2025-2030 DELTA Strategic Plan

Our Mission, Vision and Values

Digital Education and Learning Technology Application’s (DELTA) role within the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost’s Office is to foster the integration and support of digital learning in NC State’s academic programs. We also support online and distance education programs at the university.

Mission

 DELTA applies expertise in technologies, pedagogies and support services to create and nurture innovative, effective and impactful digital education for NC State’s instructors, students and staff.

Vision

Lead the way in designing, creating and supporting extraordinary digital learning experiences.

Values and Guiding Principles

We are a values-driven organization that drives innovation through our commitment to our shared values and guiding principles.

Our Goals

Goal 1: Innovate

Advance student success by improving the quality, consistency and support of teaching and learning experiences through exploring, creating, adapting, implementing, and evaluating innovative digital technologies, pedagogical practices and services.

DELTA is at the forefront of innovation in teaching and learning practices and services, actively engaging in the higher education digital learning landscape as a leader in digital education. We identify promising new tools and approaches, assess their potential impact, and integrate them into NC State’s learning environment, providing both innovative and practical solutions for our community. We create transformative learning experiences, seeking feedback from instructors and students regarding their satisfaction with various tools and instructional approaches, sharing findings to inform broader instructional practices within, and beyond, our community. We also operate a nationally certified test center, provide support for non-degree studies students and support our partners in planning and delivering online courses and programs. 

Our efforts continue to focus on expanding pedagogical best practices across the university, using technologies effectively in modern learning environments that range from traditional technology enabled classrooms, hybrid and online classrooms and virtual learning spaces. As the demand for digital education grows, we will continue to scale our resources, services and infrastructure to ensure responsive, reliable support for a growing user base in both credit and non-credit academic programs, empowering instructors, elevating the quality of education across NC State, and supporting student success. 

Goal 2: Optimize

Improve, refine, prioritize, and scale DELTA operations and services via iterative, data-informed improvements to meet the evolving needs and strategic goals of the wider university community. 

In a rapidly changing environment with an increasing and varied user-base, we will continue to adapt and align our work with institutional priorities and the needs of our community. We will use data-informed, iterative approaches to continuously improve, leveraging regular feedback from our end-users and partners to guide enhancements to technologies and services. We will continue to implement and scale our technologies to support an expanding user base, future-proofing our infrastructure to ensure adaptability and resilience.  We will regularly review and evaluate our technologies, crafting our toolkit to be as user-friendly and efficient as possible for our users, and work towards meeting instructional needs while minimizing technologies with overlapping functionality.  

We will also continue to develop sustainable models for managing, developing and supporting courses, programs and instructional tools, balancing the need for scalable, reusable solutions with exploratory work that is imperative in pioneering new solutions for teaching and learning. We will leverage market and skills data to inform new programs and offerings. Aligning the services we provide with the needs of the NC State community, informed by data that augments our decision-making, will help us prioritize and offer sustainable and scalable solutions for learners seeking credit and non-credit learning opportunities.

Goal 3: Partner

Expand, sustain and encourage internal and external partnerships to foster communities of practice, share technical and pedagogical expertise, and collaboratively anticipate and respond to challenges and opportunities. 

Strong partnerships enable us to collaborate in solving challenging problems that require a multidisciplinary approach as well as allow us to expand opportunities for moving forward together.  Collaboration fosters innovation, extends the reach of our services, and helps us create efficiencies. Serving as connectors and relationship builders, we will continue to deepen and diversify partnerships both within our campus community and externally in the teaching and  learning digital landscape.

We commit to being well-connected across campus and beyond, meeting with stakeholders and participating in university committees, task forces and working groups. We will regularly meet with campus partners and engage our community, working together to find solutions, and demonstrating accountability for the agreements that we make. We will work with vendors to provide best-in-class tools and services to our community, providing feedback and collaborating closely to improve products and offerings. We will expand our partnerships, seeking external partners and avenues for collaboration as well as external funding. Fostering these relationships will help us remain connected to the needs of our students, instructors, and the larger community as we work together to create extraordinary learning experiences and services for our students. 

Goal 4: Amplify

Build awareness and demonstrate impact of our comprehensive programs and services, engaging key audiences and showcasing the significant value of our work, and the work of our instructors, across NC State and beyond.  

To support NC State’s community of learners, we need to consistently inform stakeholders of the services that we provide to positively impact teaching and learning, building an awareness of the resources available to our community. Through showcasing the impactful work of our instructors and other partners, we can communicate the value of well-designed, high-quality courses, programs and services, leveraging the authentic voices of instructors who are exploring emerging pedagogies and technologies. Through intentional storytelling, we can share both successes and lessons learned around all of our services, helping others learn from, adopt and adapt our best practices and successes.

Additionally, we will spotlight the accomplishments of students, instructors and the online and digital programs DELTA supports, participating in events to raise awareness of the many courses, programs and innovative learning experiences that NC State offers current and potential students. We will seek opportunities for recognition, elevating the visibility of NC State, continuing to amplify our impact and strengthen recognition of our role in advancing educational excellence.

Goal 5: Nurture

Nurture a welcoming organizational culture that encourages professional growth, fosters a strong sense of belonging, and empowers team members to share, create, innovate and adapt to change.  

Nurturing a supportive work environment is foundational to our ability to innovate, collaborate, and respond effectively to the evolving needs of the university community. Our staff are our most valuable resource, and it is imperative that team members feel a sense of belonging in the organization, feel connected to and care about the work that we do, and are encouraged to take risks as we pursue innovative practices.
We will continue to support our team members by providing training and development opportunities, encouraging cross-unit collaboration, and facilitating working relationships so that each unique team member can positively contribute, professionally grow, and find connections and belonging within the organization.  By intentionally incorporating a variety of perspectives and lived experiences into our organizational practices, we aim to create, sustain and nurture a welcoming and dynamic workplace where each team member feels empowered to take initiative, experiment with new ideas, and navigate change resiliently – strengthening our capacity to serve our mission with creativity, optimism, agility, and pride.