American Center for the Study of Distance Education

Please click below on each individual's name to obtain a brief bio, including research interests.

Eunice Askov	Eunice N. Askov (Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction—Reading, University of Wisconsin - Madison) is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Co-Director of the Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy and of the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy, The Pennsylvania State University. She heads up the research and professional development efforts of the Goodling Institute at Penn State. She also leads the development of an online Certificate in Family Literacy, in partnership with the National Center for Family Literacy, offered through Penn State’s World Campus. She was the initial lead faculty member in developing the World Campus M.Ed. in Adult Education and currently teaches online in the program. She was on sabbatical leave for 2000 – 2001 to study applications of distance education to adult literacy programs at Flinders University, Institute of International Education, Adelaide, South Australia. On a sabbatical leave in 1993, she studied applications of technology to adult literacy in developed and developing countries in travels around the world. She has also conducted research in adult literacy and technology at the University of Western Australia under a Fulbright Senior Scholar's Award (1983). She was named Distinguished Fellow, The Flinders University (Adelaide, Australia), Institute of International Education (1998), and given the University of Wisconsin, School of Education Alumni Achievement Award (1994) and the Penn State College of Education Career Achievement Award (1999). She was the first Literacy Leader Fellow at the National Institute for Literacy in Washington, DC, carrying out research related to skill standards and workplace literacy. In addition to numerous journal articles and book chapters, she is author of four textbooks on reading instruction. She is the past chair of the SIG on Adult Literacy and Adult Education in the American Educational Research Association. In addition to membership in several adult education and literacy organizations, she represents Penn State on the National Coalition for Literacy, having also served as an officer and research chair. Return to top
Ian Baptiste	Dr. Ian Baptiste is an Associate Professor of Education. His primary professional interest is community organizing and capacity building. Most of his research and publications in this area examine issues related to civic engagement and democratic participation. Pursuant to this interest, Dr. Baptiste has been (and continues to be) a participatory research consultant to community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and community colleges in Chicago, Philadelphia, South Africa, and the Caribbean islands of Grenada and Trinidad. Dr. Baptiste wishes to use distance education technologies to internationalize dialogue on community organizing and capacity building. Dr. Baptiste currently serves on the editorial board of 6 professional journals. He is a member of the Future Directions committee of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education. Return to top
Barbara Grabowski	Barbara L. Grabowski is currently Associate Professor of Education in the Instructional Systems Program at the Pennsylvania State University. She has been Principal Investigator on several major instructional design grants with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) that address how the internet can be used effectively in the classroom. Her main research agenda is to study active learning through and with technology. Questions that define this agenda focus on understanding what types of learning opportunities can be crafted with technology that are mentally engaging, content rich, and highly motivating. She is especially interested in how these learning opportunities translate into a distance learning format over the internet. Prior to coming to Penn State, she was an associate professor in Instructional Design, Development and Evaluation at Syracuse University, the Associate Director for the Center for Instructional Development and Evaluation at the University of Maryland University College, and the Director of Educational Planning and Development at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. In these roles she served as manager of several million dollars in instructional development grants involving the use of technology. Included in her projects is an award winning distance delivery bachelor of science program for nuclear reactors operators, multimedia materials for medical students on cancer prevention, and train the trainer workshops for medical educators and area health education centers (AHECs). She has served on numerous academic committees including the First Year Curriculum Committee at the School of Medicine, chaired over a dozen dissertations, written approximately 40 technical reports dealing with technology use, written two books, several chapters and articles, and made multiple national and international presentations and addresses. She has been nationally and internationally recognized by the International University Continuing Education Association for the programs she has developed, and received the outstanding book award in 1993. Return to top
Donald Heller	Dr. Heller came to Penn State in 2002 from the University of Michigan, where he earned a national reputation for his studies of higher education finance, tuition pricing, financial aid, and student access. Dr. Heller earned an Ed.D. in Higher Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and holds an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Tufts University. Before his academic career, he spent a decade as an information technology manager at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Heller teaches and conducts research on issues relating to higher education economics, public policy, and finance, as well as academic and administrative uses of technology in higher education. The primary focus of his work is on issues of access and choice in postsecondary education, examining the factors and policies that help to determine whether or not individuals attend college, and what type of institution they attend. He has consulted on higher education policy issues with university systems and policymaking organizations in California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Tennessee, and Washington, DC. Dr. Heller's research has been published in scholarly journals including The Journal of Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, Change, and The Journal of Student Financial Aid, and his work has been reported on by national media including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, The Chronicle of Higher Education, CNN Headline News, and Marketplace Radio. He is the editor of the books The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), and Condition of Access: Higher Education for Lower Income Students (ACE/Praeger, 2002). Dr. Heller received the 2002 Promising Scholar/Early Career Achievement Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, a scholarly society with 1,400 members dedicated to higher education as a field of study. He was also the recipient in 2001 of the Robert P. Huff Golden Quill Award from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, for his contributions to the literature on student financial aid. Return to top
Christopher Hoadley	Dr. Christopher Hoadley is an Assistant Professor jointly appointed in the College of Education and the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State University. He designs, builds, and studies ways for computers to enhance thinking and learning. His research currently focuses on collaborative technologies and computer support for cooperative learning (CSCL). He is also known for examining the relationship between design and research. Other interests include the use of design activities as a teaching method, uses of artificial intelligence and recommender systems in collaborative learning, the psychology of computer programming, and science and technology education. Hoadley formerly chaired the American Educational Research Association’s Special Interest Group for Education in Science and Technology, and currently serves as the past-president and board member of the International Society of the Learning Sciences. Previously, Dr. Hoadley was a research scientist at the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International and a consulting assistant professor in the Learning, Design, and Technology program at Stanford University. He founded and leads the Spencer-Funded Design-Based Research Collective. Return to top
Gary Kuhne	Dr. Gary William Kuhne is an Associate Professor of Education at The Pennsylvania State University serving on the graduate faculty in the Adult Education Program. He is currently the Lead Faculty for the World Campus M.Ed. in Adult Education. In addition to his work with the university, Dr. Kuhne is a consultant to business and industry, the government agencies, various higher education institutions, and various religious organizations and churches. He is the current director of the Pennsylvania Action Research Network (PAARN). Dr. Kuhne also is the President of the Institute for the Study of Ministry Dynamics. His primary research interests include Continuing Professional Education, needs assessment and program evaluation, leadership and staff development in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, and distance education, asynchronous learning and applications to higher education and staff development. The author of numerous books and articles, Dr. Kuhne is listed in Who's Who in American Education, was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society, was the winner (along with Joe Donaldson) of the 1995 Award For Excellence in Research and Publication from the National University Continuing Education Association (NUCEA), and was the winner of the 2000 Outstanding Distance Education Teaching Award, Pennsylvania State University and the 2002 Stellar Program Award , Pennsylvania State University. Return to top
Gary Miller	Gary E. Miller is the Associate Vice President for Distance Education and Executive Director of the World Campus at The Pennsylvania State University, where he is also an Affiliate Associate Professor of Adult Education. He is the academic administrative officer for the Department of Distance Education. He serves as the Executive Director of the World Campus, Penn State’s virtual distance education system which generates more than 24,000 enrollments per year in online, individualized e-learning, and independent learning courses. Prior to his current position, he served as the Associate Vice President for Program Development and Executive Director of the International University Consortium at the University of Maryland University College, where he also served as the founding chair of the University of Maryland System Institute for Distance Education. He holds a Doctor of Education in Higher Education from Penn State, as well as two degrees in English. He is the author of The Meaning of General Education: The Emergence of a Curricular Paradigm (Teachers College Press) and of numerous articles and book chapters on topics related to the curriculum, continuing education, and distance education. Over the past decade, he has served on the Taskforce on Quality Principles in Distance Education for the American Council on Education and on the Taskforce on Distance Learning for the Middlestates Commission on Higher Education. He chaired the Commission on Principles of Good Practice for the University Continuing Education Association. He has served on the boards of the University Continuing Education Association, the International Council for Open and Distance Education, the National University Teleconferencing Network, and the Distance Education Policy Laboratory of the Southern Region Education Board. He currently serves on the Board of the American Distance Education Consortium (ADEC), on the Academic Development Board of the Worldwide Universities Network, on the Board of the Sloan Consortium, and the Advisory Board for the IBM Institute for Advanced Learning. Return to top
Kyle Peck	Dr. Kyle L. Peck is a Professor of Education and the Head of the Learning and Performance Systems Department at Penn State University. He is also Co-Founder of the innovative "Centre Learning Community Charter School." He recently completed his term as President of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), and is also a Past President of AECT's Pennsylvania affiliate, PAECT. Before coming to Penn State, Dr. Peck taught middle school for seven years, and was involved in corporate training for five years. He has been on the Penn State faculty for seventeen years, and is co-author of two books, numerous book chapters and journal articles, and four education-related software programs. His primary interests include technology-supported learning in general, and the professional development of teachers in particular. Return to top
J. David Popp	J. David Popp is a senior project associate in the AECT Project at Penn State and Affiliate Assistant Professor of Education in the Learning and Performance Systems Department at Penn State. He has worked in teacher professional development and teacher use of the Internet since 1990 as Assitant Director of the Regional Computer Resource Center at Penn State, as Director of Technology in a K-12 School District, and currently as a professor of two on-line courses offered through Penn State's World Campus. His interests include efficient instructor interfaces for online courses, and the individual differences of on-line learners. He hold two degrees from Penn State. His B.S. is in Secondary Education and he holds teaching credentials in chemistry, physics, and nuclear science. His Ph.D. is in Instructional Systems. Return to top
Larry Ragan	Dr. Lawrence C. Ragan is the Director of Instructional Design and Development for Penn State's World Campus. Dr. Ragan is charged with directing the design and development of instructional materials for learners external to a Penn State campus. He is responsible for the integration of a wide range of electronic communications technologies into the instructional process including web-based systems, computer mediated communications, and interactive compressed video. Dr. Ragan coordinates the design and delivery of faculty development seminars and training programs for Distance Education and the World Campus. Dr. Ragan has presented internationally on the topics of instructional design, multimedia development, faculty development issues and instructional design for distance education. Return to top
Peter Rubba	Dr. Rubba is Director of Academic Programs for the Penn State World Campus, the mission of which is to bring net new students to the University by extending signature Penn State degree and certificate programs online to adult learners world-wide. In that capacity, he is responsible for providing direction to the World Campus curriculum, overseeing the review, development and maintenance of the programs that are offered by the World Campus, program evaluation, and faculty and student academic matters. Prior to joining the Department of Distance Education/World Campus, Rubba served as Department Head of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education from 1994 to 2000. He served as the first director of the Center for Education in Science, Technology and Society from 1985 to 1988, Professor-in-Charge of Science Education between 1988 and 1992, and Continuing Education Fellow in the College of Education from 1993 to 1995. Rubba joined the C&I faculty in 1984 after eight years on the education faculty at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He has taught undergraduate science teaching and learning courses for prospective secondary science teachers and graduate courses in science education across his academic career, and taught high school chemistry and physics in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Rubba holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Ashland College (now Ashland University), and an M.A. in History and Philosophy of Science and Ed.D. in Science Education, both from Indiana University (Bloomington). His research has focused on K-12 implementation of STS (Science-Technology-Society) education and science teacher development in STS education. He has published widely in these and related science educational areas. He also has been active in continuing and distance education and outreach across his career. Return to top