Wake Tech began offering “co-curricular transcripts,” or CCTs, documenting the valuable leadership experience and career prep students gain through clubs, sports, volunteer projects, and student government. Wake Tech is the first community college in North Carolina to issue the new transcripts, which can give graduates a competitive edge. Ten students received the first CCTs at the spring 2015 graduation.

Wake Tech launched two new MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), to help students with chemistry and computer basics. MOOCs are self-paced, free of charge, and open to all. Chemistry Concepts (or CheMOOC), covers matter, energy, atomic theory, molecular structure, and more. The Computer Basics MOOC is designed to improve computer literacy and covers operating systems, applications, and browsers. Wake Tech became the first community college in the state (and one of the first in the nation) to offer a MOOC when it launched Introductory Algebra Review in 2013.

Wake Tech established a Confucius Classroom in collaboration with NC State University’s Confucius Institute (NCSU-CI) and Nanjing Normal University and Hanban/Confucius Institute in China. China created Confucius Institutes in 2004 to offer classes in Chinese language and culture – in response to demand – and there are currently 443 across Asia, Africa, America, Europe, and Oceania.

Wake Tech engineering students worked in teams to create practical objects – cup holders – using 3D printers. The projects were part of an $825,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for enhancing applied engineering technologies and college transfer programs.