Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University is known for the extensive lab facilities, research opportunities and learning resources available at each of its campuses. Students and faculty who are taking or teaching at least one Embry-Riddle Worldwide course and are looking to enhance their communication skills can leverage these offerings by visiting the Virtual Environment for Communication: Teaching, Outreach and Research (VECTOR).

VECTOR provides communication education resources and support through a three-pillar structure that focuses on student, faculty and resource development.

VECTOR at Embry-Riddle

VECTOR Director Dr. Kathleen Turner Ledgerwood has led initiatives to drive the center’s growth and expansion since January 2025. Dr. Turner Ledgerwood works with VECTOR’s Virtual Communication Lab (VCL) Director, Dr. Emily Dux Speltz, and Administrative Coordinator, Thila Menon, to advance and refine the communication tools available to the Embry-Riddle community.

“VECTOR started in 2018 with a Communication faculty member and a Writing and Rhetoric faculty member who saw a gap in our communication teaching for both students and faculty,” Dr. Turner Ledgerwood said.

Officially housed in the Worldwide College of Arts & Sciences (COAS), VECTOR provides students and faculty with a variety of communication tools and resources, including the VCL. The VCL is a hub for communication education with proven benefits and expanding offerings for students. The lab also recently integrated a new, user-friendly appointment-booking system, WC Online.

How to Book an Appointment with VECTOR Experts

Worldwide Campus students can book a VCL appointment using WC Online through ERNIE. When students first visit WC Online, they can enroll using their ERNIE login credentials.

VCL appointments are hosted by VECTOR’s multidisciplinary communication consultants, a group of undergraduate students, graduate students and rotating adjunct faculty members. Graduate students and faculty lead VCL’s communication workshops, and all consultants provide free, extensive communication guidance.

Appointments are available seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. ET and are offered in 30-minute synchronous sessions and 60-minute synchronous and asynchronous sessions.

After booking an asynchronous appointment and submitting the material they would like help with, students “get a video from one of our trained communication consultants and a written document that reiterates the key points from the video,” Dr. Turner Ledgerwood explained. “[The consultant] walks them through what they’re doing well and what could be improved.”

Students can submit papers, presentations or any digital media that they would like to receive feedback on.

“We would encourage all students to make appointments with us to help with any communication-related work, even if they just want to stop by to ask a few quick questions from our experienced communication consultants,” Dr. Dux Speltz said.

Communication Resources for Online Students

Within and beyond the VCL, VECTOR offers a wide range of communication resources for students. These resources include recorded virtual workshops, instructions and templates that cover digital, verbal, visual and written communication forms.

“We’ve been partnering with the Writing and Design Lab on the Prescott Campus and the Center for Communication and Digital Media on the Daytona Beach Campus,” Dr. Turner Ledgerwood said. “We’ve been building up our online support for students.”

Resources such as how-tos for essay-writing and style guides were developed with input from communication consultants, trained communication professionals, students and faculty.

“It can be helpful [when students are new to Embry-Riddle] to look around and see what resources are available,” she elaborated. “Some students just coming in don’t know anything about APA citation and setting up a paper, so we’ve got videos to help them ... we've got a lot of pre-writing resources as well.”

New Developments on the Horizon

One of VECTOR’s current objectives is to expand its asynchronous offerings. Dr. Turner Ledgerwood shared that the team is developing additional pre-recorded mini-workshops for its resource repository.

“Students will be able to go through these workshops at their own pace and then be able to use that for class credit or to show completion of additional effort in different areas related to communication,” she said.

The team has also focused on further building its teaching and research pillars. They are partnering with faculty members to bolster their resources and provide tailored support for online classes.

“I’ve been working with faculty at COAS one-on-one and in groups on teaching and developing more support for specific classes,” Dr. Turner Ledgerwood said. “We are now trying to expand that to the College of Aviation and College of Business on the Worldwide Campus.”

Faculty interested in learning more about communication research and teaching can request to be added to a Canvas course that hosts a wealth of updated information, academic journals and open research opportunities.

Students can bookmark and follow VECTOR’s pages in ERNIE to receive updates on new additions and changes, as well as announcements for workshops that will go live in the upcoming academic term.

Student Engagement at VECTOR

Many of VECTOR’s initiatives are student-driven, and Embry-Riddle students significantly influence the available content. Communication students are often directed by their professors to visit the communication center on their campus, where they are prompted to identify opportunities for new or supplemental content.

VECTOR also hosts research project opportunities for students. Each term, the center employs one student research assistant who works with one of the directors to develop a project on a communication topic.

“They come in with the idea and then work with one of us,” Dr. Turner Ledgerwood said. “We give them a range of what research we've been doing, and they get to develop something from there.”

Research assistants are hired from one of the residential campuses and may work with their advisor for the duration of the academic year.

Visit VECTOR

VECTOR is a one-stop shop for Embry-Riddle Worldwide students and faculty in need of robust communication guidance and feedback.

With new projects and growth plans underway, Dr. Turner Ledgerwood and the team at VECTOR encourage and welcome feedback and suggestions. At Embry-Riddle, every student and faculty member has an opportunity to offer meaningful contributions and make a difference.

Students and faculty can submit content requests directly by emailing wwvector@erau.edu.

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