The Terminal - June 2005


September 2005		Volume 1, Number 8
Happy Birthday to Us!! Embry-Riddle has a long tradition of providing learning at a distance to students who can’t get to a classroom. Our Independent Study Program began in the mid 70’s, offering correspondence type courses in Professional Aeronautics. These courses were a far cry from what we offer today; students got a box of materials, worked at their own pace and had no interaction with an instructor. Shortly thereafter, we took a technological leap and began offering instructor lectures on audio cassette and in 1985 we shipped our first course with videotape lectures, MATH 211. The program was successful, demand grew and we decided to offer graduate level courses. The consensus was that a successful graduate program needed to be more formally structured and provide for interaction between instructors and students. In 1993 we began offering MAS 603 to 37 students in 2 sections with videotape lectures recorded in front of a live class and a home grown, dial-up, DOS based bulletin board system called Skytalk. A couple of years later we moved to the CompuServe bulletin board system which gave us the capability to reach students outside the United States. In the late 90’s we moved to the WebCT course management system for our graduate courses which allowed for total on-line course delivery and interaction. The undergraduate program went on-line in September 2000 which also marked the creation of the current Department of Distance Learning. We implemented Blackboard as a course management system and campus portal in 2003 which gave us additional course management capabilities including on-line grading.	Birthday (cont'd) From humble beginnings we have grown steadily and now offer 8 degree programs with 108 undergraduate and 60 graduate courses. The Department of Distance Learning is celebrating its 5th anniversary this month which also happens to coincide with a major milestone of 100,000 total enrollments. According to Dr. Jim Gallogly, Interim Chair for the Department of Distance Learning, “It is a milestone to me because we accomplished it in 5 years…it shows we are a significant player in distance learning.” Embry-Riddle is the world’s leader in aviation and aerospace higher education and our Distance Learning Program is truly worldwide. “In one term last year we had at least one student on each of the seven continents, including Antarctica, we had a student doing a co-op at McMurdo Station who gave us the seventh continent for that term…we’re everywhere,” Gallogly said. We are not just focused on flexibility and convenience but on providing a quality Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University education. Adam Kozola who began his distance learning career while deployed in Bosnia-Herzegovina will complete his Bachelor’s degree by the end of the year and then enter the Masters Program. Kozola says, “I have taken on-line courses from several other institutions and the Embry-Riddle experience has been the best, I’ve been involved in aviation for 10 years now and the Embry-Riddle name always pops up, it’s the best program for aviation education.”	Department of Distance Learning Enrollment Charts Cumulative Enrollment Figures Undergraduate Enrollments Graduate Enrollments Six Embry-Riddle alumni are current or former astronauts: Daniel Burbank, B. Alvin Drew, Ronald Garan Jr., Susan Kilrain, Nicole Stott, and Terry Virts Jr. Another alumnus, U.S. Air Force Col. David Moore, served as a White House Fellow. During World War II, former U.S. Rep. Bill Lehman of Florida learned aviation maintenance skills at Embry-Riddle and then became an Embry-Riddle instructor. The Lehman Engineering and Technology Center on the Daytona Beach, Florida, campus is named for him. Former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee received flight training at Embry-Riddle during World War II. click to enlarge Cadets taking a break in the pool - Embry-Riddle School of Aviation, Carlstrom Field, Arcadia Florida.
Announcing the winners of the DDL Summer Fun Photo Contest! Congratulations to our photo contest winner, Cara Thompson and our honorable mention award winner Nicholas Milan. Cara will receive an Embry-Riddle polo shirt and we are even going to through in something nice for the honorable mention. Special thanks to everyone who entered and especially to our Judges, Marty Smith Interim Chancellor of the Extended Campus, Linda Dammer from the Distance Learning Enrollment Office, and Kevin Norris, Media Production. To view the entries for our Summer Fun photo contest please access the link here.	NEW FEATURE COMES TO THE TERMINAL! Would you like to see your name emblazoned at the top of this very prestigious newsletter? Here is your chance! We will be including a new feature in The Terminal starting in June called Student Spotlight. Student Spotlight will provide students an opportunity to share their background and experiences (and maybe brag a little) in a light, humorous, fun manner with other distance learning students as well as our faculty and staff. Now is the time to set aside your modesty, and share with the world your life story. We would love to include you in this new feature. To enter, you need only submit an approximately 250 word biography, answer the 5 questions, and include a digital picture of yourself using the link below. Please click here to submit your bio and picture for the Student Spotlight.
Produced by: Department of Distance Learning © 2005 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University