Living 5,000 miles from Denver, Norbert and Maria Ortner weren't able to come to commencement last week. But that didn't stop them from watching their son Ben graduate with honors and hearing interim dean Ken Keller tell the crowd that "his academic and athletic achievements read like a parent's dream."

Thanks to streaming media technology made available by Metro's Department of Information Technology (IT), the elder Ortners were able, from a computer in Austria, to watch Ben receive his diploma and deliver remarks on behalf of the graduates, as this year's President's Award winner.

"We've been webcasting the commencement ceremonies for three years," says Ben Zastrosky, director of web services and development. "Viewership continues to grow with each successive commencement. The first one had 35 viewers, and 232 people watched the Spring 2005 commencement over the Web while it was happening."

Zastrosky believes that awareness of the webcasting service has grown steadily on campus, as more people with out-of-state relatives—or even local ones who can't attend—tell them about the option of simultaneous online viewing. "There was a big push to promote the webcast of the Spring 2004 commencement, which lots of people couldn't attend because it was held on a Tuesday. We saw viewership double."

IT has received increasing requests for streaming media services over the past few years. The department provided its first online streaming video in 1999, airing then-president Sheila Kaplan's public affairs radio program, "Colorado Close Up," on the Web. Today, in addition to providing the commencement ceremony live online, the department also provides services to faculty members to offer their students streaming video of lectures and other relevant course materials.

And, thanks to the webcast of commencement, the Ortners were able to hear and watch Ben tell the crowd an anecdote about a plaque on the wall in their Innsbruck apartment and that "My parents were great role models and taught me a lot about values and what's important in life. And then when I got older they let me go."

To view the archived Spring 2005 commencement, go to http://www.mscd.edu/student/commencement/spring/webcast_info.htm. To read more about Ortner, go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collcom/@metro/tw@metro_vol2/seniors_twv2051105.htm.