It was a pleasure to work with Dr. Fimian at Kaplan University. His multimedia skills were critical to improving both student retention and student course satisfaction. His interactive maps and media-driven storyboards were engaging for the faculty as well. They included information that provided a springboard for further exploration of the weekly topics and enhanced the graduate learning experience as well as faculty-student and student-student engagement.
 
Importantly, Michael worked with faculty and other media specialists to improve their media development skills, which multiplied his productivity through the professional development of others. He is a true professional in his field and I was privileged to see him receive the national award for the best faculty development project at the MERLOT Multimedia Classic Awards ceremony.

They don’t get any better than Dr. Fimian!

I was privileged to have the opportunity to work for Michael at Becker College. Michael was my project manager for creating courses in Articulate Storyline for the Online learning environment at Becker College. His role was to manage the development of the courses through his 100% remote staff of talented instructional designers. His role included creating and managing our file management process, deadlines, and training of our team.

Throughout our development, Michael was passionate about our creativity and development. He believed strongly in resource sharing and bringing us together as a team. Michael was always reading the latest advancements in online Instructional Design theory and was an active participant in the Articulate online community. He would share this information with our team every week.

As we created our courses, Michael encouraged us to try something new with Storyline in each of our deliverables. If I was ever stuck in development, Michael was the first to offer advice or point me in the right direction to solve my problem or fix my bug. Through Michael’s encouragement and mentoring, my Articulate Storyline technical skills grew immensely. While this project was creative and offered skill growth, Michael also made sure we met all our deadlines ahead of schedule. I was impressed with how Michael was able to manage a large team in all areas of the country and provide high quality and creative deliverables. Michael is an asset to any team working with Articulate Storyline.

I had a wonderful opportunity to work on a long-term eLearning project managed by Michael. eLearning contractors rarely have the good fortune to be managed by someone with the extensive knowledge of multimedia, instructional technology, and instructional design that Michael possesses. Despite his own strong skills with the authoring tool we were using (Articulate Storyline), he was able to step back and provide room for his contractors to work independently and creatively.

My skill set improved as he challenged me to take on more complex aspects of the program. Michael provided guidance and direction when it was needed or requested. He was always kind, patient, and available.

Michael has that rare combination of technical, managerial, and soft skills that would immensely benefit any organization.

Dr. Michael Fimian is a world-class expert in the art and science of Learning. He possesses extreme skills in both identifying the instructional conditions that will enable student success, and in the subsequent creation of innovative multimedia learning objects. At Kaplan, Michael is considered a university-wide resource. He is also a treasured colleague and it is with great pleasure that I offer him my highest recommendation.

While working with Michael at Becker College, I have nothing but great things to say about Dr Fimian. He was my Project Manager of the online courses/development at Becker College. He was in charge of managing a huge team of diverse and creative Instructional Designer contractors across the country along with all the file management, deadlines, and training of these people. He encouraged us to be creative, have fun, but also meet deadlines ahead of schedule. He also was in charge of setting up a file storage hub, templates, and training us all. His technical skills in Storyline 1 and 2 are immense.

Whenever I had a problem/bug in the software, I could lean on him to help. In fact, I often went to the Articulate Community board before asking him to try and solve the problem or to ask questions/find solutions, and he would be the one responding on the blog. I think this speaks to his passion for learning about new software, determination to solve technical issues, and his kindness and willingness to help others. He is a lifelong learner who shares resources, interesting articles and topics related to the ID field, and ideas to help the team create innovative products. He still sends me articles that are relevant and educational.

All around, he is a great person to work for and with because of his skills, kindness, innovative abilities and great attitude. He is a “go-to” person who you can count on to deliver results. I would recommend Michael as an asset to any team.

I worked with Michael at Kaplan University for almost three years. For the last two years, I was fortunate to have had the
opportunity to manage Michael. As you can tell from his credentials, Michael is obviously qualified to lead and manage his own team. I only wish I would have had the opportunity to work with him longer. 

Michael’s dedication and passion to his profession are immediately apparent when you begin to work with him. He consistently bases his instructional decisions on sound adult and multimedia learning principles. His instructional design expertise brought very high value to the organization. In the ever-changing world of instructional design and web technologies, he stays up-to-date with the industry and shares this knowledge with the rest of the team. Michael’s advice and input were extremely valuable, not only to me as a manager, but to the rest of the department, and the University.

Michael was able to establish an outstanding rapport with everyone he came across at Kaplan University. He
was highly respected by the people who worked with him. He is organized, thorough, and always very
professional. In additional Michael brings a good nature and sense of humor that makes him a pleasure to work
with.

I have associated with Michael for the past year in his role as a student, teaching assistant, and colleague.  Mike is very thorough and conscientious in all he does.  He’s a delight to work with since he anticipates and handles many details.  As a teaching assistant — really a colleague and joint professor — he has made a tremendous contribution to my classes. As a student, he is among the very top in his performance.  I recommennd Mike for your serious consideration.  I have enjoyed our association and enjoy him as a colleague.  He will make a significant contribution…

I am pleased for Dr. Michael Fimian, the Instructional Technology Design Specialist here at Providence College. You will note that I boldened the word Specialist to give emphasis to Dr. Fimian’s expertise and proficiency in his field of technology and design. He is not simply the Itech Designer, he is without a doubt a Specialist in this area.

A year ago, I would have described myself as tech-avoidant.  I had tried Corel Presentation slides in one class and had not considered the possibilities of PowerPoint. Now I am routinely using PowerPoint slides in ALL of my classes. The slides are animated, contain images related to the content, and have audio/sound. Dr. Fimian instructed me in a technique to embed the greater percentage of these slides with video examples of interviewing skills. While working with Dr. Fimian on the most basic aspects of PowerPoint and classroom technology. I mentioned an idea to improve and deepen the learning for Social Work students who are developing their client interview skills. Dr. Fimian proposed and configured a project using Adobe Premiere and Sound Forge that allowed me to add comments and narrative elements to my videotaped student interviews.  As the interview plays, I stop the video, record comments about the interview behavior and skills of the student, and then “drop in” my comments throughout the video interview.

In addition to his technological expertise, the faculty value Dr. Fimian’s commitment to doing well with individual faculty members through their respective projects.

It is my pleasure to recommend Michael Fimian. He is an extraordinary individual with a superior work ethic and very strong interpersonal skills. I worked with Michael and found him to be very knowledgeable in every area that was required and then some. I can recall attending a conference for instructional designers and educators last year. To my surprise, Michael was one of the presenters and I must say, his presentation was, by far, the best I had experienced during the entire three-day conference. His presentation was very informative, extremely interesting, and I was excited to know more.

He truly cares about his students, the method in which he reaches them, and the information he imparts.  Michael Fimian is the cream of the crop. As a coworker, I found him to be extremely personable, understanding, helpful and well organized.

Michael was always willing and able to help another coworker or anyone that needed some kind of assistance. His projects were done ahead of schedule and under tight deadlines. In addition, he is a talented multimedia developer with a great eye for design. I feel Michael Fimian would be a great addition to any organization, please give him your fullest consideration.

Dr. Fimian represents the quintessential qualities of an administrator and colleague.  As an administrator, he is extremely knowledgeable about policies, procedures, and content.  His expertise raises the level of excellence in instructional design, course development, and technological advancement to extremely high levels of superiority.  His breadth and depth of knowledge are astounding.  The faculty, staff, and administrators for the school of education and the university as a whole are privileged to learn from the dynamic contributions of Dr. Fimian.  Our courses, their design, and delivery, hence our entire instructional system, exemplifies first rate curricular standards because of Dr. Fimian’s expertise. Not only is Dr. Fimian an outstanding administrator, his attributes as a colleague are remarkable.  He is responsive, insightful, supportive, and personable.  Dr. Fimian always makes time to deal with whatever issues a person has.  He is extraordinarily helpful by lending a hand, providing input, or demonstrating where additional resources can be obtained.  Whether he is serving students, the academic community, or the greater community, people quickly recognize his quality of character.  You could not ask for a better colleague and friend.

Should you choose to employ Dr. Fimian, you will not be disappointed with his performance or his character.  I wish him the very best in his pursuits.  Please feel free to contact me at rbowden@kaplan.edu if you would like to discuss Dr. Fimian’s qualifications further.