Professor
"Through my courses, students are learning to make the workplace a better environment in which people can work, learn, grow and become the professionals they wish to be."
"Through my courses, students are learning to make the workplace a better environment in which people can work, learn, grow and become the professionals they wish to be."
Degrees Held:
Career Highlights:
For more than 30 years, Dr. Mark L. Johnson has been an advocate for student achievement and success, in and out of the classroom. He has served on five national boards of directors in the field of career and technical education, including as president of the Association for Career and Technical Education T&I Division and a member of the ACTE National Board of Directors. He has been honored three times as PSU Outstanding Faculty. In 2000, he was named the National Career and Technical Educator of the Year by the National Association for Career and Technical Education. Most recently, he has been contracted as a training consultant for the International Alliance of Theatrical and Motion Picture Stagehands, as well as working with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, the Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Utility Workers of America, and the United Alliance of Plumbers and Pipefitters. Since 2014, he has presented to thousands of apprenticeship trainers in more than 30 cities across the United States and Canada.
He served as student body president while studying at PSU in the 1980s. During the 2008-09 school year, he served as PSU Faculty Senate President.
Johnson is the author of Training Design Simplified: Breaking Tradition in 2025, which was the no. 1 best seller in leadership training on Amazon for two weeks. He is a recipient of the City of Pittsburg’s Spirit of Pittsburg Award 2022, the National Technical Educator of the Year in 2000, and the Innovation Engineering Black Belt 2014. Before transferring to the College of Business, Johnson received the Excellence in Teaching, Excellence in Research, and Excellence in Service awards while teaching in the College of Technology.
In which online Pittsburg State program(s) do you teach?
Which classes do you teach online?
HRD 879 Professional Presentations
What do you want students to take away from your classes? What do they learn?
In this course, I will help you become a better presenter. My purpose is clear—to help you overcome any fear of speaking and become an excellent presenter. This course is a game-changer that will significantly improve your employment and promotion opportunities. Students learn that HRD and HRM are not the same thing. They also learn the best way to teach someone to do their job. My former students are literally changing how the business world prepares people for work.
What types of projects do your students do in the online courses?
Students work with business partners to create training programs from the ground up using the ADDIE Model. They learn to develop masterful presentations by greatly improving their PowerPoint slides (bullets are for guns, not PowerPoint), and they complete research projects on career fields within HRD.
What advice would you give to students considering an online MBA program?
If you want to learn by engaging in real-world experiences and applying that knowledge through projects and assignments from experts in the field of human resource development, this program is for you. Our faculty are leading experts in training and design, coaching and leadership, and emotional intelligence and organizational development. The key to being a successful online student is to be self-motivated and keep up with the work. The work is not hard, just sometimes tedious and requires your constant participation.
What is the value of a higher degree in the field in which you teach? What are some of the skills students gain in this program?
Earning a master’s in HRD will significantly increase your earning power. You will master the skills of creating and evaluating effective training programs, developing organizational interventions, and coaching performance improvement.
Why did you start teaching?
I had been a manager in the newspaper industry for 7 years, but soon found I preferred helping people learn their jobs better rather than simply being a boss. I wanted to help improve the way we prepare our employees. So many businesses today make costly mistakes in employee development. Through my courses, students are learning to make the workplace a better environment in which people can work, learn, grow, and become the professionals they wish to be.
What is the one book you think everyone should read?
“Magnetic Service: Secrets for Creating Passionately Devoted Customers” by Chip Bell and Bilijack Bell.
Tell us something interesting about yourself that your students may not know about you.
During a 1988 presentation in San Antonio, TX, I recalled the names of 350 audience members in less than 20 minutes. Today, I am known as the memory guy at PSU. I am the only professor who knows all of his students' names in the first few minutes of class.
In 1978, I won fourth place in the National 4-H Poultry Judging Contest and received a medal from the late Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Links to share?
What are your preferred pronouns?
He/him/his
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