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DELTA Changes Name from Distance to Digital to Better Reflect Overall Services and Impact 

The belltower framed by trees in Spring. Photo by Marc Hall
Photo by Marc Hall.

DELTA means change, but it also means dependability — faculty and staff support with academic technology and innovative solutions to instructional challenges will never change. The past year brought change to almost every organization and university, and DELTA is no exception.

Yes, you have heard about leadership changes in DELTA, with Tom Miller stepping back from his role as vice provost and Donna Petherbridge serving as interim vice provost

DELTA is changing its name to match the impact the unit has on all modes of education — not specifically just for distance education. 

On July 1, DELTA stands for Digital Education and Learning Technology Applications, changing Distance to Digital. You can still call us by our nickname, though. The meaning of the D in our acronym is the only change. We still report to the Provost’s Office.

“DELTA is a wonderful organization with a clear purpose and a new strategic plan ready and in place,” says Petherbridge. “While we are experiencing both leadership changes and a name change to better reflect the depth and breadth of our services, the excellent support for digital learning and distance education courses and programs that our constituents have come to expect remain in place.”

Under her leadership, some of DELTA’s internal groupings have slightly changed. Our new organizational chart has fewer direct reports to the vice provost as Petherbridge regrouped the former Academic Technology Innovation group, where she served as associate vice provost, into two groups to focus on their specialties.

The new Academic Technologies (AT) group will provide and maintain a robust and reliable academic technology infrastructure for the full spectrum of digital learning environments at NC State, including enterprise, customized deployments of synchronous and asynchronous learning management systems, enterprise lecture-capture and video streaming technologies, specialized technology classrooms and studios and in-house developed instructional tools and spaces that support specific teaching and learning needs. This unit also provides project management support for DELTA initiatives. AT houses the staff in both Educational Technology Services and Media Production Services.

Digital Learning (DL) specializes in support and collaboration with faculty. The primary focus of this unit is to enable innovative and effective digital learning experiences at NC State. DL partners with faculty across campus to create and improve online materials and courses and to drive educational innovation. Faculty services include: learning technology support; professional development; instructional design; educational media design, development and production; and course quality programs. This unit also provides academic technology governance leadership and supports media needs for DELTA marketing and communications. The LearnTech help desk, WolfWare coordination, instructional technology and training, instructional design, and new media development teams comprise this unit. 

The Marketing and Partnership Development unit was renamed Marketing and Communications as DELTA Communications has joined this unit. This unit develops and manages marketing, communications and strategic partnerships to enable DELTA to consistently build recognition of DELTA’s work throughout the university and support the university’s strategic plan in recruitment, marketing, communications and partnership development.

“We are comfortable with these organizational changes and our new name as we think it matches much better to who we are now and who we serve. We are a key partner with everyone who is doing teaching and learning at NC State. It doesn’t have to be distance education, we are here to help all faculty who are teaching with technology,” says Petherbridge. 

Contact DELTA and we will help you, collaborating across our various units to provide you the best support possible. As you will hear Petherbridge say, “Teamwork makes the dream work.”