Tom Carney, Ph.D., is one of the professors for the 100 percent online MS in Aviation and Aerospace Management.
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About the Program
As a part of my long, more than 40-year tenure on the aviation (AT) faculty and graduate faculty, one of my greatest sources of professional joy is the growth of our graduate program, at both the M.S. and Ph.D. levels, as well as the parallel growth of our research impact and collaboration at Purdue. I’m especially proud of our program offered through ProSTAR, because it allows us to provide an excellent master’s-level education to industry professionals, most of whom could not pursue a degree on campus because of career and personal commitments.
About the Students
Our students are mature, highly focused, and dedicated. They bring rich diversity (gender, cultural, professional area) to the class online discussions, and that diversity enhances everyone’s learning (mine included!). Their status as practicing professionals allows us to teach the course materials at a high level and to have high expectations for the quality of student work; and the students not only tolerate that, they expect it!
I think an especially important component of teaching courses through online delivery is to be responsive to student requests and questions, and I strive to get back to them as quickly as possible. Since I tend to work late (frequently past midnight), it’s not unusual to receive an email question at that time, and to answer it immediately. My sense is that students are both initially surprised at the response time at that hour, and that they really appreciate it, because they need the answer to continue their course assignments, and most have to do their study at night and on weekends because of their day jobs.
I also invite my ProSTAR students to schedule a Skype session to discuss their issues, questions, and concerns, particularly for the AT 50600 capstone research course. It allows us to get to know each other better and to put a face with the course messages.
The AT ProSTAR faculty is a small, close-knit subgroup of the AT graduate faculty, and we work together to make our program one of excellence and consistency for our students. That professional relationship, and working with the truly outstanding students we have the pleasure of teaching and mentoring through the ProSTAR program, makes it one of my greatest professional pleasures over a long career at Purdue.
Read more about Tom Carney's career on his professional profile page.