Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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Capacity Building for Organizational Resilience:

Standards-Based Curriculum on Risk, Disruption and Continuity

Lisa Greenwood, Rochester Institute of Technology, llgcem@rit.edu

Introduction 

Disruption is an inevitable factor in business and society, and this became painfully clear during

the COVID-19 pandemic. There is a critical need in business and society to be able to recognize 

vulnerabilities, anticipate disruption, and mitigate and manage risk. The inability to do so can 

cause significant, potentially irreparable harm to the economy and our ways of life. Although

businesses had increasingly incorporated continuity planning following acts of terrorism, security

breaches that compromised consumer and business information, and increasing frequency of 

extreme weather events and natural disasters, many found themselves unprepared to meet the 

challenges for continued operations during a pandemic (Greenwood et al., 2023). 

Our project focused on integrating risk, disaster and continuity standards content into graduate 

and undergraduate courses and programs as a means to develop student capacity to contribute 

toward crisis preparedness and organizational resilience as they enter professional practice. 

With funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standards 

Services Curricula Development Cooperative Agreement Program, we applied a modular 

approach based on a proven educational structure, developed curricular materials, and 

supported instructional faculty to implement the standards-based content in a range of 

academic programs and course at a large private university and a regional community college in 

the Northeastern United States. The project was highly successful and we continue to utilize 

and expand upon the content developed beyond the scope and duration of initial work. 

Importance of the Project

The global crisis associated with the COVID-19 pandemic heightened private and public interest 

in systems and standards based strategies for risk management, disaster preparedness, and 

business continuity to enhance organizational and societal resilience. Such standards and 

strategies shape how society deals with vulnerability and disruption, and those entering the 

workforce must understand the role of standards as well as the influence of particular standards 

and their application upon professional practice. In order to enhance competitiveness, 

resilience, and sustainable development, we as a society need to cultivate capable 

professionals who understand the challenges and risks facing organizations and society, and 

who grasp standards and systems for strategic planning, preparedness, response, and 

recovery. 

National and international documentary standards have an increasing presence and influence in 

risk management, crisis preparedness, response, recovery and organizational continuity, and 

these areas of expertise are interwoven in health, safety, environmental, policy, business, and 

information technology disciplines (Greenwood et al., 2023). Framework and operational 

standards in these domains provide an opportunity for the implementation of innovative systems 

and strategies that reduce organizational vulnerability, provide for efficient crisis response and 
Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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recovery, and promote continuity and resilience in the face of disruption. As the pandemic has 

demonstrated, understanding and being able to apply such systems and strategies is a useful, 

practical, and sought-after professional skill-set. Standards and conformity have a significant 

role in the global economy, and curricula that incorporate and apply key standards used in the 

U.S. offer students a rich and practical foundation, expanding their capacity to contribute 

tangible value and effective performance in their careers.

Project Goals and Approach

Our project involved integrating risk, disaster and continuity standards content into graduate and 

undergraduate courses and programs at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and Finger 

Lakes Community College (FLCC), as well as development of curriculum that can be offered as 

stand-alone course(s) on risk, disaster science, integrated business continuity, and critical 

systems resilience. In order to promote effectiveness and continual improvement, our curricular 

content was validated within FLCC and RIT, as well as by faculty in two other universities in 

New York State, including a large state university campus and the School of Management at a 

large private university. This allowed for feedback across the range of early college 

constituencies and later college and graduate education. 

The core project team was based in RIT’s College of Engineering Technology (CET), in the 

Department of Civil Engineering Technology, Environmental Management and Safety, and team 

partners at FLCC were associated with enterprise risk management, and the Instrumentation & 

Control Technologies Associate in Applied Science degree and certificate programs. The 

applied science perspective of each of these programs is designed to prepare professionals, 

making it important for graduates, as emerging professionals, to be able to apply risk-based 

management systems as well as applicable technical standards related to risk, disruption, and 

continuity. 

To prepare students to meet the increasing challenges organizations and society face, our 

approach was designed to introduce students to specific national and international standards 

applied in the U.S., and to enable them to identify and apply a range of relevant and applicable

standards based on the locality-driven, community-based nature of disaster, response, and 

recovery. Ultimately, our aim was to prepare students to integrate systems and develop 

strategies across several relevant standards for risk, disruption, and continuity in their future 

roles. Our project included curricular, faculty, educational effectiveness, and dissemination 

goals, as follows. 

Project Goals:

1. Develop and embed a set of reusable and customizable course modules on risk, 

disruption and continuity that integrate relevant documentary standards, organized in 

thematic elements that can be arranged and synthesized for curricular applicability, at 

levels appropriate for undergraduate and graduate students (Curricular Goal).

2. Support cross-disciplinary faculty expertise development in risk, disruption, and continuity 

and related standards, by sharing our processes for development and our content across 

two academic institutions, as well as externally (Faculty Goal).
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3. Ensure the effectiveness of the course modules via a cohesive and proven educational 

structure (Educational Effectiveness Goal).

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

(Dissemination Goal).

Project Outcomes

Curricular Goal

Compatible modules were developed that integrated multiple standards in graduate and 

undergraduate curricula to introduce students to standardization and standards development 

while incorporating and integrating specific content used in U.S. industry and society in three 

domains: 

1. Risk: risk and vulnerability assessment, mitigation, response.

2. Disruption: disaster and emergency mitigation, preparedness, prevention, and response.

3. Continuity: proactive strategies for recovery, continuity, and organizational resilience.

Each module was organized in thematic sub-sections, or elements, to facilitate uptake and 

integration by faculty in applicable combinations according to the various course levels and 

learning outcomes. The module elements are shown in Table 1. 

Table 1: Module Elements

Module Element

Risk a. What is Risk?

b. Risk Assessment

c. Risk Treatment and Mitigation

d. Risk Communication

e. Risk Monitoring and Reporting

f. Supply Chain Risk Management

Disruption a. Introduction to Disruption and Resilience

b. Measuring Resilience

c. US Emergency Management Cycle, Systems and Processes

d. International Emergency Management Perspectives

Continuity a. Defining Business Continuity

b. Determining Critical Operations

c. Business Impact Analysis

d. Business Risk Assessment and Risk Analysis

e. Crisis Communication

f. Training and Testing

g. Tabletop

Key national and international documentary standards and guides used in the U.S. that offer 

specifications and guidelines for organizations in one or more of these domains were introduced 
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and incorporated. These standards promote assessment, planning, preventive action and 

response to advance organizational and societal preparedness and resilience. Students were 

introduced to a core set of national and international standards, with an ultimate goal to enable 

them to identify and apply the standards that are relevant and applicable given an organization’s 

particular locality and context. Examples included the following:

– ISO 31000 Risk Management;

– ISO 14063 Environmental Communication;

– ISO 22301 Security and Resilience –Business Continuity Management Systems;

– ISO 22318 Business Continuity Management Systems –Supply Chain Continuity;

– ISO 37101 Sustainable Development in Communities

– ISO 14091 Adaptation to Climate Change – Guidelines on Risk Assessment;

– IEC 61511 Functional Safety;

– NIST 800-37, 800--39 Information Security Risk;

– NIST Risk Management Framework 

– FEMA National Response Framework and National Incident Management System;

– FEMA Pandemic Preparedness/Response Guidance; 

– NFPA 1600 Continuity, Emergency and Crisis Management;

– EPA SALT Framework – Risk Communication.

Modules were implemented in nine courses at RIT and FLCC, including three graduate 

courses, two mid-level undergraduate courses, and four introductory-level undergraduate 

courses, as shown in Table 2. 

Table 2: Courses Using Project Educational Content

Course Number Course Level Course Title

RIT ESHS 720 Graduate EHS Management

RIT ESHS 740 Graduate EHS System Design

RIT ESHS 150 Undergraduate Principles of Environmental 

Sustainability, Health & Safety

RIT TCOM 327 Undergraduate EHS Professional Communication

RIT ESHS 460 Undergraduate Accident Causation and 

Prevention

RIT CONM 650 Graduate Principles of Construction 

Leadership & Management

FLCC TECH 116 Undergraduate Introduction to Careers in HighTech Ecosystems 

FLCC TECH 231 Undergraduate Smart Systems Technologies

FLCC TECH 234 Undergraduate Cyber-physical Automation II 
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In addition, we developed and pilot tested a standards development simulation exercise that 

can be incorporated in on-campus or online formats. 

Faculty Goal

As mentioned with regard to the curricular goal, modules were organized in thematic elements 

to facilitate integration by faculty in combinations appropriate to their course levels and learning 

outcomes. Instructional designers incorporated online learning strategies in the development of 

module materials to ensure that the content could be developed with resources or approaches 

needed for online delivery and customized accordingly for classroom delivery. Our final modules 

reflect faculty review and feedback, both internal and external to RIT and FLCC. 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. 

Educational Effectiveness Goal

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

students’ understanding of the standards, following a model developed by Liu et al. (2013, 

2014). Module development was shared amongst the faculty ensuring that each course module 

included components agreed upon and designed in advance. Each module was structured 

following a proven educational model and included a module overview and description, module 

learning outcomes, educational content with sample questions, exercises, and supporting 

resources, and module assessment tools. The educational content was designed to reflect 

different learning levels and include key subject concepts, real life examples, checklists and 

active learning activities. Table 3 provides an overview of the curriculum template. 

Table 3. Overview of Curriculum Template

Component Description

Module Overview 

& Description

- Executive summary with introduction and overview of the module

- Module learning outcomes, description, and rationale

- Summary of key standards included in the module

Educational 

Content

- Slides and notes for lectures with guided activities and exercises

- Supplementary resources, e.g., readings, links to materials and tools

- Example discussion questions and exercises

Module 

Assessment

- Example assignments

- Assessment tools and methods to measure module effectiveness

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, 
Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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and were able to apply this knowledge. During the active project period, we engaged 144

students in nine courses with standards-based curricular content across the three modules. 

Overall, 93 percent of students achieved a B or better on module-related assignments across 

the nine courses, based on the sum of the number of students achieving at least an 80 percent 

on each graded assignment, divided by the sum of the number of students completing each 

graded assignment. Effectiveness was also evaluated qualitatively through internal and external 

faculty feedback, and was used to continually improve the module content. Table 4 indicates the 

modules implemented in each course and summative module assessment results.

Table 4: Module Effectiveness Assessment

Course Module No. of 

Students Assessment Method % B or Better

Principles of 

ESHS

Risk 

Disruption

44 Based on student application of module 

concepts and content in relation to an off 

campus field trip, including assessment, 

treatment, and review.

Assignment A: 

100%

Assignment B: 

94%

EHS 

Management

Risk 21 Based on application of module concepts 

and content within two unit assignments 

and a comprehensive case-based term 

project. Students were responsible for 

defining and assessing EHS and 

business risk. 

Unit A: 95%

Unit B: 86%

Term project: 

100%

EHS System 

Design

Continuity 12 Based on discussion and extra credit 

assignments to (1) relate critical 

resources to developing controls for 

major EHS issues and activities; and (2) 

enhance students’ understanding of 

emergency management, in connection 

to business continuity. 

Qualitative 

assessment

(not graded)

Accident 

Causation & 

Prevention

Risk 12 Baed on examination/test questions Exam 

questions: 

92%

Professional 

Communication

Risk 21 Based on class observation and student 

feedback on an in-class group exercise. 

Students represented stakeholders in 

disaster preparedness and response 

communication case study. 

80% 

successfully 

completed the 

exercise 

Principles of 

Construction 

Leadership & 

Management

Risk 4 Based on the final group project where 

students analyzed risk in a construction 

management context focusing on 

subcontractor prequalification.

Final project: 

100%

Intro to Careers 

in HTE

Risk

Disruption

Continuity

10 Based on class discussions. Students 

visited over a dozen high-tech 

businesses.

Qualitative 

assessment

(not graded)

Smart Systems 

Technologies

Risk

Disruption

Continuity

10 Based on class discussions and an 

essay assignment. Assignments in the 

SST course related to the Intro course

above, in which students visited hightech businesses.

Essay 

assignment: 

80%
Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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Cyberphysical 

Automation II

Risk

Disruption

Resilience

10 Based on an assigned paper where 

students addressed risk and resilience in 

the context of an individual automation 

project.

Paper: 80% 

Feedback from instructors has been positive overall, as well as constructive. Course instructors 

determined that the students were able to grasp concepts well and apply the key concepts and 

requirements to exercises, assignments, and 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. 

At the graduate level, one instructor observed that students appeared to “grasp concepts well 

and were able to successfully apply them to the project and answer the related assignment 

questions,” and noted that the use of a group project allowed participant-participant 

collaboration to reinforce the concepts and advance students’ learning. At the undergraduate 

level, two instructors noted that students really engaged with the content and case 

study/scenario-based assignment, and that this helped to “make content more relatable.” An 

instructor for a mid-level undergraduate course commented that the module content was

“structured and delivered in a way that enhanced the student’s understanding and application of 

risk management principles.”

Conversely, a new instructor in environmental sustainability, health and safety (ESHS) who was 

just introduced to the content noted that a few students “were confused by exposure to 

frameworks from disciplines outside of the ESHS realm” and that it was a challenge to present 

some of the content that fell outside of the instructor’s disciplinary expertise. Going forward, the 

instructor intends to dig deeper into the module resources, and adapt and integrate our content 

further to target the specific focus of the course, which is consistent with the aim of our module 

structure and approach. Another instructor initially chose not to integrate the standards-based 

content in the semester for which it was planned due to lack of confidence with the material, 

lack of understanding of how and where to integrate the content in their course, and lack of time 

to review the resources provided with the instructional technology or to work with the 

instructional designers to address gaps. We worked further with this instructor to determine 

applicable elements and improve familiarity with our approach and organization of content, and 

the content was integrated and delivered successfully in the fall semester of 2022. 

Dissemination Goal 

Our dissemination efforts have been very successful. We presented on both the modular 

curriculum process and the positive impacts of implementation of risk, disruption, and continuity

standards, generating feedback, interest and follow-up from academics and working 

professionals. In many ways, we were able to magnify our opportunity to showcase the power of

standards as a teaching tool and as a professional tool, as well as an opportunity to improve 

organizational performance. Our dissemination venues and audiences were diverse, including

workshops, meetings, conferences, and journal publications reaching business professionals, 

standards professionals, and academe. We presented on our project at two NIST workshops, 
Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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one faculty workshop on Integrating Curriculum with Entrepreneurial Mindset, and three 

conferences including the American Society for Quality’s (ASQ) Quality 4.0 conference, the 

International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (IConSES), and the U.S. Technical 

Advisory Group to ISO Technical Committee 207 (TAG 207) Fall 2022 session. Our conference 

paper for IConSES was published in the proceedings, and a later version of the paper was 

accepted for publication in the International Journal on Social and Education Sciences 

(IJonSES), and is in press. Our presentations and papers on our curricular integration and 

approach are shown in Table 5.

Table 5: Dissemination on Capacity Building for Organizational Resilience: 

Integrating Standards on Risk, Disruption, and Continuity in the Curriculum

Date Venues Audience Details

November 2020

Virtual

NIST Workshop on 

Standards Education

Academic faculty 

NIST personnel

Presentation

Workshop for awardees

May 2022

Rochester, NY

KEEN ICE Workshop 

(RIT)

Academic faculty and 

administration

Presentation 

Workshop for RIT faculty

August 2022

Washington, DC

TAG 207 Fall 

Conference 

Business professionals 

Government 

Academe

Presentation

October 2022 

San Antonio, TX

ASQ Quality 4.0 

Summit: An Evolving 

Approach to Quality

Business/Quality 

professionals

Academe

Presentation 

National Conference 

October 2022

Austin, TX

International Conference 

of Social and Education 

Sciences (IConSES)

Academic faculty

Graduate students

Presentation & Conference 

Paper 

Proceedings of International 

Conference on Social and 

Education Sciences1

November 2022 International Journal on 

Social and Education 

Sciences (IJonSES)

Academe Publication – Journal

Anticipated publication in 

April 20232

December 2022

Virtual

NIST Workshop on 

Standards Education for 

awardees

Academic Faculty

NIST personnel

Presentation

Workshop for awardees –

Findings and Lessons 

Learned

1 Greenwood, L., Schneider, J., Hess, D., & Abraham, Y. (2022). Capacity Building for Organizational Resilience: 

Integrating Standards on Risk, Disruption and Business Continuity in the Curriculum. In Proceedings of 

International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (pp. 157-163).

2 Greenwood, L., Hess, D., Abraham, Y. & Schneider, J. (2023). Capacity Building for Organizational Resilience: 

Integrating Standards on Risk, Disruption and Business Continuity in the Curriculum. International Journal on 

Social and Education Sciences. In press.

In addition, we collaborated with students on an additional conference presentation and paper 

that leveraged the curriculum we developed at the Air and Waste Management Association’s 
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Annual Conference & Exhibition. The paper, entitled, The Role of EHS Leadership in the Era of 

COVID-19: Exploring the Challenges and Implications for Organizational Resilience, was 

awarded Best Paper in the environmental management category and was later published in 

Environmental Manager magazine in an issue highlight the work of young professionals. 

Information on the presentation and papers written with students is provided in Table 6.

Table 6: Dissemination of Related Student Research

EHS Leadership in the COVID-19 Era: Challenges & Implications for Organizational Resilience

Date Venue Audience Details

June 2021

Pittsburgh, PA

AWMA Annual Conference 

& Exposition

Environmental/risk 

management 

professionals

Presentation & Conference 

Paper

Proceedings of the A&WMA 

114th Annual Conference & 

Exhibition1

Awarded Best Paper –

Environmental Management

May 2022 EM Magazine

Publication – Magazine 

Article

Environmental/risk 

management 

professionals

Publication – Magazine

May 2022 Issue – Young 

Professionals Edition2

1 Greenwood, L., Stanitz, P. and Lamere, M. (2021). The Role of EHS Leadership in the Era of COVID-19: Exploring 

the Challenges and Implications for Organizational Resilience. Proceedings of the A&WMA 114th Annual 

Conference & Exhibition. Pittsburgh, PA: Air & Waste Management Association

2 Stanitz, P. and Greenwood, L. (2022).The Role of EHS Leadership in the Era of COVID-19: Exploring the 

Challenges and Implications for Organizational Resilience. EM Magazine, May 2022. 

Lessons Learned

Overall the project was successful, however we did have some challenges along the way with 

engaging instructors who were not part of the core project team. Since these instructors were 

not directly part of the curriculum development and did not necessarily have experience or 

expertise with the standards incorporated in the modules, there were varying levels of comfort 

with utilizing the content, even with the teaching resources provided. Going forward, we 

recommend providing the option of interactive review sessions or teaching circles with faculty as 

needed to enhance their capacity to integrate standards-based content and teach students 

about standards as part of their pedagogy.

In addition, while we initially shared content and communicated via email and in virtual 

meetings, we ultimately moved our content and resources onto the online course development 

platform that RIT uses for online course delivery. We found this much more effective for sharing 

resources, background materials and module content, and it enabled us to enhance consistency 

across the modules and to share ideas and best practices while developing them. 

Lastly, we appreciated the benefit of having multiple faculty engaged in the project from a 

continuity perspective. When a co-investigator from our partnering university took a position 

elsewhere, we were able to continue to work with the second co-investigator to meet our goals. 
Final Summary Paper – NIST SSCD CAP Project #70NANB20H187

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Suitability of the Project for Adoption in Other Educational Programs

Risk is an ever-present factor in all facets of business and society, and disruption is inevitable. 

Efforts to enhance continuity and resilience can be applied in virtually any professional 

discipline. Thus, our content can likely be adapted to suit a wide range of professional 

disciplines in various educational settings, including academic programs as well as professional 

development programs in organizations. Within RIT, our content is already being adapted for a 

proposed stand-alone general education course entitled, Design for Resilience in a Changing 

World. In addition, RIT’s new RIT Certified program has contracted with project faculty to 

develop three courses that incorporate our educational content. This program is aimed at 

workforce development and continuing education in industry, and the courses are anticipated to 

be completed and available for delivery after spring semester of 2023. 

Our approach for curricular development and standards integration as described in this paper 

can also be applied to a range of courses and programs, included other university programs as 

well as workforce development and K-12 applications. The approach has been disseminated to 

a wide range of audiences, made available via presentation slides, conference proceedings, 

and journal papers. 

Acknowledgements

This final summary paper was prepared by RIT under award #70NANB20H187 from the 

National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce. The 

statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not 

necessarily reflect the views of the National Institute of Standards and Technology or the U.S. 

Department of Commerce.

References

Greenwood, L., Schneider, J., Hess, D., & Abraham, Y. (2022). Capacity Building for Organizational 

Resilience: Integrating Standards on Risk, Disruption and Business Continuity in the Curriculum. 

In Proceedings of International Conference on Social and Education Sciences (pp. 157-163).

Greenwood, L., Hess, D., Abraham, Y. & Schneider, J. (2023). Capacity Building for Organizational 

Resilience: Integrating Standards on Risk, Disruption and Business Continuity in the Curriculum. 

International Journal on Social and Education Sciences. In press.

Liu, X., Raj, R., Reichlmayr, T., Liu, C., & Pantaleev, A. (2013). Incorporating Service-Oriented 

Programming techniques into undergraduate CS and SE curricula. In 2013 IEEE Frontiers in 

Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1369-1371). IEEE.

Liu, X., Raj, R. K., Reichlmayr, T. J., Liu, C., & Pantaleev, A. (2013). Teaching Service-Oriented 

Programming to CS and SE undergraduate students. In 2013 IEEE Frontiers in Education 

Conference (FIE) (pp. 15-16). IEEE.