Samantha D. Penney is the Director for Distance Education at Indiana State University where she works closely with faculty and administration to create high quality, innovative distance education courses for foundational studies and two- and four-year degree programs. She manages the day-to-day operation of a distance education program generating nearly 50,000 credit hours per year working to increase enrollments, quality and student success. She has been at Indiana State University since 2011.

Samantha has thirteen years of experience in higher. Her expertise in learning management systems and instructional design has allowed her to hold administrative and teaching positions focusing on faculty professional development, development of distance education policy, and instructional technology.

While at Ausin Peay in 2006, Samantha was co-developer of the Innovative Professor Conference. She is a frequent presenter at instructional technology and distance education conferences. Her research interests include how instructor presence affects faculty workload, the use of benchmarks with program evaluation, the development of program evaluation models, andragogy, and the use of social collaborative and other technologies in education.

She resides in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Education

Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction in Media Technology, Indiana State University, December 2016

M.A.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, Austin Peay State University, 2000

M.A., Mass Communication, University of South Dakota, 1997

B.A., Journalism, South Dakota State University, 1995