Carnegie Mellon University

Team

Each of our courses is developed by a team composed of learning scientists, faculty content experts, human-computer interaction experts, and software engineers in order to make best use of multidisciplinary knowledge for designing effective instruction.

Leadership

  • Candace Thille

    Candace Thille

    Director/Principal Investigator

    Candace Thille is the Director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University, a position she has held since the program's inception in 2002. She is also the co-director of OLnet. Jointly run by Carnegie Mellon and the Open University in the UK, OLnet is an international open educational research network.

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  • Joel Smith

    Joel Smith

    Principal Investigator

    Dr. Joel Smith is the vice provost and chief information officer for Carnegie Mellon, Computing Services and also directs the Office of Technology for Education. He holds a Ph.D. from the History and Philosophy of Science department at the University of Pittsburgh and M.S. and B.S. degrees in physics from Baylor University.

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  • Norman Bier

    Norman Bier

    Associate Director

    Norman Bier has worked in the education field as a professor of computer science and instructor of philosophy in addition to his work in course, curricula and program development; faculty support; and business development.

  • John Rinderle

    Associate Director, Core Software Development

    John Rinderle has worked with OLI since 2002 and has developed much of the core software. He now leads OLI's growing team of developers.

  • Renee Fisher

    Renee Fisher

    Associate Director, Course Development

    With a background in management and information systems, Renee Fisher leads the course development team, responsible for bringing content and learning science best practices into alignment.

  • Ross Strader

    Ross Strader

    Associate Director, Educational Technology

    Ross Strader has worked with OLI since 2002, guiding course authors, creating software tools for course authoring, and overseeing the creation of interactive tutors. He has a background in engineering and developed and taught a new course in Introductory Environmental Engineering during his graduate studies at Carnegie Mellon.

  • Bill Jerome

    Bill Jerome

    Associate Director, User Experience

    With a background in computer science and human-computer interaction, Bill Jerome developed much of the core software at OLI and now oversees user experience and usability for our software, sites, and tools. He has worked with OLI since its founding in 2002.

Staff

  • Jennifer Brodt

    Business Administrator

  • Greg Goodhile

    Flex Developer

  • Heather Marin

    Administrative Coordinator

  • Michaele Brown

    Course Development

  • Jim Greeno

    Learning Scientist

  • Sandra Raysor

    Assistant Course Developer

  • Erin Czerwinski

    Course Developer

  • Qing Gu

    Data Analyst

  • Janet Schoderbek-Yocum

    Business Administrator

  • Lexi Drozd

    Junior Course Developer

  • Kim Larson

    Course Developer

  • Cheryl Templeton

    Visual Designer

  • Adam Richard Ellis

    Assistant Course Developer

  • Nick Leaf

    Front End Engineer