Mary Ellen Wiltrout

Mary Ellen Wiltrout

Director of Blended and Online Initiatives; Lecturer

Mary Ellen Wiltrout oversees the development and execution of the department's digital learning strategy with a team of instructors and postdoctoral scholars as well as graduate and undergraduate student contributors.

617-452-2940

Phone

68-233

Office

Education

  • PhD, 2009, Biology, MIT
  • SB, 2004, Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University

Summary

Mary Ellen applies her teaching experience, PhD in biology, and knowledge of the learning sciences research to transform the biology curriculum at MIT in collaboration with the faculty and instructional team. The projects include blended learning experiences for MIT students (especially the Introductory Biology and core undergraduate courses) and open online courses (MOOCs) that are available to learners around the world. She takes a learning engineering approach to the design process to focus on the learners and make data-informed decisions. She manages the development and execution of the projects and promotes the implementation of evidence-based teaching. The group also studies learner engagement and course design. Mary Ellen enjoys training and mentoring other teaching staff and postdocs as well as graduate, undergraduate, and high school students in this discipline. The group created and manages three of Class Central's Best Free Online Courses of All Time. She is also a founding member and senior co-leader of the cross-departmental Digital Learning Lab of MIT Open Learning. Prior to returning to MIT, Mary Ellen taught at Harvard University.

Awards

  • COVID-19 Hero, School of Science, MIT, 2020
  • Silver Award in the Science of Learning category, Reimagine Education, 2019
  • Infinite Mile Award, Department of Biology, MIT, 2016

Key Publications

Related Links

Multimedia