Dale D. Pike to lead Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies unit
Dale D. Pike has been named executive director of Virginia Tech's Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies department, a unit of Information Technology.
Pike currently serves as director of Academic Technologies at Boise State University, where he has led campus-wide efforts to promote the use of emerging technologies to enrich teaching and learning.
"We are pleased to have Dale at the head of this unit, newly formed after administrative reorganization to better serve our faculty, students, and staff," said Provost Mark McNamee. "His experience using technology to enhance academic and research endeavors will prove valuable as he leads this organization."
Pike's career in instructional technology spans nearly two decades of leadership at Boise State, the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Recent initiatives at Boise State include a campus-wide initiative to update information technology infrastructure and faculty development options to increase the effectiveness of hybrid and mobile courses, a pilot and implementation project for eTextbooks, and the formation of a learning technologies priorities council which has provided academic oversight for the strategic management of enterprise academic platforms.
"Dale Pike brings a deep understanding of learning technologies, pedagogy, and the academic enterprise at the institution scale," says Scott Midkiff, vice president of information technology and chief information officer at Virginia Tech. "This rare combination of expertise will allow the department to serve the diverse needs of faculty and academic programs across the university."
"I am honored and excited to have an opportunity to work with the talented teams in Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies, Information Technology and the Office of the Provost to help our faculty and students make the most of their experience at Virginia Tech," said Pike. "As technology permeates more and more of our personal and professional lives, we have an opportunity to help determine where it works and where it doesn't, always with the goal of improving how we connect with one another as human beings."
Pike will have a seat on the Provost's Academic Affairs Council, to help guide strategy and planning efforts related to the creative use of technology.
Pike received his bachelor's degree and master's degree from Utah State University.
Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies is a new department that emerged in 2013 from the restructuring of Learning Technologies and the Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning. The department works to spearhead the adoption of emerging technologies across the university. In keeping with Virginia Tech's Plan for a New Horizon, Technology-enhanced Learning and Online Strategies encourages innovation and provides training and support for the incorporation of advanced technologies in all types of learning environments, including distance learning programs, traditional classrooms, and virtual or hybrid courses.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
