When she was a child, Mary Ellen Wiltrout PhD \u201909 didn\u2019t want to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps as a K-12 teacher. Growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, Wiltrout was studious with an early interest in science \u2014 and ended up pursuing biology as a career.<\/p>\n
But following her doctorate at MIT, she pivoted toward education after all. Now, as the director of blended and online initiatives and a lecturer with the Department of Biology, she\u2019s shaping biology pedagogy at MIT and beyond.<\/p>\n
Establishing MOOCs at MIT<\/strong><\/p>\n To this day,\u00a0E.C. Whitehead Professor of Biology and Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) investigator emeritus Tania Baker<\/a> considers creating a permanent role for Wiltrout one of the most consequential decisions she made as department head.<\/p>\n Since launching the very first MITxBio massive online open course\u00a07.00x<\/a>\u00a0(Introduction to Biology \u2013 the Secret of Life) with\u00a0professor of biology Eric Lander<\/a> in 2013, Wiltrout\u2019s team has worked with\u00a0MIT Open Learning<\/a> and biology faculty to build an\u00a0award-winning repertoire<\/a> of MITxBio courses.<\/p>\n MITxBio is part of the online learning platform\u00a0edX<\/a>, established by MIT and Harvard University in 2012, which today connects 86 million people worldwide to online learning opportunities. Within MITxBio, Wiltrout leads a team of instructional staff and students to develop online learning experiences for MIT students and the public while researching effective methods for learner engagement and course design.<\/p>\n \u201cMary Ellen\u2019s approach has an element of experimentation that embodies a very MIT ethos: applying rigorous science to creatively address challenges with far-reaching impact,\u201d says Darcy Gordon, instructor of blended and online initiatives.<\/p>\n Mentee to motivator<\/strong><\/p>\n Wiltrout was inspired to pursue both teaching and research by the late geneticist\u00a0Elizabeth \u201cBeth\u201d Jones<\/a> at Carnegie Mellon University, where Wiltrout earned a degree in biological sciences and served as netbet online sports bettinga teaching assistant in lab courses.<\/p>\n \u201cI thought it was a lot of fun to work with students, especially at the higher level of education, and especially with a focus on biology,\u201d Wiltrout recalls, noting she developed her love of teaching in those early experiences.<\/p>\n Though her research advisor at the time discouraged her from teaching, Jones assured Wiltrout that it was possible to pursue both.<\/p>\n Jones, who received her postdoctoral training with late\u00a0Professor Emeritus Boris Magasanik<\/a> at MIT, encouraged Wiltrout to apply to the Institute and join\u00a0American Cancer Society and HHMI Professor Graham Walker\u2019s<\/a> lab. In 2009, Wiltrout earned a PhD in biology for thesis work in the Walker lab, where she continued to learn from enthusiastic mentors.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I joined Graham\u2019s lab, everyone was eager to teach and support a new student,\u201d she reflects. After watching Walker aid a struggling student, Wiltrout was further affirmed in her choice. \u201cI knew I could go to Graham if I ever needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n After graduation, Wiltrout taught molecular biology at Harvard for a few years until Baker facilitated her move back to MIT. Now, she\u2019s a resource for faculty, postdocs, and students.<\/p>\n \u201cShe is an incredibly rich source of knowledge for everything from how to implement the increasingly complex tools for running a class to the best practices for ensuring a rigorous and inclusive curriculum,\u201d says\u00a0Iain Cheeseman<\/a>, the Herman and Margaret Sokol Professor of Biology and associate head of the biology department.<\/p>\n Stephen Bell,<\/a> the Uncas and Helen Whitaker Professor of Biology and instructor of the\u00a0Molecular Biology series of MITxBio courses, notes Wiltrout is known for staying on the \u201ccutting edge of pedagogy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe has a comprehensive knowledge of new online educational tools and is always ready to help any professor to implement them in any way they wish,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Gordon finds Wiltrout\u2019s experiences as a biologist and learning engineer instrumental to her own professional development and a model for their colleagues in science education.<\/p>\n \u201cMary Ellen has been an incredibly supportive supervisor. She facilitates a team environment that centers on frequent feedback and iteration,\u201d says Tyler Smith, instructor for pedagogy training and biology.<\/p>\n Prepared for the pandemic, and beyond<\/strong><\/p>\n Wiltrout believes blended learning, combining in-person and online components, is the best path forward for education at MIT. Building personal relationships in the classroom is critical, but online material and supplemental instruction netbet sports bettingare also key to providing immediate feedback, formative assessments, and other evidence-based learning practices.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people have realized that they can\u2019t ignore online learning anymore,\u201d Wiltrout noted during an interview on\u00a0The Champions Coffee Podcast<\/a>\u00a0in 2023. That couldn\u2019t have been truer than in 2020, when academic institutions were forced to suddenly shift to virtual learning.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen Covid hit, we already had all the infrastructure in place,\u201d Baker says. \u201cMary Ellen helped not just our department, but also contributed to MIT education\u2019s survival through the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n For Wiltrout\u2019s efforts,\u00a0she received a COVID-19 Hero Award<\/a>, a recognition from the School of Science for staff members who went above and beyond during that extraordinarily difficult time.<\/p>\n \u201cMary Ellen thinks deeply about how to create the best learning opportunities possible,\u201d says Cheeseman, one of almost a dozen faculty members who nominated her for the award.<\/p>\n Recently, Wiltrout expanded beyond higher education and into high schools,\u00a0taking on several interns<\/a> in collaboration with\u00a0Empowr<\/a>, a nonprofit organization that teaches software development skills to Black students to create a school-to-career pipeline. Wiltrout is proud to report that one of these interns is now a student at MIT in the class of 2028.<\/p>\n Looking forward, Wiltrout aims to stay ahead of the curve with the latest educational technology and is excited to see how modern tools can be incorporated into education.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone is pretty certain that generative AI is going to change education,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to be experimenting with how to take advantage of technology to improve learning.\u201d<\/p>\n Ultimately, she is grateful to continue developing her career at MIT biology.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s exciting to come back to the department after being a student and to work with people as colleagues to produce something that has an impact on what they\u2019re teaching current MIT students and sharing with the world for further reach,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n As for Wiltrout\u2019s own daughter, she\u2019s declared she would like to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps \u2014 a fitting symbol of Wiltrout\u2019s impact on the future of education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When she was a child, Mary Ellen Wiltrout PhD \u201909 didn\u2019t want to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps as a K-12 teacher. Growing up in southwestern Pennsylvania, Wiltrout was studious with an early interest in science \u2014 and ended up pursuing biology as a career. But following her doctorate at MIT, she pivoted toward education […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6253,6236,netbet online sports betting6222,6244],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-building-68-faculty-locations","category-feature","category-profiles","category-staff","placement-placement-homepage"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n