Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

Project summary: The project leveraged national and international documentary standards to 

build knowledge and expertise at the undergraduate and graduate levels in health, safety, 

environmental, and community sustainable development management systems. Understanding 

the application of standards for risk oriented management systems across various domains is a 

useful professional skill set, particularly as the level of complexity of our operations continues to 

rise. To meet these challenges, the project proposed a modular approach with the following 

goals:

1. Develop and embed a set of reusable course modules on management system standards 

application at different levels appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students (Curricular 

Goal).

2. Support cross-disciplinary faculty expertise development in management system 

standards application by sharing our processes for development and our content both internally 

and externally (Faculty Goal).

3. Ensure the effectiveness of the course modules via a cohesive and proven educational 

structure (Educational Effectiveness Goal).

4. Disseminate our results through published papers, conference presentations and a website 

(Dissemination Goal).

Executive Review: Due to a slight delay in project award, the original project timeline was 

revised. All goals and objectives were retained in the revised timeline but there was a personnel 

change. Gretchen Wainwright replaced Todd Dunn, who began retirement transition near the 

start of the project. All development efforts proceeded on schedule until late fall 2017, when one 

of the project personnel, Dr. Lisa Greenwood, was advised by ANSI personnel that our module 

plan and content structure would require ANSI approval to be available as complete modules, 

due to ANSI/ISO access requirements. We submitted our use analysis to ANSI in January and 

February 2018, and participated in multiple conference calls to facilitate approval. Due to the 

delay for review, we asked for and received a no cost project extension until October 2018. We 

then received notification of completion of the review in July 2018. We were advised that RIT 

should be part of ANSI’s University Outreach program, which allows for the sharing of ANSI 

standard materials during a specific course only as long as students are given controlled access as 

part of the course, and the professor, course (and students) are part of the University Outreach 

program. We were advised that since our complete modules reflected standard content, we 

should not make these available outside RIT’s approved participation in the program, and if so, 

ANSI would charge per access as part of their agreement with ISO. Therefore, in accordance 

with this direction, we then submitted university outreach documentation to ANSI, and posted 

only overview documents on our project website, using publicly available excerpts. Despite this 

unforeseen challenge, the effort to create the modules and to disseminate our project plan and 

impacts went very well. We particularly appreciate the support and patience of the program 

officer, Ms. Mary Jo DiBernardo. Her guidance was key to the resolution of the review.
Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

Revised Proposal Work Plan and Milestones – November 2016 Start

Goals and Actions

Semester

Month

Fall 2016 Spring 2016 Sum 2017 Fall 2017 Spring 2018

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Responsible

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1

Curricular Goal: Develop/integrate standards modules (Intended Audience: Graduate and 

undergraduate students at RIT)

Performance Objective: Development and Integration of learning modules according to the project

management plan.

a Develop course module template Greenwood

b Research and develop ISO 14001 Module Greenwood

c Research and develop ANSI /ISO 45001 Module Rosenbeck

d Research and develop ISO 37101 Module Wainwright

e Integrate and deliver course modules in CETEMS 

Programs

Rosenbeck, 

All

G 

2

Faculty Goal: Share content and support faculty development (Intended Audience: Faculty at RIT, SUNY-ESF, ASU)

Performance Objective: share modules with faculty and collect feedback on effectiveness when drafted, and at completion.

a

Create guidance documents for faculty education/ 

development including a description of the module, 

history and intent of the standards, prerequisite 

knowledge, and module learning outcomes

Greenwood 

Rosenbeck 

Valentine 

Wainwright

b Share and support faculty development through 

collaboration as we create modules

All

c

Evaluate effectiveness of guidance materials and 

overall efficacy of the modules themselves through 

feedback from partnering faculty & programs

Valentine

G 

3

Ed. Effectiveness Goal: Ensure module effectiveness (Intended Audience: Faculty at RIT, SUNY-ESF, ASU)

Performance Objectives: Ensure modules follow best practices and achieve results by assessing and evaluating student success --At least 80% of 

CETEMS students should score a B or better in module-related assignments.

a Gather survey data from faculty who have reviewed 

and implemented the modules

Valentine

b Collect and evaluate student success indicators Valentine

c Continual improvement All

G 

4

Dissemination Goal: Disseminate results (Intended Audience: Education Programs at US Colleges and Universities)

Performance Objective: Disseminate the results of our efforts according to the project management plan.

c Final summary paper Schneider, All

d Conference(s), journal article(s), website(s) Schneider, All

Financial Reports 

Interim Reports

Schneider, All
Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

Objectives/ Accomplishment comparison: Note that all objectives were met and some were 

exceeded.

Goal 1: The modules are complete and final versions have been forwarded via NIST file share 

tool. We have also created shortened overviews of the modules that can be shared on a public 

website, and have posted those to a newly created site found here (or 

http://www.rit.edu/engineeringtechnology/crr/grants-research/standards-based-curriculum ). 

This site currently links to our Collaboratory and back to our department website. It is 

searchable via google and available to the public. 

Goal 2: Our final modules reflect both internal and external to RIT faculty review and feedback. 

We have shared both our processes for development of the modules (curriculum development) as 

well as the overall goal of increasing new professional understanding and future application of 

these standards through several points of dissemination. Due to our lengthy ANSI review of the 

module content and ANSI’s response, we are unable to share the entire modules publicly. These 

modules contain material that requires users pay for access as they are original ISO content, 

managed in the US by ANSI. If we allow unfettered access, we would then be liable for paying 

ANSI for that access. In our case, no module was used in its entirety in a course. Instead, 

portions of the modules were used in several courses, to different audiences, allowing the ANSI 

materials to be spread throughout the curriculum. While this news regarding external access was 

initially disappointing and delayed progress, we believe the final outcome is appropriate and 

does not violate ISO/ANSI policies, something we are careful to honor. 

Goal 3: Our final modules were developed using best pedagogical practices in order to achieve 

students’ understanding of the standards. Module development was shared amongst the faculty 

ensuring that each course module included components agreed upon and designed in advance. 

These components include a module roadmap, standards overview, educational content and 

module assessment. The educational content was designed to reflect different learning levels and 

include key subject concepts, real life examples, checklists and active learning activities. The 

content was developed as a package, with a summary of the standard, classroom materials, 

suggested exercises and suggested assessment tools. This created reusable modules that faculty 

throughout the department could use, inserting portions into their courses, where appropriate. 

Assessment occurred at multiple levels: a review of the module materials themselves during 

development, evaluation of student learning where modules were piloted within courses and 

review of the module materials by external partners. Our assessment indicates that this work 

resulted in improved student learning, state of the art materials, and translation to practice since

many of our current graduate students are working professionals. 

The results in the classroom demonstrated that students gained a strong understanding of 

concepts related to the standards, and were able to apply this knowledge. 100% of the students 

in the four courses that implemented the ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 modules achieved 80% or 
Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

better on relevant graded assignments. For the ISO 37101 module, 100% of the students in the 

Social Responsibility & Environmental Sustainability course, and 85% of students in the 

Sustainable Building Design course achieved 80% or better on relevant assignments. This met 

our goal for at least 80% of students to achieve a B or better on module-related assignments. 

51 students gained exposure to ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 through the developed modules, and 

19 students gained exposure to ISO 37101, for an overall total of 70, for our initial 

implementation of the new curricula. As we continue to use the modules, they will eventually 

impact all of the approximately 110 students in the Environmental Sustainability, Health and 

Safety degree programs, as well as up to 285 students in the Civil Engineering Technology 

program. 

Course instructors determined that the students were able to grasp concepts well, explain the 

benefits of the standards, and apply the key concepts and requirements to a project, a homework 

assignment, or examination question(s). In some cases, instructors were able to connect the 

success of the graded assignment with one or more opportunities that were given to the students 

earlier in course to better understand the material, such as a group discussion or collaborative 

exercise. Comments from student and instructors include: 

“All students appeared to grasp concepts well and were able to successfully apply them 

to the project and answer the related exam questions. Group discussions helped students 

to prepare.”

Students ... seemed to enjoy knowing that they ‘get’ this concept because they continued 

to use it – and use it correctly - in subsequent assignments.”

“The use of an on-campus workshop format for the otherwise online course worked 

extremely well because students could collaborate on the work in real time, reinforce the 

concepts within their small groups, and have access to the instructor for guidance.” 

“[The professor] did a great job of teaching the concepts of ISO...management systems. 

She use the discussions and homework assignments to solidify that knowledge ... she 

communicated the information in a way that made it very easy to grasp and commit to 

memory.”

“[Standards-related] discussions were helpful and gave a better understanding of subject 

matter.”

“[Appreciated the] ... hands-on experience with ISO, homework that challenged us to 

dive deeper into concepts.

“[The] instructor provided excellent course materials that [were] effective in 

communicating ideas”
Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

Goal 4: Our dissemination efforts have been very successful. As noted above, we have 

presented on BOTH the modular curriculum process and the positive impacts of implementation 

of these risk based standards, generating feedback, interest and follow-up from more working 

professionals. In many ways, we have amplified our opportunity to showcase the power of the 

standards as both a professional tool and as an opportunity to improve business and community 

performance. Thus, there are diverse dissemination venues, audiences and titles:

1. Greenwood, L., Schneider, J., & Valentine, M. (2018). “Setting a Course for Student 

Success: Standards-Based Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention 

Management System Domains”. 2018 ASEE Mid-Atlantic Section Spring Conference: 

Washington, District of Columbia, Apr 6. (presentation & published paper)

2. Greenwood, L. (2018), “Hit the Ground Running: Incorporating Risk-based Management 

Systems Standards in the Curriculum to Enhance Career Readiness”. Presentation to ASEE 

2018 Northeast Section Conference: Hartford, Apr. 2018. While we initially thought we 

could not do both ASEE conferences, we were able to have a graduate student (and working 

professional) present at the conference.

3. Greenwood, L., Schneider, J., & Valentine, M. (2018). Environmental Management 

Systems and Standards-Based Education: A Modular Approach. Charting the Future: 

Environment, Energy & Health. AWMA 111th Annual Conference & Exhibition, 

Hartford June 27. (presentation & published paper)

4. Presentation and facilitation of discussion with US Technical Advisory Group on 

Environmental Management (TAG 207) Fall Conference on engaging students in 

research on dissemination and use of ISO/ANSI environmental management standards in 

industry, in university curricula, and in legislation (August 2018).

5. J. Schneider, C. J. Romanowski, S. Mishra, R.K. Raj, S. Dobie, “The evolution of risk 

mitigation as a method of situational awareness at the local level” 2018 IEEE 

International Conference on Technologies for Homeland Security (IEEE HST 2017), 

Waltham, MA. Oct. 2018. (presentation & published paper)

6. Rosenbeck J., “Can ISO 45001 Improve Safety & Health Performance?” 2018 Genesee 

Valley & Finger Lakes Region (GV & FLR) Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) 

Professional Development Conference (December, 2018).

Changes in goals, plan or objectives not met

With the extension, we met or exceeded all goals. The extension to allow us to complete the 

ANSI review and comply with their dissemination guidance. The extension allowed us to 
Final Report

RIT NIST SSCD Cooperative Agreement Program FFO Project Technical Proposal: StandardsBased Curriculum and Capacity-Building across Risk Prevention Management System Domains: 

Health, Safety, Environmental, and Community Sustainable Development

disseminate the effort appropriately once we completed ANSI review, and we are proud of six

presentations to diverse audiences and stakeholders, and three papers that resulted. We intend to 

continue to build this area of focus well beyond the funded period, as it is an area of great 

interest to our faculty and our students.

Significant developments: The unexpected ANSI review did extend our timeline and limit the 

posting of the modules as described elsewhere in this report.

Expenditures: As noted in the attached SF-425, our expenditures were according to our project 

plan. Faculty were supported at a total of $43,968.03 ($39,240.91 in salaries, $3,491.06 in 

benefits & $30.78 in computer infrastructure support for employees covered on this grant) and 

we have engaged students for a total of $4,727.12. Travel expenses were $2,649.85. Website 

development expenses were $1,012.50. F&A was $23,785.78 for a total spent on the award of 

$74,938.00.

Attachments: 

Signed SF-425