LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, ADMINISTRATION, DELIVERY AND DEVELOPMENT OF DISTANCE EDUCATION PROGRAMS, WITH EXTENSIVE EXPERIENCE IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS AND METHODOLOGIES.

My name is Stella Porto and I'm currently the director of the Master of Distance Education program, having also had roles as Program Director for the Master of Information Technology, Associate Chair and Acting Chair in the Information and Technology Systems Department in the Graduate School.

I have been working as a faculty member and staff at UMUC since January, 2001. I'm originally from Brazil - Rio de Janeiro, where I lived until September 2000.

I received a BS in Electrical Engineering in 1986 at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). I obtained my Master's and Doctoral degrees in Informatics ( CS at PUC-Rio) in 1991 and 1995, respectively, from the same institution.

I initially worked as a hardware designer and moved to academe in 1989. As a researcher, for 10 years my work focused in the fields of parallel processing and heuristic methods for combinatorial optimization problems. In teaching, my experience ranges a variety of different courses in Computer Science, including: algorithm design, parallel programming, computer architectures, parallel and distributed computing and parallel algorithms.

I have taught in the Graduate School in several different programs, including the MDE, CSMN, and MSIT programs. Currently, my research interests are in Distance Education, including primarily topics related to learning objects, new technologies, multimedia and course development models, and in Information Technology education topics.

Distance Education E-learning Information technology

Technologies for Distance Education Distance Education Higher Education Management