The business of higher education has been turned on its head. Still coping with the lingering impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, university and college leadership are being forced to reinvent how their institutions function going forward. Everything has to be examined including course curriculum, recruitment and enrollment strategies, technology implementation and training, and strategic partnerships with other institutions and associations.
Fierce Education is highlighting those higher education leaders that are rethinking their business models so we can spotlight their vision and help others through these challenging times.
Fierce Education Leader: Dr. Joanne Ricevuto, Assistant Vice President of Instructional Success
Affiliation: Harcum College
Being a Fierce Education Leader:
Dr. Joanne Ricevuto is the Assistant Vice President of Instructional Success at Harcum College. This was a newly created position at the college and as a result she became the sole person in charge of all faculty programming.
As the Covid-19 pandemic hit and everything shut down, Dr. Ricevuto was instrumental in aiding the college’s faculty to better utilize its learning management system, Canvas. She constantly either facilitated workshops on basics of how to use Zoom ,to how to engage students on Zoom. Dr. Ricevuto recruited speakers from across the nation to present technological workshops for the faculty so they could become better instructors online and better engage students.
Dr. Ricevuto also distributes to all faculty and adjuncts a bi-monthly newsletter, which includes teaching tips, a technology corner that includes all the latest platforms, faculty news, faculty and adjunct spotlights, teaching resources, faculty book club, and all upcoming events. Faculty and adjuncts are provided live links to all resources, as well as to the newly created website.
This fall, with the support of her VP, Dr. Ricevuto launched the “Thank A Teacher Program”, where students could nominate a teacher or teachers who have impacted their learning during this challenging time. This has been a tremendous success, and Harcum is planning a ceremony to celebrate all of the teachers who were nominated all last year.
Further, during the summer, Dr. Ricevuto created a G-Suite series of workshops from “I Can Do Whaaat in Google Docs?” to today's “Getting Started with Google Forms”. These workshops have all been very well-attended, but also many faculty members watch the recording on their own time.
In addition to the workshops, Dr. Ricevuto also created a website for her office to house everything that has to do with faculty and adjuncts. It was launched in August and has been very well-received. Dr. Ricevuto used the challenges of COVID as a positive in a sense that it provided a lot of material to help faculty, so they can in turn better engage their students. Finally, she co-authored several articles on virtual teaching and learning, and have a forthcoming book from Stylus Publishing.
For more Fierce Education Leaders, see:
Fierce Education Leader: Dr. Samantha Clifford, Northern Arizona University
Fierce Education Leader: Dr. Joe Sallustio, Claremont Lincoln University
Fierce Education Leader: Dr. Jill Buban, Fairfield University