Nelson Baker named vice provost of DLPE

Robert Nesmith
Communications
& Marketing

	Nelson C. Baker

Georgia Tech has named Nelson C. Baker Vice Provost for Distance Learning and Professional Education (DLPE). He served as DLPE associate vice provost for four years, and most recently has acted as interim vice provost following Professor William Wepfer’s appointment as chair of the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering.

DLPE offers master’s degree programs across nine disciplines internationally to distance learning students, and a diverse continuing education portfolio of non-credit courses, ranging from business and management classes to engineering and computing.

The Language Institute, which assists international students, professionals and visitors in improving their English proficiency, as well as the management of the Georgia Tech Global Learning Center, are important responsibilities of DLPE.

During Baker’s May 7 presentation to the faculty, he outlined opportunities for both DLPE and the Institute by presenting the challenges facing today’s workforce, Georgia’s place in the new economy and the advent of globalization. Baker touted DLPE’s collaboration with other Institute units, such as the colleges of Architecture, Computing and Management, GTRI, the library, the Office of Information Technology and the potential for working with the Office of Human Resources, as the genesis of DLPE’s direction.

He views the center’s role in preparing today’s workforce for an upcoming “talent crunch,” where the education gap between new technologies and existing workers continues to widen. With the advent of globalization, Baker states that recruiting no longer will be solely a local process for companies. “The best employers are going to be scanning the earth, looking for the best employees.”

In referring to President G. Wayne Clough’s appointment to the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, Baker says he recognizes the need to build a better employee.
“We need to be doing more to help people learn more effectively and to prepare them for the workforce of tomorrow,” he said. “I believe that means not just [for] undergraduate and graduate students, but for individuals from commencement in the workforce to post-retirement.”

His vision for DLPE includes cultivating employees within the unit, developing an “interactive learning model” to make education and instruction more learner-focused, building newfound collaborations across the Institute to aid in research and philanthropy as well as education, instilling a true global model for DLPE’s services and improving the center’s dissemination of best practices and research.

“Our greatest factor for success is an alignment with the university’s strength, the market need and faculty interest,” he said. “DLPE was not built to be a tenant of a facility. We are meant to augment adult learning.”

“Distance and adult learning are integral to Georgia Tech’s mission and goals,” said Gary Schuster, provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs. “We are fortunate to have someone of Nelson’s experience and background ready to keep us moving along a successful track.”

Baker, an associate professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, received his bachelor’s from Tech in 1980, and his master’s and doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University in 1985 and 1989, respectively. His research includes study of knowledge retention and transfer regarding technology used by engineering students, including multi-lingual, Web-based simulations for problem-solving, intelligent tutors, student models, virtual reality interfaces for education and medical assistants.

Among other accolades, he received the Outstanding Innovative Use of Education Technology Award at Tech in 1997, the W.M. Keck Foundation Award for Engineering Teaching Excellence in 1994 and was the National Science Foundation National Young Investigator from 1992 to 1998. He has written and been published in more than 20 publications. Baker serves on the executive committee of the International Association of Continuing Engineering Education and is the vice chair of the Georgia Board of Regents’ Committee on Public Service and Outreach.