The MSLOC Program requires successful completion of 15 credits to be awarded the Master of Science in Learning & Organizational Change degree.
The required core curriculum (7 credits) includes two courses in each of the three MSLOC focus areas: learning and performance, strategy and knowledge, and strategic change. Core curriculum also includes MSLOC Foundations, a unique course that introduces key concepts and the opportunity to immediately apply them in a cohort-based action learning project that lasts from September to June.
Required applied and research projects (4 credits) include the Practicum and Capstone. Practicum projects focus on assisting partner organizations address current learning and organizational change challenges. The Capstone is an individual research project — extending over three academic quarters — that is the culminating work for MSLOC degree candidates.
Four credits are open for special topic and elective courses.
Course Descriptions
Click on the course names in the table below for a description of the course. To see a sample course load and schedule for full-time or part-time schedule options, use our Build Your Own Program tool.
| Credits | Required Core Curriculum (7 credits) |
| 1 | MSLOC Foundations |
| 1 | Accelerating Learning and Performance |
| 1 | Advancing Learning and Performance Solutions |
| 1 | Leading with Strategic Thinking |
| 1 | Creating and Sharing Knowledge |
| 1 | Designing Sustainable Strategic Change |
| 1 | Executing Strategic Change |
| Credits | Required Applied and Research Projects (4 credits) |
| 1 | Practicum Project |
| 3 | Capstone Research (Research Methods, Capstone II and III) |
| Credits | Special Topics/Electives (4 credits) |
| 1 | Social Network Analysis in Learning and Organizational Change |
| 1 | Coaching for Learning and Performance |
| 1 | Transformational Consulting |
| 1 | Cognitive Design |
| 1 | Practicum Project II |
| 1 | Independent Study (Requires Program Director approval) |
| 1-4 | Additional Northwestern University electives (Full time and part time evening schedule students only) |
Required Core Curriculum
MSLOC Foundations
As the first required course for all incoming students, this course will introduce students to foundational concepts and frameworks that can be used to anchor and integrate your learning throughout the MSLOC program. The course will cover methods and tools applied in multiple organizational settings to solve problems and increase individual, group and organizational effectiveness. Through class meetings and an action learning project that extends through three quarters, students will begin to apply organizational theory to the practice of organizational transformation.
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Accelerating Learning & Performance
This course addresses human performance at the organizational, team and individual levels and offers learning as a key lever for enhancing performance. In Accelerating Learning & Performance the focus is on defining the performance levers (leadership, organizational mission and strategy, culture, organizational processes and systems, team dynamics, skills, competencies, motivation), identifying models that can be used to diagnose performance gaps/enhancement opportunities and change readiness, and designing metrics to evaluate the effectiveness of performance.
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Advancing Learning & Performance Solutions
This course will introduce students to methods and tools used in multiple business functions that are designed to increase individual, group and organizational performance. Using their knowledge of learning and performance, students will learn how to design effective solutions, evaluate those solutions, adapt and redesign them to improve their effectiveness. Learning will be defined not only as a specific role or function commonly associated with training but also as an implicit process within the structure and culture of competitive global organizations.This course will help students select and use tools to make that process more deliberate, systematic and applicable in a wide range of situations.
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Creating and Sharing Knowledge
In this course, students will develop an understanding of how to define “knowledge” within organizational settings and – based on the perspective offered by different definitions – assess how knowledge is created, shared and leveraged in organizations. The course will introduce theory, concepts and frameworks to enable students to understand knowledge as it applies to individuals, to communities or networks of practitioners, and to organizations. Students will also learn the role of Web 2.0 technologies in enabling knowledge sharing and creation practices in organizational settings. Finally, students will learn to apply course concepts to current organizational issues through business cases and course projects.
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Leading with Strategic Thinking
In this course, students will use learning and organizational change principles to assess the effectiveness of an organization’s strategic planning process and its resultant strategic plan. Through readings, class discussion and group dialogue, case study review and analysis, and case simulation, students will learn to design a functional strategy that aligns with an organization’s overall strategy. Expected outcomes of this course include developing learning and organizational change professionals who can contribute to an organization’s strategic planning efforts as well as the strategic plan’s subsequent execution.
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Executing Strategic Change
In this course you will explore the nature of strategic business change and will discuss what enables strategic change to be successful or fail. We will delve into issues of leadership, sponsorship, organizational culture, change agent roles and key success factors for implementing sustained change. Emphasis will be placed on strategic change from a practitioner’s frame of reference. Several models will be also introduced to frame the discussions.
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Designing Sustainable Strategic Change
This course will focus on how strategic change gets designed and implemented. It will incorporate methods,tools and practitioners' "lessons learned" from the perspective of gaining commitment from the people of an organization.Our premise will be that organizations are living systems. If we are to be effective at initiating, facilitating, supporting or engaging in organizational change, we will benefit from the following:
- Learning about, and applying, methods utilized by an organization to change its strategy in relation to changes in its environment
- Reviewing methods available for an organization to effectively align itself internally to implement a new strategy
- Recognizing the dynamics of transition and discovering ways to enhance people's resilience as they experience the intensity of change.
Required Applied and Research Projects
Practicum
The MSLOC Practicum is designed for individuals or teams of degree students to complete a project for an organization that contributes to the organization’s business strategy and can be put into immediate development and use. The project may involve assessment, analysis, design, re-design, implementation and/or evaluation. MSLOC students may work with individuals or with teams internal to their practicum organizations. They may also engage in practicum projects following an external consultant model in conjunction with business partners within the Center for Learning & Organizational Change. MSLOC master's students may choose to do a second practicum, which counts as an elective.
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Capstone (Research Methods, Capstone II & III)
The MSLOC Capstone Project is designed for three consecutive quarters near the end of each degree student's program. Although the capstone project is more application-oriented than a traditional master's thesis, MSLOC students should regard this as their culminating take-away from the MSLOC program. The capstone provides an opportunity for each student, individually, to complete a research project or design and implement an intervention that involves multiple stages and enables one to show results before completion.
Each student selects a Capstone Project in conjunction with a faculty advisor. The project may concentrate on one of the three MSLOC focus areas: learning and performance, strategy and knowledge or strategic change. It should reflect the interdependence of the three areas with each other and with the strategy and context of the organization(s) of focus. During the first term, students participate in a Research Methods class, which builds skills in assessment, data-gathering, design and critical thinking. During the two subsequent terms, students meet with their capstone advisor and in small seminar groups. In addition to the final product (e.g., research paper, organizational intervention, designed tool or system), students present their work to their advisors, faculty members and fellow students during a community learning event. These presentations demonstrate how students' learning in the program was integrated into their final product.
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MSLOC Elective: Social Network Analysis in Learning and Organizational Change
The objective of this course is to prepare you to apply social network analysis (SNA) methods and tools to your work as a learning and organizational change practitioner and leader. You will learn the basic concepts, methods and tools necessary to plan and conduct a "real-world" SNA project designed to improve organizational effectiveness. You also will connect SNA to concepts, problems and opportunities introduced across the MSLOC curriculum, including learning and performance, knowledge management and strategic change.
During this course you will develop as a network-savvy leader, learning how to drive the management innovation needed to create organizations that naturally support informal networks. Finally, you will learn how to apply SNA to advance personal and professional development for yourself and other leaders. SNA will be framed in this course as a management innovation, not just a tool or application. You will be challenged to rethink the basic tasks of management and leadership in light of structural and human networks.
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MSLOC Elective: Coaching for Learning & Performance
MSLOC Course Prerequisites: Accelerating Learning & Performance and Transformational Consulting
This course is designed for senior practitioners who are responsible for developing high-potential talent within organizations or providing one-on-one professional coaching or mentoring to managers or leaders. Grounded in theory and research on adult learning and instructional methods, this unique course will equip students with both a deeper understanding of how a variety of coaching techniques can improve individual learning and performance as well as the evidence-based knowledge necessary to design effective coaching/mentoring programs at the organizational level. Examining best practices, assessments, tools and methods used by professional coaches, the instructors will help students hone their consulting skills and learn how to adapt methods to meet the needs of diverse clients and contexts.
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MSLOC Elective: Cognitive Design
This course will introduce students to the methods and tools needed to design organizational improvements and generate new product ideas that support and enhance the cognition of employees and customers. Cognitive design is devoted to understanding how people perceive, think, remember, feel and relate in real-world situations and using that understanding to drive innovations in products, processes, HR programs, change initiatives and other organizational improvements. Students will learn how to design organizational artifacts (e.g., new products, improved workflows, behavior change programs) that fit how the human mind works along both the intellectual and emotional dimension. This is a project-based course where students work in teams to model cognition, identify unmet needs and apply leading ideas of applied cognitive science to pressing design challenges in business.
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MSLOC Elective: Transformational Consulting
This course will introduce students to advanced methods and tools used in a collaborative consulting process. Using their knowledge of themselves and their subject matter expertise, students will learn and practice the fundamentals of collaborative consulting including how to build rapport; how to leverage active listening to help the client determine the root cause of the problem (or opportunity); how to move a client through phases of the project, especially when the client is reluctant to act; how to co-project manage an assignment; and how to maintain long-term relationships. The class also will touch consulting sales activities and presentation skills necessary at the different steps in the relationship.
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Independent Study projects are opportunities for exceptional MSLOC students to conduct in-depth research on a specific topic of interest under the direction of an MSLOC faculty advisor. Project proposals require approval of the MSLOC Program Director.
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Additional Elective Choices
Students can choose electives that are available from programs offered through other graduate programs at Northwestern. Especially relevant schools/departments around the University include:
- School of Education & Social Policy, Learning Sciences
- Kellogg School of Management
- Medill School of Journalism, Integrated Marketing Communications
- McCormick School of Engineering, Masters of Engineering Management
Each school at Northwestern has different policies and practices for enrolling in elective courses. Students work with a MSLOC advisor to identify and select from those electives that are open to students from other degree programs.
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