the designated time – I know that some colleagues end the semester a few days earlier, but I respect the organization’s policies for accreditation and related purposes.
• Are “open book” – I believe that most of the knowledge my students learn in my classes will be needed in the future; I do not expect them to remember the exact content they learned, but I do hope they will be able to find it when they need it.

I trust the above helps you understand why I no longer exempt my students from taking the final exam. I believe my policies help make good use of this long-standing practice and minimize the disadvantages.

If you have comments or questions, don’t hesitate to contact me! Here are a few helpful sources if you want to learn more:

Adesope, O. O., Trevisan, D. A., & Sundararajan, N. (2017). Rethinking the use of tests: A meta-analysis of practice testing. Review of Educational Research, 87(3), 659-701. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316689306

Greving, S., & Richter, T. (2018). Examining the testing effect in university teaching: Retrievability and question format matter. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, Article 2412. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02412

Schwieren, J., Barenberg, J., & Dutke, S. (2017). The testing effect in the psychology classroom: A meta-analytic perspective. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 16(2), 179-196. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725717695149

Toxic Leadership: Assessing Academic Work from an Evidence-based Paradigm

This workshop (http://goo.gl/dhZ8MY) deals with Padilla’s (2013) “Toxic Leadership Triangle.” The self-assessment and reflection stemming from this workshop may also inspire ways to modify procedures through which we (faculty members) carry out our professional activities. Click here to download the handouts.

Leadership -- a haiku deck presentation

I recently spent a few minutes checking out an iPad app that has been receiving some notoriety in the media:  Haiku Deck.  I played around with its ability to bring images around a particular theme and how the slides appear once you add a few sentences.

I liked it, but, quite frankly, I'm not sure that it's ready for prime time.  When the programmers add the ability to change font colors and maybe a few more layouts, I'll probably like it much more.  But then again, that will make it less than "haiku", won't it?

You be the judge:  here are the fruits of my labor.  If you have a chance, let me know what you think!