WolfWare Outreach Grows to Support Learning Opportunities during COVID-19
What do transportation certifications and aspiring young writers have in common? All are skills you can develop in an online course offered through WolfWare Outreach.
WolfWare Outreach, DELTA’s enterprise-level learning management system used to host non-credit, fee-based online courses, partners with faculty and departments across NC State to provide unique opportunities for professional development and continuing education.
In the last year, WolfWare Outreach has seen exceptional growth, supporting 31 campus partners in creating 170 courses with a total enrollment of 8,336 students. These students were supported by 383 instructors and 375 instructional support personnel.
“We have had a lot of opportunities to help the campus, particularly with COVID-19,” said Senior Coordinator for Learning Technologies Martin Dulberg. “It is great that we’ve had this service in place for those partners that needed to pivot to online instruction due to the pandemic.”
The Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) and the College of Humanities and Social Sciences’ Young and Teen Writers Workshops are two NC State organizations doing just that.
The Institute for Transportation Research and Education
The Institute for Transportation Research and Education (ITRE) utilizes WolfWare Outreach to provide practical hands-on training courses and career development opportunities for the transportation workforce. Through ITRE, these professionals can stay up-to-date on certifications and licensure; obtain new job skills and enhance existing skills; and learn from instructors with real-world experience.
Historically, ITRE has offered non-credit, fee-based courses designed for face-to-face classroom instruction. “COVID-19 required us to quickly adapt some of our most popular courses to remote learning and to develop new courses for online delivery,” said ITRE’s Communications and Training Coordinator Eugene Murray.
Now ITRE courses offered through WolfWare Outreach, most notably the Airport Leadership and Management Program and NC Local Technical Assistance Program, employ fully self-paced learning, fully synchronous teaching using Zoom, and blended instructional formats. The institute is also redesigning its Public Transit workshops, which previously included face-to-face instruction, for either fully self-paced learning delivery or to incorporate Zoom for synchronous activities.
Murray said, “As our economy continues to recover from the impacts of COVID-19, WolfWare Outreach will be integral to the continued success of ITRE’s online learning initiatives.”
The Young and Teen Writers Workshops
As one of the oldest workshops for young writers in the nation, The Young and Teen Writers Workshops have been serving the community for more than 35 years. This nonprofit arts program, sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State University, brings together students and instructors from diverse backgrounds to explore various forms of writing including fiction, poetry, dramatic scripts, songwriting and the novel.
Previously, the workshops were offered as in-person sessions on NC State’s campus. However, this year the program director elected to partner with WolfWare Outreach to move the entire program online in order to adapt to a virtual environment, said William K Lawrence, director of the Young Writers Workshop.
The three-week online asynchronous workshops provide students ages 9 to 19 with an additional week longer than the traditional program at a lower price, while allowing more flexibility and independence for students to work at their own pace.
As a result of the program’s success this summer, Lawrence says that he hopes to continue online courses with WolfWare Outreach in the future.
For more information about WolfWare Outreach, visit our webpage and fill out the Get Started form.
