Dr. Diana J. Muir

Diana J. Muir, Ph.D. is the founder of the Hawking Institute and of the Personal Learning Center, International. With more than 14 years in online learning, Diana is considered one of the pioneers in the field of online education.
 
Diana holds multiple degrees in a variety of subjects and received her double Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in June of 2000 in Technology and Social Change, and in Education. She also participated in a Distance Education Certificate program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a post-graduate degree program in education at Harvard University in the summer of 2002.
 
She originally became involved with online learning in December of 1995 when she first launched 8 free online courses for genealogists; family historians who needed to know what records were available and how to do research. Since then she has created and launched more than 300 courses, from 6th grade to college level, in 5 different platforms.
 
Diana has published at least 2 papers each year and has been published in Sociological and Education journals around the world, and has spoken at conventions such as The World Futures Society in Washington D.C., the Distance Learning Conference in Moscow, Russia, and at the Conference for International Distance Education in Johannesburg, South Africa.
 
She currently lives in the state of Illinois where she continues her research and development in international programs. She is a member of MENSA and is a registered specialist in Distance Education with e-Map, the education registry for UNESCO and the United Nations.
 
Diana authored Adapting Online Education to Different Learning Styles and The Virtual School and the “Hidden Agenda”.