William C. Diehl, Ph.D. is Coordinator of Online Graduate Programs in the Adult Education program and Assistant Professor at The Pennsylvania State University at University Park, PA. Dr. Diehl serves as Associate Editor for The American Journal of Distance Education, and is an expert reviewer for other academic journals. He is the founder of the International Museum of Distance Education and Technology. Diehl is also the Director of the American Center for the Study of Distance Education.
Additionally, Diehl is a consultant in the corporate, higher education and government sectors. Professional experience also includes work as an elementary and middle school teacher, web designer and developer, instructional designer, and multimedia consultant.
Dr. Diehl has consulted for Quality Matters, a not-for-profit faculty-centered, peer review and continuous improvement process subscribed by over 550 institutions in the United States and worldwide, and co-authored their review of the research literature for the 2011-2013 edition of the Quality Matters RubricTM, which is officially used by online teaching faculty and instructional designers at subscribing higher education institutions. He worked on the development of the electronic Quality Matters Program Research Library and co-facilitated the 2010 Quality Matters Interaction Summit in which distance education experts met to discuss the value of interaction in online course design. The Interaction Summit resulted in significant resources for over 14,000 practitioners.
As a consultant to Studiesenteret (a network of over 80 adult learning centers throughout Norway), Dr. Diehl was part of a team that met at the Norwegian Parliament to introduce a proposal for a national distance education network.
Diehl is the former chair of the Education Department and coordinator of online graduate programs at University of New England. He has taught graduate courses for The Pennsylvania State University, California University of Management and Sciences, and Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Diehl is author and co-author of numerous articles in academic journals and proceedings at academic conferences. He is co-editor of the 4th edition of the Handbook of Distance Education. His book chapters include the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of the Handbook of Distance Education and the The Handbook of mLearning. Diehl also contributed to Moore and Kearsley’s Distance Education: A Systems View of Online Learning (3rd Edition). His research interests include foundations of Open and distance education, course design, distance education theory, emerging technologies, virtual worlds, and intercultural communication.
Dr. Diehl earned his Ph.D. in Adult Education with a focus in Distance Education from The Pennsylvania State University. His undergraduate degree focused on Elementary Education.