VALDOSTA — AT&T has donated $25,000 to Wiregrass Georgia Technical College’s Online Center. 

The college’s online programs were recently recognized among the top in the nation for online community colleges by OnlineSchoolsGuide.net, college officials said in a statement. 

Wiregrass Tech plans to develop an Online Faculty Center that would upgrade the virtual classroom experience, expand the programs offered online, and increase student accessibility. 

The Online Faculty Center will be equipped with various technologies that will allow instructors to produce high-quality live lectures, prerecorded lectures and/or lab activities. The center will be located in the Distance Learning Suite on the Valdosta campus; however, portable options that would be accessible to all campuses are being researched, college officials said.

“At AT&T, we understand the importance of closing the digital divide. We are proud to support Wiregrass Georgia Technical College to enhance the virtual classroom experience, expand online programming and increase student accessibility – equipping Wiregrass students with resources to reach their academic dreams,” said Gary Sanchez, AT&T Georgia manager of external affairs. “When our students succeed, we all succeed.”

Wiregrass President DeAnnia Clements said, “We are so appreciative of this generous donation to the college from our partners at AT&T. Wiregrass is committed to delivering a world-class education to our service area and we believe the Online Faculty Center will help our faculty provide an even better online experience for our students.”

Wiregrass is accepting new students for spring semester; classes begin Jan. 10. Anyone interested in taking classes online or learning more about the programs offered can contact www.wiregrass.edu. 

The college is offering two new online programs for spring semester: social media specialist and AWS Cloud solutions.