The Center for Water Resource Studies and the Bowling Green Community College of Western Kentucky University formed a partnership to address an anticipated Water & Wastewater Operator/Technician shortage over the next five to seven years. The Water and Wastewater Technician Training Institute (WTTI, pronounced "witty"), is a joint initiative with the employment sector (a number of water & wastewater utilities/municipalities/districts), state primacy agencies and technical assistance/trade associations to refine an industry needs driven curriculum that utilizes on-line course delivery to provide options for both traditional & nontraditional students. This partnership was presented at the 2008 ASEE annual conference. This paper will review the accomplishments and the lessons learned by this program over the first year of operation. The partnership has revitalized an existing Associates Degree program entitled "Water Utilities Management". The program requires sixty-seven (67) credit hours, including twenty-five (25) hours of General Education Requirements, twenty-one (21) hours of Business Technology Core courses, and (21) twenty-one hours of Operations Track courses. The Operations Track courses can be focused toward either Water or Wastewater Operations. The program is designed to be delivered entirely online, allowing students to pursue their degree with unparalleled flexibility. According to the U.S. Department of Education, in 2006-07, there were approximately 11,200 college-level programs that were designed to be completed totally through distance education; 66 percent of these programs were reported as degree programs and the remaining 34 percent were reported as certificate programs. Asynchronous internet-based technologies were cited as the most widely used technology for the instructional delivery of distance education courses; they were used to a large extent in 75 percent and to a moderate extent in 17 percent of the institutions that offered college-level credit-granting distance education courses. The WTTI courses are delivered through an open-source Course Management System (CMS) known as MOODLE (Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment). The first Operations Track class, entitled Water Supply & Wastewater Control was offered/developed during the Fall semester 2008. This first course, as well as a second course entitled Water Distribution and Wastewater Collection Systems will be available during the Spring semester 2009. As courses are developed, approval is sought for Continuing Education/Contact Hours from Operator Certification Boards in the individual states. Academic content is being provided by core university faculty with support from adjunct faculty eligible staff. All instructors (academic and practitioner) involved in the program are undergoing collaborative professional development to ensure that they are receptive to the unique structure of the program. As a demonstrably functional framework is being put in place, the program is being extrapolated to address other regional policy, academic discipline and industrial sector issues beyond the initial Kentucky and Tennessee target area. University-offered Water and Wastewater Operator Certificate Programs are being developed to fast-track students into the industry and allow current operators to reach advanced certification levels at an accelerated pace. Partnering utilities and municipalities are developing internship and cooperative educational opportunities to ensure work-based experiences for students. Trade associations have committed to developing scholarship programs to lessen the financial burden for potential students. In addition, some individual utilities are offering tuition reimbursement for current employees who are pursuing academic degrees or certificate programs. Finally, an educational outreach program that integrates into high school science curricula is being developed. This program is aimed at recruiting young adults into the water and wastewater industry. © American So for Engineering Education, 2009.
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