Letter from the Vice Provost

DELTA is celebrating our 25th anniversary!  

Formed in July 2000 by pulling together several dispersed campus units (a distance education unit housed in the McKimmon Center), the Learning Technology Services (a collaboration between the Libraries and the Office of Information Technology), and the Video Communication Services team (a video production team housed in the College of Engineering), DELTA has reached a milestone — our 25th anniversary of strategically investing in advancing instructional excellence at NC State University.

Prior to DELTA’s formation there was an initiative put forward by several campus leaders representing Outreach & Extension, Adult Credit Programs, and OIT to get 25 NC State courses online by in 1997, and to shape the formation of the Learning Technology Service to provide campus leadership in educational technology; this history is documented in a report from Dr. Ernie Knowles, one of the first faculty members at NC State that offered an online course in fall 1997. Fun fact: I was hired part-time in the fall of 1997 to support these online courses and faculty, and have been at NC State ever since. Wow, we have come a long way in the digital learning space and in supporting our online programs and students since those days!

Initially focusing on growing online distance education courses and programs, DELTA leveraged digital technologies to expand the reach of NC State. In DELTA’s first year, 300 on-campus degree-seeking students were enrolled in at least one online or distance education course, and there were an additional 1,129 students taking only distance education courses. In 2024, 23,629 on-campus students were enrolled in at least one online course, and we served 3,513 distance education students. While DELTA’s initial focus was on growing and supporting distance education to extend the reach of our university to non-traditional learners, our current focus is much broader, supporting excellence and innovation for all digital learning.

Today, with the pervasiveness of digital tools in online, hybrid and in-person classes, almost every NC State student and instructor has some degree of interaction with DELTA’s services, and taking at least one online course is very much a part of the undergraduate experience, allowing students flexibility in their busy schedules. Exams are a component of online and hybrid courses, and this year, 19,488 students took an exam proctored by our Testing Services team. In supporting the broader picture of digital learning, business continuity and outreach, 4,171,848 Panopto lecture capture videos were viewed, 803,235 Zoom meetings were held, 341 non-credit courses were supported by WolfWare Outreach, 130-credit bearing courses were supported in DELTA classrooms, 810 attendees were served via our technology workshops, and 3747 support calls were resolved by our teams; and these are only a few of our statistics for the year. Serving the entire campus beyond distance education courses, we focus on positively impacting instructor and student success in every course delivery medium by designing, creating and supporting extraordinary digital learning experiences (see examples from our Yearbook).  

In addition to providing access to and supporting a comprehensive suite of enterprise learning technology tools and the aforementioned Testing Services, we provide planning and support for online and distance education programs and online certificates, university compliance with regulations governing state authorization of distance education courses, professional licensure notification, management of non-degree seeking (NDS) applications and communications with NDS students, assessment for distance education accreditation requirements, and marketing for online programs and courses. We also offer comprehensive support services for instructors, including workshops, course design, academic technology help desk support, managing campus-wide lecture capture, providing specialized instructional multimedia services, facilitating nationally recognized instructional quality assurance programs, and applying evidence-based practices to instructional solutions. The unit also directly supports business operations, marketing and communications for NCSCaLE and provides operational support to the Disability Resource Offices Testing Center.

As anniversaries are a time for reflection, we take a moment to appreciate our achievements, highlighting DELTA’s impact on both quality and innovation in instruction. DELTA received major kudos this year, winning several national awards, including the 2024 Quality Matters Making a Difference for Students Award and the 2025 Online Learning Consortium’s (OLC) Excellence in Online and Blended Learning Innovation Award. These achievements were made possible through sustained work over the years, building on lessons learned from online course quality improvement programs and through the support of pedagogical best practices. 

At NC State’s inaugural 2025 Excellence in Interdisciplinary Teaching Event, DELTA staff were part of the team recognized for the interdisciplinary impact of the Wicked Problems, Wolfpack Solutions (WPWS) course. WPWS also received national recognition this year from Every Learner, Everywhere. The 2025 Gertrude Cox Award Recipient, Ignacio Dominguez, was supported by a DELTA Hybrid Learning Grant, with our team helping develop the interface management system for a Virtual Course Machine for CSC 342. Additionally, highlighting the service orientation of our team, DELTA staff were recognized at the 2025 NC State IT Community Awards Event with an Operational Excellence Team Award for their support of UNC-Asheville colleagues after Hurricane Helene. DELTA staff member Tremayne Grimes was also recognized as a 2025 Provost’s Unit Awards for Excellence winner for his impact on operational efficiency.  

DELTA staff contribute to the national scholarship and advancement of digital learning, enhancing NC State’s reputation. Our team gave 67 presentations this year at local and national events and conferences. This year, we authored and/or co-authored with our instructors 3 publications in peer-reviewed journals, and have an additional 7 publications currently in the pre-publication/submissions stages. DELTA staff participate in 29 professional organizations, and contribute both nationally and regionally in conference planning, proposal reviews, and board service for many associations.

While reflecting on our history, and taking a moment to appreciate our many achievements this year, we acknowledge that DELTA will always mean “change.” DELTA will continually evolve in ways that best serve our vision, mission, and the needs of NC State University. Digital learning is ubiquitous, and we will continually need to evolve our support services to ensure that instructors and students thrive in this ever-changing space. Technology is always evolving and changing, with a transformational event of the past two years, the injection of artificial intelligence (AI) into, well, everything. With all emerging technologies — a recent example being the eXtended reality space (AR, VR, XR), we work with our instructors to find ways that these emerging technologies can create extraordinary learning experiences for our students. We are leaning into AI in the same way, finding ways to leverage AI to support teaching and learning, improve our own business processes, and provide training and support to our instructors so they will be well-positioned to use AI as an assistant in their work, helping our students to also use AI responsibly in their academic journeys. We are also paying attention to evolving regulations that impact instructors; for example, the ADA Title II digital accessibility final rule that takes effect April 2026 — impacting all of our online digital materials, NC State’s compliance with the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA), professional licensure notification and program certification regulations, and the requirement for all online courses to meet Regular and Substantive Interaction (RSI) requirements.  

As we look to the future, we will continue to remain engaged with both emerging technologies, regulations that impact higher education, and opportunities to find ways to improve our services and processes. We are currently working on our next strategic plan, and while our vision and mission remain the same, we will establish goals that continue to directly connect our work with the highest priorities of the university that are within our scope of work. I anticipate that we will be providing additional support in the area of non-degree innovation, as our university finds ways to offer innovative online learning in the non-credit and micro credentialing space, partnering with our friends in NCSCaLE, and others in the Office of Academic Strategy, Innovation and Solutions (OASIS). 

Higher education is facing unprecedented times, not only with the numerous emerging technologies and changing regulations, but in the broader space of articulating the value of higher education itself. What we did yesterday may not necessarily work today (y’all remember how we used to send VHS tapes in the mail to people’s homes as the way for learners to get distance education course materials, wow, things change!). We all have to be willing to change, to lean into innovation and to collaborate with each other in ways that we may not have even thought of before.

DELTA will continue to partner with colleges, programs and instructors in designing, delivering and supporting extraordinary learning experiences. We hope to continue to partner with all of you to showcase the amazing learning possibilities that exist at our institution. We will continue to evolve our platforms and services to help faculty address the learning needs of today’s students, supporting the university’s strategic goal of empowering students for a lifetime of success and impact.

Thanks to our entire team, and to all those who have believed in our mission, and who have partnered with us and supported us over the years.  Cheers to 25 years of advancing instructional excellence — may there be many, many more adventures!

— Donna Petherbridge, DELTA Vice Provost