Brendan Guenther Acting Director Email: Phone: 517.884.0679

Brendan Guenther joined Michigan State University's "Virtual University Project" in 1997, at the beginning of a tremendous period of growth for both the Virtual University course offerings at MSU, and the staff of the Virtual University lab. Brendan has found it very satisfying to participate in fostering the growth of the MSU Virtual University. The past several years have seen online instruction enter the mainstream of the educational industry as well as continuous evolution of course management systems and processes. Our fledgling laboratory has grown into a valuable academic support unit for technology and instructional design. Brendan has migrated through many job responsibilities since joining the staff of the Virtual University. Past roles have included technical support for course production, systems administration, software development, and technical leadership. Brendan currently balances time between leading our technical staff, doing his part to manage the day-to-day operations of vuDAT, while coordinating our involvement with each project.

Dr. Carrie Heeter Director of the CommTech Lab Creative Director Virtual University Initiative Email:

Dr. Carrie Heeter (http://commtechlab.msu.edu/carrie/) is founding Director of the Communication Technology Laboratory (http://commtechlab.msu.edu) and Creative Director for VUdat. She is a professor of digital media arts and technology (DMAT) in the department of telecommunication, information studies, and media at MSU. Heeter has been involved with Vudat and online learning for more than a decade. During that time she has designed and taught fully online and hybrid courses in the TC department while participating in the development of tools for online learning and conducting research on faculty and student reactions to online learning. She created and maintains the teachonline site (http://teachonline.msu.edu). Current design projects include Wonderwalls (a collaborative synchronous and asynchronous communication system to encourage expression of the sense of wonder) and a Longitudinal Survey Engine to administer web-delivered health interventions and collect longitudinal data related to those interventions. She is conducting research on games and learning including differences in game designs envisioned by all female and all male design teams. She is working to start a Game Design undergraduate specialization. Her greatest passion is creating innovative learning experiences which elegantly integrate technology and contribute to the evolution of emerging media.