Founding Director

Candace Thille was the founding Director of the Open Learning Initiative (OLI) at Carnegie Mellon University, a position she held from the program’s inception in 2002 until 2013. She is currently an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University.

Candace’s focus of research and development is in applying results from the learning sciences to the design, implementation and evaluation of open web-based learning environments. Candace also currently serves as a redesign scholar for the National Center for Academic Transformation; as a Fellow of International Society for Design and Development in Education; and on the Global Executive Advisory board for Hewlett Packard’s Catalyst Initiative. She recently served on a working group at the U.S. Department of Education to write the National Education Technology Plan for the Obama Administration and is currently serving on a working group for U.S. Department of Education to evaluate of the effectiveness of online courses for secondary students.