ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 7, 1996 TAG: 9608070044
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DUBLIN
SOURCE: ALLISON BLAKE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: shorter version ran in the Metro edition.
AT NEW RIVER COMMUNITY College, a hardy group of Old Dominion University graduates had long-distance learning to thank for their degrees Tuesday.
The announcement posted on the screen of the big Panasonic television read: "Teletechnet Recognition Ceremony; 8/6/96. Test time 3:45; Show Time, 4:00-5:00 p.m."
Promptly at 4, the "show" began - a televised commencement ceremony for the first New River Community College graduates of Old Dominion University's distance learning program, called Teletechnet.
As "Pomp and Circumstance" played, ODU administrators walked to their dais 300 miles away. At the same time, the cap-and-gown-clad graduates of New River Community College settled into the front row of a conference room at the community college, where they've spent the past two years earning bachelor's degrees via satellite.
"Truthfully, you are the vanguard of a group of revolutionaries creating a revolution in higher education," ODU President James Koch told them.
At community colleges around the state Tuesday, some of the 44 other similarly wired graduates also listened in. Instead of a handshake from the dean as their names were read, graduates watched their photographs flash on the TV screen. In the back of the room in Dublin, crowded with family, cameras flashed as New River Teletechnet coordinator Teresa Delph handed out diplomas and shook hands. Seven of New River's eight graduates attended.
University rolls are expected to swell by 20,000 in the coming years, and many of the students are expected to be like these: working men and women with families to raise and jobs to attend.
While Teletechnet's undergraduate program is among the most visible of the state's distance learning programs, schools such as Virginia Tech also beam graduate courses. Just last month, Old Dominion and Virginia Tech joined the state community colleges, Bell Atlantic and Sprint Corp. in announcing the coming of a huge new communications pipeline called Access Virginia that could swell dramatically the number of classes offered.
All of the New River students interviewed Tuesday gave the same reason for attending Teletechnet classes: the flexible course schedule. Classes are offered in the evening or early morning, and if students can't make a class, theycan check out a videotape and catch up at home.
"This program allowed me to work full time," said Theresa Smart of Radford, who earned a bachelor of science degree in nursing.
The result? A new job that started just last month as Carilion Health Services' director of private duty services.
Like Smart, Donna Barbatti of Christiansburg already was a registered nurse, with a two-year degree.
"I started at Radford University and quit after the second semester" to get married, Barbatti said. "My sister, a Virginia Tech graduate, said, 'You will never finish college.'''
But the 44-year-old mother of two teen-agers finally did, even while working weekends last year as a Radford University nurse. Then she decided to go full-tilt and wrap up her degree, so she quit.
"I've worked real hard," said Barbatti. "I took 19 hours this summer -seven courses.
"Friday was kind of a free day - ha, ha," Barbatti said. "I wrote 15 papers last semester. I think I wrote 10 papers this semester. I make A's on my papers."
Fridays, with only one class, were put to good use.
The Teletechnet graduates also agreed about something else: the need for discipline to get through the undergraduate program.
"The few people I know who entered the program and quit were under 25. I feel we [older students] have the discipline," said Sandy Ingram of Pulaski, who earned a degree in health sciences. "We write a lot of papers."
"It's not like you watch TV and take a test," said Sue Calfee of Pulaski, who earned a bachelor's degree in counseling.
She intends to go on and study for a master's degree in counseling - via satellite.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB