Felician University Appoints New Dean for Academic Technology!

Deanna Valente, MBA has some ambitious goals for her new position as Dean for Academic Technology at Felician University. She first came to Felician to complete her BA in Business Administration and Marketing, then went on to earn an MBA with a concentration in Innovation. Over thirteen years she’s earned many certifications in Instructional Technology and Design, and currently is studying for her DBA.

Dean Valente has worked both in Higher Ed and the corporate world doing everything from Instructional Technology & Instructional Design and Online Instruction, to Quality Control & Regulatory Compliance in Corporate and Higher Education. Before coming to Felician Dean Valente taught as an adjunct for a consortium and now also serves on academic standing committees in the University such as eLearning and Institutional Assessment. As lead implementation manager for academic technology she, “transitioned the University from one learning management system to another, moving 10 years of course data along while preserving integrity.” She has also served on the College to University Status Transition Committee, and in 2019 served as Director for the Center for Italian Programs.

Dean Valente plans to continue to work with faculty and students, listening to their needs, and applying what she learns to the online training workshops the Center offers. In that regard, she is particularly excited about offering more online and hybrid courses that will utilize full open educational textbooks that will replace high cost textbooks for students.

In 2019 a good part of Dean Valente’s role at Felician involved forming relationships with Universities internationally, and making connections within Felician’s four Schools to increase online opportunities, something she hopes to grow, especially after COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror. In fact, Dean Valente says Felician is in a good place to deal with the challenges presented by the global pandemic because she and members of her team had been preparing for the pivot to online learning since before March, “by attending workshops and webinars provided by Quality Matters and the Online Learning Consortium, in conjunction with our Learning Management System (Brightspace, powered by D2L).”

That preparation provided a clear path for document creation, communication with faculty and students, as well as professional development for faculty. “Faculty were tremendously responsive to the eighty plus online training offerings we have provided since March.”

Dean Valente says another major goal is to move all university assessments to electronic assessments within the learning management system by June of 2021. She acknowledges that Academic Technology evolves daily, and says, “strategic planning involves a University-wide, team-based effort.