Bachelor of Applied Science Meteorology

1. Bachelor of Applied Science Meteorology New BAS specialization through UA South Presented by Dr. Yolande Serra, Assoc. Research Faculty, Dept. of Atmospheric Science HeadsUp Presentation

2. Outreach College webpage links to our webpage

3. New website under construction

4. ATMO 336 Weather, Climate & Society: Example Unit Start Page in eCollege

5. ATMO 336 Weather, Climate & Society: Example Lecture Page in eCollege

6. ATMO 336 Weather, Climate & Society: Example Supplemental Notes Page in eCollege

7. Why a BAS Meteorology Degree? • Weather officers are pre-selected for a technical career • Receive 8 months of training prior to deployment with an operational weather squadron (OWS) • Receive additional 15 months of apprenticing at an OWS • Can then pursue a Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) Assoc. of Applied Science (AAS) degree, which is strongly encouraged by the military • Following the CCAF degree there are very few options for active duty officers to complete their Bachelors degree as they move every 2-3 years, often overseas

8. Where We Come In • Weather officers who have an AAS degree meet the requirements for admission to UA South • We (UA) provide more in-depth and theoretical course work to compliment their on-the-job training at OWSs • They receive a BAS degree providing them with more options for their future

9. Current Status • Official enrollment started spring ’10 with one student residing in Tucson at that time. • 3 students are currently enrolled in fall ‘10 • 1 from last semester now in Germany • 1 in Japan • 1 in Korean

10. Year 1 (full time) Italics indicate on current online offering available purple text is an example elective *under development for Spring ’11 Year 1 Total 30 units

11. Year 2 (full time) Year 2 Total 30 units Italics indicate on current online offering available purple text is an example elective *under development for Spring ’11

12. The Arizona Universities Network (AZUN): Distance Learning through ASU, NAU & UA http://www.azun.net Satisfy all general education requirements for the BAS degree online here!

13. Steps to the BAS • Developed curriculum based on main motivation for degree • Online content • Outreach College supports eCollege • Costs an extra ~$90/course for the student but they have 24-h technical support if website is down, etc. • Exams easily proctored by superior officers in our case (whew!) • We could forego labs too because military provides hands-on training • Made UA South home for degree • No undergraduate program in ATMO • Military have CCAF AAS degrees available to them • Worked with UA Registration to secure in-state status for military students taking online courses

14. Steps to the BAS • Link to UA Websites (non-trivial!) • Atmospheric Sciences department website. • Outreach College (currently links to our department site). • UA Home/Future Students/Majors and Degrees/ website (currently no link) • UA South (approved but we are still not listed!) • Getting the word out • UA Press article • DM community support • Websites at UA

15. Online Content • Coordination with other UA departments was a priority for us, however, at the present time we found very few prerequisites available online. We hope this will change in the future… • Met with Pima Community College representatives to discuss prerequisite courses – they agreed to put several online for us! • Put together a list of existing UA South/AZUN courses to meet core requirements for BAS degree • UCAR/COMET folks are really interested in this. They asked if someone from ATMO could come to Boulder next summer to wrap some COMET (Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education and Training) modules into a BAS course.

16. Student Services and Advising • Academic Advising • COS current academic advisor (Shelley McGrath) is the main point of contact • ATMO is secondary contact point for general questions • Degree Requirements • Go by current BAS requirements at UA South • Registration • UA online courses through Outreach College, includes ATMO, UA South, and AZUN online content or links to correct registration page (not too clear at this point – needs to be a smoother process!) • Pima Community College website for Pima online courses • All Other Services • Outreach College is the main point of contact for student access to UA libraries, other distance learning services??

17. Financial • Needs: • Lecturers to deliver online content. • Assistants to help faculty get course content online. • Assistants to create websites. (COS has recently found help to do this at no charge to our department.) • Resources (limited!): • DM50 fundraising group continues to try to get money for this program and is very supportive of it. ($0 to date) • COS Board of Advisors has raised $15k and will provide another $25k to match $25k raised by DM50. • Attempted a “UA Community Connections” grant ($10k) but was denied because they only support entire programs, which they could not in this case. • Now attempting $50k from "The UA Initiative for Development of Online Programs”. They provide a maximum of $10k per course and, if awarded, needs to be used by June 2011. No faculty salaries.

18. No BAS Met degree on UA South webpage • No BAS Met degree links found using UA webpage search tool • Financing difficult to come by for our type of program • Need for streamlined registration of all UA/UAS/AZUN/Outreach online courses and programs On Going Issues No BAS Meteorology Listed!!

19. Thank you!