West Liberty University CIO Joe Rodella has a long history adapting technology to the classroom. The oldest institution of higher learning in West Virginia is now on the leading edge of remote learning, thanks to Rodella’s digitally-focused direction.
With just 2,500 students, this small university needed to stretch already-limited funding to help convert classrooms into a hybrid studio model for distance learning. Rodella took quick steps to apply critical CARES Act funding to repurpose WLU’s underutilized digital TV station.
By simply moving classes to digital, professors were able to record a wide array of classroom content in state-of-the-art production facilities instead of trying to store recorded lectures on Zoom with limited space. Over 60,000 Zoom minutes were recorded per day in the first semester, and the school was able to cut costs by 90% when transforming traditional classrooms into hybrid-capable rooms.
Rodella has taken a creative approach to developing a remote work and online learning tech stack that supports hybrid classrooms, including recommending Faculty Success (formerly Digital Measures), Curriculum Strategy (formerly SmartCatalog), Course Evaluations & Surveys (formerly EvaluationKIT) and LiveText by Watermark to WLU to manage staff, update curriculum and course catalogs, streamline faculty review and tenure, and create efficiencies within the provost’s office. Learn more about WLU’s cost-effective and creative approach in this Toggle article.
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