Associate Athletic Director for Academic Services Jamie Rizzuto
4/15/2020 11:29:00 AM | General
Jamie Rizzuto and her staff are helping Bobcat student-athletes navigate the current remote learning environment
Montana State Associate Athletic Director Jamie Rizzuto coordinates Bobcat Athletics' Academic Service, which helps student-athletes in areas ranging from lining up tutors to creating learning strategies to navigating the class registration process. Her staff - which includes Emily Keller and Sierra Fredricksen - are leading Bobcat student-athletes through an unprecedented time of remote learning. She played and coached college soccer, joining Bobcat Athletics in 2008.
How are you helping the student-athletes adapt to remote learning? "With everything going to remote learning we transitioned our tutoring to on-line tutoring, and some definite hiccups with that, but our tutors are all using WebX now and initiating through email with our student-athletes then they're joining on WebX to be able to share screens and communicate and talk with the student-athletes about things they're struggling with."
Have you seen progress since the process of on-line tutoring began? "I think we've seen a lot of progress. We've had to adjust some of the times since some of the classes aren't at their regular time. We had quite a few no-shows that first week, I think everyone was figuring out where they were going to be physically and how they were going to set up their work stations and things like that, but we've had really good feedback."
What are the challenges that student-athletes are dealing with other than adjusting to a new learning model? "The time management piece has been an adjustment. Our student-athletes are used to being so structured, and their sport dictates that structure. Whenever practice is set, whenever class is set, and the rest of the time is for work or to have free time. When they're lacking that practice time and they're lacking the class schedule they're also lacking the time management piece. We've had Sierra, our learning strategist, pick up a couple of student-athletes that are struggling with that piece of it. Transitioning on-line is harder for some than others because it does take so much self-motivation, so we're working with those student-athletes a little more closely and helping them through things. I think one of the really cool things is the ability to share (computer) screens through Zoom and (Microsoft) Teams to see what the student is looking at. I've Facetimed quite a few of my football student-athletes just to see what they're looking at on their screens as we navigate registration and all those different things."
How has your staff helped the student-athletes navigate registration and other processes? "Registration actually went really well. The student-athletes have been very good about reaching out when they have issues and communicating with us, like they normally do. I think we're getting a lot more questions because they don't have their teammates right next to them to ask those initial questions to, and so we're fielding a lot more of those questions. The (date to drop classes) is coming up, April 14, so we've worked to get some of those forms on-line internally to Athletics, and the institution has its forms on-line, as well, so we're going to start navigating through that with our student-athletes. The other thing that is a big change that we're communicating with our student-athletes is that the institution has decided to modify its pass-fail option for classes, they've really expanded that, and you can still (enact that option) up to five days after the semester ends, so that gives our student-athletes a little more grace and flexibility, from your 4.0 (grade point average) students who might get a B in an engineering class to a student who might be struggling between a C and a D, they can switch to the pass-fail option and the F will no longer count in their GPA this term. If they choose to do that and fill out their paperwork, that's going to help them tremendously. So we're talking our students in a case-by-case situation through that new option. The biggest unintended consequence that we're worried about is how the NCAA will see those classes, but it seems like we've gotten most of those questions answered (positively). As long as they count toward the degree program, and we've gotten a pretty confident vote from campus that they're going to, then I think we're in a pretty good place. This is something new, but everyone is offering a little more grace and flexibility and I think we'll be able to work through all of it."
How are you helping the student-athletes adapt to remote learning? "With everything going to remote learning we transitioned our tutoring to on-line tutoring, and some definite hiccups with that, but our tutors are all using WebX now and initiating through email with our student-athletes then they're joining on WebX to be able to share screens and communicate and talk with the student-athletes about things they're struggling with."
Have you seen progress since the process of on-line tutoring began? "I think we've seen a lot of progress. We've had to adjust some of the times since some of the classes aren't at their regular time. We had quite a few no-shows that first week, I think everyone was figuring out where they were going to be physically and how they were going to set up their work stations and things like that, but we've had really good feedback."
What are the challenges that student-athletes are dealing with other than adjusting to a new learning model? "The time management piece has been an adjustment. Our student-athletes are used to being so structured, and their sport dictates that structure. Whenever practice is set, whenever class is set, and the rest of the time is for work or to have free time. When they're lacking that practice time and they're lacking the class schedule they're also lacking the time management piece. We've had Sierra, our learning strategist, pick up a couple of student-athletes that are struggling with that piece of it. Transitioning on-line is harder for some than others because it does take so much self-motivation, so we're working with those student-athletes a little more closely and helping them through things. I think one of the really cool things is the ability to share (computer) screens through Zoom and (Microsoft) Teams to see what the student is looking at. I've Facetimed quite a few of my football student-athletes just to see what they're looking at on their screens as we navigate registration and all those different things."
How has your staff helped the student-athletes navigate registration and other processes? "Registration actually went really well. The student-athletes have been very good about reaching out when they have issues and communicating with us, like they normally do. I think we're getting a lot more questions because they don't have their teammates right next to them to ask those initial questions to, and so we're fielding a lot more of those questions. The (date to drop classes) is coming up, April 14, so we've worked to get some of those forms on-line internally to Athletics, and the institution has its forms on-line, as well, so we're going to start navigating through that with our student-athletes. The other thing that is a big change that we're communicating with our student-athletes is that the institution has decided to modify its pass-fail option for classes, they've really expanded that, and you can still (enact that option) up to five days after the semester ends, so that gives our student-athletes a little more grace and flexibility, from your 4.0 (grade point average) students who might get a B in an engineering class to a student who might be struggling between a C and a D, they can switch to the pass-fail option and the F will no longer count in their GPA this term. If they choose to do that and fill out their paperwork, that's going to help them tremendously. So we're talking our students in a case-by-case situation through that new option. The biggest unintended consequence that we're worried about is how the NCAA will see those classes, but it seems like we've gotten most of those questions answered (positively). As long as they count toward the degree program, and we've gotten a pretty confident vote from campus that they're going to, then I think we're in a pretty good place. This is something new, but everyone is offering a little more grace and flexibility and I think we'll be able to work through all of it."
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