UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The John A. Dutton e-Education Institute has changed its name to the John A. Dutton Institute for Teaching and Learning Excellence. The institute was originally founded in 2000 as the e-Education Institute to help faculty develop cutting-edge, online educational resources. It was renamed in 2003 in honor of John A. Dutton, dean of the college from 1985 to 2002, who had the vision of creating an institute focused on developing the best online courses possible.
During its 23-year history, its focus has spread to include assisting faculty with developing online and hybrid residential classes, as well as supporting face-to-face teaching and learning, and the new name better reflects the expanded mission.
“In 2000 when the institute was founded, using the hyphenated e-Education was a great way to describe online education because it was new and different,” said Director Ann Taylor. “Now, the term has become outdated. We don’t need to differentiate between residential, hybrid and online; it’s all education; it’s all teaching. We did not want to lose the John A. Dutton part of the name — we are very proud of being named in our former dean and champion’s honor — but we wanted a name that would better reflect what we do. Teaching and learning excellence immediately surfaced as a way to capture our philosophy and mission.”
Distance-learning courses contribute to helping students stay on track for graduation and to opening doors for students who may not have been able to attend college.
“The original intent of Penn State World Campus was to bring access to a Penn State education to a much broader audience,” said Taylor. “We have students who never would be able to quit their day job, stop taking care of elderly parents, or stop taking care of young children to be able to move to central Pennsylvania to get a degree. The ability to take courses online from wherever you are located has been a real game-changer. It's what has kept me motivated to be in distance education for more than 30 years.”
“As our services became more in demand, we were able bring in people with specialized expertise to be part of our team,” said Taylor. “More than 150 fully online, asynchronous EMS courses have been created in collaboration with the Dutton Institute and 22 undergraduate- and graduate-level EMS minor, certificate and degree programs have been developed for delivery through Penn State World Campus.”
To support this impressive portfolio, the institute’s staff now includes learning designers, multimedia specialists, programmers, technical editors and accessibility specialists.
In addition to online course design and development, the institute now offers a wide range of services in support of all modes of teaching and learning, including one-on-one teaching consultations, multimedia development, professional development, program development and evaluation, broader impacts initiatives, education research, and administrative support.
“The institute has increased its services from primarily supporting courses and programs delivered through Penn State World Campus to engaging with all instructors,” said Taylor, who also serves as the college’s assistant dean for distance learning. “More and more we are helping faculty regardless of how they’re teaching, whether it’s face to face, online, or a little bit of both.”