A continuing-education program, aimed at helping Virginia Tech alumni keep abreast of advances in computer-mediated communications, has received $60,000 from Virginia Tech's Center for Organizational and Technological Advancement (COTA).
In keeping with the goal of COTA to develop new outreach and continuing-education programs, the Lifelong Learning Series of the College of Arts and Sciences is developing refresher and specialty workshops focusing on such things as electronic conferencing tools for small businesses.
The Lifelong Learning Series will be conducted by COTA Fellows who have experience working on the college's cyberschool project. The faculty team will be assisted in the planning of the series by members of the Dean's Roundtable of alumni advisors. The program will be aimed at middle-to-upper-level business executives who are uncomfortable with new digital technologies.
The program will begin with two sessions on "Living Well in the Digital Age," one in May 1997 and one in July, to be offered to 25-50 people each session. The series will begin with basic instruction in the digital culture -- the World Wide Web, e-mail, developing Web pages -- to give participants the navigational skills they need to ask useful questions about what it means to live in a digital culture. The project will use the technology before, during, and after the series to develop learning communities among participants via the Internet in WebChat forums and electronic conferencing sessions.
For more information, contact Len Hatfield at len.hatfield@vt.edu or (540) 231-7797. Back to Contents
In 1994, the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA administered a follow-up survey to those who had completed their freshman survey in 1985. A total of 726 former Tech freshman responded to this follow-up survey, along with other 1985 freshman from around the nation.
When compared to respondents from other public universities, the Tech alumni report they make more money, are more satisfied with their jobs, hold jobs more related to their undergraduate major, were better prepared for their current job, and had better employment prospects.
A greater percentage of the Tech alumni are earning more than $30,000 per year relative to those surveyed from other public universities (62 percent vs. 47 percent). They also tend to be more satisfied with the responsibility, benefits, income, scope of activities, intellectual challenge, and opportunities to be creative in their jobs than their peers from other public universities, but a little less satisfied with the competency of their co-workers and opportunities on the job to help society.Back to Contents