The Dutton Institute began with an idea in 1997 to bring high-quality, instructor-led geographic information systems (GIS) education to learners at a distance. Building on early support for Penn State’s emerging World Campus, David DiBiase developed Geography 482 and launched it in 1999, seeding a graduate GIS certificate that ultimately helped propel a broader online geospatial education ecosystem, including the online Master of GIS. These early efforts demonstrated both strong demand for applied geospatial skills and the value of pairing flexible online delivery with meaningful faculty engagement.
With this initial course in hand and a new certificate program in GIS launched, plans followed for the creation of a learning design unit for the College of EMS that could provide needed support in the development, delivery, and administration of additional online courses and programs for Penn State World Campus. In 2000, DiBiase was named the founding director of the “e-Education Institute” under the leadership and unwavering support of Dean John A. Dutton. Upon Dean Dutton’s retirement in 2002, the e-Education Institute was renamed the John A. Dutton e-Education Institute in honor of his commitment to teaching, learning, and innovation.
To date, the Institute has partnered across the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences to create more than 150 fully online courses and help build 22 World Campus-delivered minors, certificates, and degrees, expanding access and enrollment at a scale comparable to the College’s residential population. In 2011, Ann H. Taylor became the second director of the Institute. Under her leadership, the institute's support broadened further to resident instruction, contributing to rapid growth in online course offerings for on-campus students and driving an ongoing commitment to serve all instructors regardless of delivery mode.
The Institute also advanced Penn State’s land-grant mission by sharing course materials as open educational resources, an effort that evolved into the University-wide ROAM repository in 2021, enabling broader reuse under Creative Commons licensing. Today, as Penn State’s first college-based learning design unit focused on online education, the Dutton Institute continues to grow its community of faculty and staff, provide learning design and production expertise, and contribute institutionally through University-level committee leadership—sustaining a long-term commitment to innovation, access, and service.
