CGEP Featured Faculty – Dr. Mark Pierson
Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department
Dr. Mark Pierson, an Associate Professor in the Mechanical Engineering department at Virginia Tech, teaches both undergraduate and graduate distance learning classes. Dr. Pierson came to Virginia Tech after retiring from the Navy. During his career in the Navy, he received his Masters degree in Mathematics via taking classes through Interactive Video Conference (IVC) at the Virginia Tech-Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church. Dr. Pierson became involved with the Commonwealth Graduate Engineering Program (CGEP) when the Mechanical Engineering Department launched a distance-learning Master’s Degree program, which offers IVC courses to Dahlgren, Langley and Danville. Dr. Pierson has played an important role in the introduction of a graduate level certificate course in Nuclear Engineering and coordinating Virginia Tech’s role through industry partnerships. Through these partnerships, graduate level Nuclear Engineering courses are available to students working in the industry.
When asked if students like learning through IVC, Dr. Pierson responded in the affirmative. “Yes, most of the off campus students taking classes via IVC are working in the industry and are adult learners. IVC gives them an opportunity to meet peer students in a cohort classroom setting and gives them an opportunity to view recorded lectures”. 
He feels distance learning courses require both the faculty and the student to be better prepared. Dr. Pierson also feels the need for the faculty to act more as a facilitator rather than an instructor. He stresses the fact that faculty need to be flexible in scheduling class times, homework, and exam schedules. He believes that incorporating instructional technology tools into teaching helps in bringing flexibility. Dr. Pierson uses various instructional technology tools such as learning management systems, discussion boards, forums, PDF Annotator and interactive note sharing tools in teaching IVC synchronous distance learning courses.
While Dr. Pierson acknowledges the tremendous advantage of offering distance learning courses to off-campus students across the state via synchronous IVC courses, he also recognizes the need for transitioning into a more asynchronous course delivery format. He says that online learning offers more flexibility for faculty to be able to teach while they are travelling and allows students to take classes from anywhere. He also added that the technologies available now allow him to teach a class from just about anywhere. Dr. Pierson adds that from his experience the off-campus students are more interested, motivated to learn and use more technology to participate in interactive discussions in class. He believes that blended asynchronous-synchronous instruction, either combining IVC with On-line or Centra® with On-line could be used initially and then customized depending on the student availability.
When asked about the benefits from the partnerships with industries, Dr. Pierson sounded positive. He says that, “The Mechanical Engineering department has got into an agreement with Nuclear Power based industries to offer graduate level certificate course in Nuclear Engineering to its employees who in majority are Mechanical Engineers”. He believes that there is a need for specific courses in Nuclear Engineering and Mathematics for working students as they may have been out of school for a long time.
Offering such tailor-made courses to employees helps build industry-University partnerships. Dr. Pierson sees the benefit of mixing full-time students with experienced professionals, as it creates a dynamic classroom with a diverse knowledge base that allows more students driven discussion and gives full-time students a look into the Nuclear Engineering work culture.
Dr. Pierson’s teaching and research interests are in Nuclear Safeguards and Non-Proliferation, and Nuclear Waste Safety. Apart from teaching Dr. Pierson has other interests. His hobbies are reading fiction and non-fiction books.