If you’ve ever wanted to know some of the names behind educational projects such as OpenCourseWare or e-learning options for the state of Texas, then we’ve got the goods. The individuals on this list of the top 20 most influential people in online learning may not have their name in lights, but they may have altered your life forever with their innovations in e-learning and other educational online tools.
The experts on this list are arranged in alphabetical order by surname.
David Anderson is an E-Learning designer, with more than 13 years of experience in online training. His portfolio includes designing custom E-Learning for NASCAR, Mercedes, Tufts University, Delta and America West Airlines. He also shares E-Learning tips and tricks through his screencasts, blog and on Twitter.
Dr. Terry Anderson is professor and Canada Research Chair in Distance Education at Athabasca University, Canada, and is involved in a variety of research, teaching and service activities. He is editor of the award-winning text, Theory and Practice of Online Learning, 2nd Edition (2008). Dr. Anderson is an active keynote and regular session speaker at a variety of education, distance education and net based learning conferences.
Richard Baraniuk is a Rice University professor and realized Connexions, a Web site and open source system that allows teachers to quickly create coursework by sharing materials, modifying existing work and disseminating it to students. He’s so good he’s even got a profile page at TED.
Dr. Curt Bonk (Indiana University) received the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association, the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association, and the Most Innovative Teaching in a Distance Education Program Award from the State of Indiana. He is a prolific writer and speaker.
Dr. Jane Bozarth is a well-known author, speaker, and e-learning evangelist. She is the Technology Coordinator for the State of North Carolina and is credited with helping individuals and organizations find ways to effectively and efficiently implement cost-effective e-learning solutions.
Jennifer De Vries, CPT, has over 20 years of experience with award-winning training programs, including her ground-breaking study on the topic of “Rapid E-Learning,” and establishing the e-learning strategy for IBM Software Group’s product education. She is president and chief solutions architect for BlueStreak Learning.
John Ebersole developed the first accredited online degree program (an MBA), he created the online program for distance education at Boston University, and he oversaw the construction of online programming at the University of California, Berkeley. Ebersole is a past president of the University Continuing Education Association (UCEA) and now serves as president of Excelsior University.
Dr. Tom Hackett currently is Interim Provost at Columbus State University, and he also chairs the Distance Learning Committee for that school. He holds several other positions and has numerous awards, but his main focus now is distance learning. He is heaing a seminar, Distance Learning: The Now Frontier, slated for September 2010 in Georgia.
Dr. Darcy W. Hardy, is assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs and executive director, UT TeleCampus, University of Texas System. Dr. Hardy has received numerous awards for her work in distance learning, and holds leadership positions in various distance learning associations. Recently, she was inducted into the United States Distance Learning (USDLA) Hall of Fame.
Joel Hartman has served and held offices on numerous state, regional, and national IT committees in areas including public broadcasting, distributed learning, and networking. He currently serves as vice provost and CIO of the University of Central Florida, and has been an active author, and presenter at industry conferences.
Debby Kalk is an instructional designer and E-Learning project developer. She has developed training and customer education programs for companies such as USAA Insurance, Dell Computer, and Verizon Wireless. She is co-author of Real World Instructional Design and is working on a PhD in Instructional Technology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Hiram Kuykendall is a technical leader with over fifteen years’ experience in application, infrastructure design, and e-learning development. Mr. Kuykendall manages the development teams for numerous e-learning sites for the State of Texas and the private sector.
Anne Margulies was the executive director of MIT OpenCourseWare, MIT’s initiative to publish the basic teaching materials for essentially the entire curriculum available openly and freely over the Internet, before she became CIO for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2007. Starting this September, she will take over as the CIO of Harvard University.
Dr. Elizabeth Murphy teaches the Masters of IT in Education program as well as undergraduate courses in ICT integration at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Beyond this, her e-learning contributions as a writer, speaker, teacher, developer and researcher are legion. In recognition of her accomplishments and contribution to the field, she was awarded the 2007 President’s Award for Outstanding Research (Memorial University).
Tony O’Driscoll is a professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business where he also serves as Executive Director of Fuqua’s Center for IT and Media. He has been a keynote speaker, workshop leader, moderator, speaker and panelist at over 100 national and international conferences, including TED and Virtual Worlds.
Dr. Margaret Riel is a senior researcher at the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. Previously, Dr. Riel has designed, researched and directed Learning Circles, a program that brings student/teacher teams from different counties into project-based learning communities over electronic networks. The Learning Circle network is part of the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN).
Dr. Farhad (Fred) Saba is CEO of Distance-Educator.com and Professor of Educational Technology, San Diego State University. Since 1971, Dr. Saba has managed large-scale distance education organizations and programs, conducted research, taught courses and contributed to field theory.
Dr. Ellen Wagner is executive director, Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) and partner / principal analyst for Sage Road Solutions. For the past 15 years, she has held executive positions with companies such as Macromedia and Adobe Systems, managing their worldwide higher education and e-learning businesses and developing learning strategies and business solutions.
Dr. Robert Wisher received the 2005 United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) Hall of Fame Award. Dr. Wisher was recognized for his many years of commitment, service and dedication given to the continued development, promotion and application of distance learning through education and training.
Marcus P. Zillman, M.S., A.M.H.A. is an eSolutions architect, Bot Pioneer and Guru, international Internet expert and corporate consultant. He currently is executive director of the Virtual Private Library, and is busy as an internationally-known speaker and author.