Michael Collins

Michael Collins, M.F.A.

Lead Faculty

The Pennsylvania State University


I came to Penn State with the intention of studying mechanical engineering for four years and leaving. I can’t be more happy that I accomplished none of those things. I’ve been working with online learning technology for about a decade. I started teaching digital media art when I was in graduate school, and during that time discovered that I have a knack for crashing 3D software during in-class demos. Save early, save iteratively, save often.

I prefer to work with people who don’t take “...but this doesn’t exist!” for an answer. Educational Technologist is a vague job title, but essentially it means that I’m passionate about using design and technology to push education forward in a sustainable way. More specifically, I maintain, design, and build online learning infrastructure. Right now we are running on a massive open-source project called ELMS Learning Network. One project that I’m really excited about right now is called HAX, an intuitive drag and drop content authoring interface for Drupal that will one day replace Drupal’s WYSIWYG.

My Spotify playlist is typically hard at work making sure my brain is happy while I’m working through design or code problems. When I’m not working, you can find me... wait, no, you can’t find me because I’m riding on some singletrack with no cell reception. That or I’m traveling to give a talk or volunteer at a nerdy tech conference like SIGGRAPH or DrupalCon.