For Immediate Release: January 4, 2006
GRADUATE ENGINEERING PROGRAM OPEN HOUSE TO BE OFFERED AT UMW’S CGPS, JAN. 10
Fredericksburg, Va. – The University of Mary Washington’s College of Graduate and Professional Studies (CGPS) will offer an open house to demonstrate how the interactive distance-learning method of videoconferencing delivers graduate engineering classes to the Fredericksburg region Tuesday, January 10.
The open house will be held from 6 to 7 p.m. to show individuals in a CGPS videoconferencing room how they can participate in classes that originate from the University of Virginia as part of the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program (CGEP). The public is invited to the open house in room 108 at CGPS, which is located on Route 17 in Stafford County three miles west of Interstate exit 133.
The University of Virginia and the state’s other four large engineering schools teach CGEP classes that are broadcast live to sites in Virginia, including CGPS in Stafford, and out of state. Two way video and audio communication via high-speed lines allows remote students to interact with professors and students in studio classrooms elsewhere.
The other institutions that teach CGEP classes are Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Old Dominion University, in cooperation with Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University.
The main goal of CGEP is to provide practicing engineers and scientists a convenient, part-time way to pursue master’s degrees and certificates in various engineering disciplines or to update their skills as part of nondegree continuing education.
The University of Virginia courses, for example, are taught in a Charlottesville studio classroom where students participate while the classes are broadcast simultaneously to off-site campuses such as CGPS. The University of Virginia’s Master of Engineering degree requires successful completion of 30 credit hours, or 10 courses. All required courses can be delivered to CGPS and other sites by videoconferencing or other distance-learning methods. Courses may also be taken on a nondegree basis.
For more information, contact Lynn Hamilton, director of the Technology Academy at CGPS, at 540/286-8000 or by e-mail at lhamilto@umw.edu. Also, visit the Web site at http://www.umw.edu/brokered_programs.
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News release prepared by: Christine Neuberger