Alan Girelli - Distance Learning Program Coordinator at UMass Boston and Adjunct Faculty at WPI

Alan Girelli holds a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Graduate Studies in English, Composition and Rhetoric Track and studied under composition and computers specialist, Charlie Moran, focusing his research on computer-mediated communication.  He also studied script writing in the Professional Writing and Publishing program in the MFA program at Emerson College in Boston, MA. 

Since 1996, he has worked as a Distance Learning Program Coordinator at the University of Massachusetts Boston. 

In his present role, Dr. Girelli supervised the staff which provides pedagogy and technology to instructors using synchronous conferencing systems in conjunction with learning management tools for online course delivery.  Additionally, Dr. Girelli teaches writing and rhetoric course for various institutions, most recently teaching as an adjunct instructor at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  

Alan was able to give us a in depth history of distance learning in the University of Massachusetts Boston and the development of tools for more synchronous distance learning.  He discusses the challenges of the technology and the benefits gained through modern methods of online learning.  He also highlights its integration with other tools and use in environments beyond the University of Massachusetts school system at Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Girelli states he is “constantly humbled by the literacy level my two teenage sons demonstrate, with regard to Web 2.0 technologies.  They and my students put old relics like me to shame, when it comes to electronic rhetorics, but at least I can give them a language to discuss what they know.”