The ATS Vision: Creating Environments for Next-Generation Distance Education

The largest purveyor of distance learning in the Commonwealth, Old Dominion University brings a long and widely respected history to its distance learning effort.

Approximately one quarter of ODU's student population participates in programs from remote locations, via our distance education delivery systems. An early leader in this specialized field, ODU has built one of the most powerful and creative teams of distance education specialists in the country, and has achieved national prominence.

But our focus, here at ATS, is never on what we have already accomplished, but on what we will accomplish tomorrow. We are creating innovative distance learning environments for tomorrow's learners, and we're doing it today.

ODU has believed for some time that one size does not fit all, when it comes to higher education; learners have different needs. So we, at ATS, design for maximum flexibility. That's what our Next Generation environment is all about. We base our decisions on systems design, and we build new environments based on the techniques and technologies that our faculty members and instructional designers tell us will work best to encourage learning, not on whatever technology is easiest for us to support.

We have learned that no one system is right for every need and every approach. That's why we have used a broad platform of interactive environments to support a wide range of instructional activities and approaches. We have embraced a variety of different communications systems such as high-speed internet, satellite, and optical mediathat help us in our job of linking faculty and students in the most engaging and supportive educational environment possible.

Our H.264 standard now allows ODU to link students in the widest potential number of environments - from classrooms, offices, homes, and mobile devices - using the widest range of both synchronous and asynchronous means in order to provide the most comprehensive approach to distance education yet designed. In the summer of 2007, ODU unveiled the latest phase of our Next Generation system, using our H.264 distribution system over satellite. We, at ATS, are proud to use the first "IP in the sky" system of its kind.

ODU's Next Generation delivery is based on H.264, but you don't need to remember that term. Just remember that Old Dominion University is Changing Lives by creating innovative distance learning environments for today's and tomorrow's learners.