Curtis J. Bonk, Distinguished Professor

Professor, IST, IU School of Education

July 31, 2026

 

 

Curtis J. Bonk is Distinguished Professor of Instructional Systems Technology program in the Learning, Design, and Adult Education Department in the School of Education at Indiana University (IU) teaching psychology and technology courses and Adjunct in the IU Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering. He is a former software entrepreneur, certified public accountant, corporate controller, and educational psychologist who presently is an educational technologist, award-winning writer, highly published researcher, statewide and national awardee in innovative teaching with technology, and internationally acclaimed presenter. His scholarly interests are self-directed online learning, the use of generative AI for language learning, open education, massive open online courses (MOOCs), e-learning, blended learning, distance education, informal learning, online motivation and collaboration, emerging learning technologies, and AI augmented writing and learning.

 

Curt received his B.A. in accounting from the University Wisconsin-Whitewater back in the Stone Age. After becoming sufficiently bored with his past life as a corporate controller and CPA in the mid-1980s, he relied on distance education to take correspondence and television courses as well as outreach face-to-face courses at night to qualify for graduate school. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After graduation in 1989, Curt Bonk spent three years on the faculty of West Virginia University in the department of educational psychology. He arrived at Indiana University in August 1992 exactly when the new IU School of Education building was opened to demonstrate and research the latest technology in education. With this background, Bonk offers unique insights into the intersection of education, psychology, business, and technology.

 

Curt is the author of over 450 publications (including 20 books and 190 peer reviewed journal articles) and has given close to 2,000 talks on six continents around the world including more than 340 keynote presentations in places like Bangkok, Melbourne, Sydney, Shanghai, Beijing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Beijing, Toronto, Abu Dhabi, Cairo, Riyadh, Madrid, London, Manila, Seoul, Tel Aviv, Edinburgh, Dublin, Coimbra, Tampere, Barcelona, and Arequipa. He has been a visiting scholar/distinguished professor in 11 different countries. His books include: Transformative Teaching Around the World (which received an Outstanding Book Award from AECT in 2023); Engaging Online Language Learners; The World Is Open: How Web Technology is Revolutionizing Education; Empowering Online Learning; The Handbook of Blended Learning: Global Perspectives, Local Designs; Electronic Collaborators; Adding Some TEC-VARIETY, which is free as an e-book (http://tec-variety.com/); Motivating and Supporting Online Learners (also free; DOI 10.59668/699); and MOOCs and Open Education Around the World as well as MOOCs and Open Education in the Global South.

 

Bonk has been honored with a number of awards, including the Burton Gorman Teaching Award from the IU School of Education in 1999, the CyberStar Award from the Indiana Information Technology Association (2002), the Most Outstanding Achievement Award from the U.S. Distance Learning Association (USDLA) (2003), an Alumni Achievement Award from the University of Wisconsin (2004), and the prestigious Mildred B. and Charles A. Wedemeyer Award for Outstanding Practitioner in Distance Education in 2014. From 2012-2018, he was listed by Education Next and Education Week as a top 100 contributor to the public debate about education and K-12 schools from more than 20,000 university-based academics. He was the first recipient of the Wilbert Hites mentoring award from IU in 2000, and, 20 years later, Curt was awarded the IU President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and Learning Technology in 2020 (short video, text); he was selected for both awards across the entire IU system of nine campuses. For many years, he has been listed in the Stanford University list of top 2% of scientists in the world based on publication citations for career as well as for the prior year. In 2021, he received the David H. Jonassen Excellence in Research Award from AECT. A year later, the American Educational Research Association named him a 2022 AERA Fellow for his exceptional contributions to, and excellence in, education research, and in 2023 AERA recognized him with the Outstanding International Research Collaboration Award. Later in 2023, the US Distance Learning Association honored Curt with a USDLA Excellence in Distance Learning Research Award in Higher Education and the Online Learning Consortium (OLC) made him an OLC Fellow for his “Extraordinary Global Leadership and Contributions to the Field of Online and Blended Learning.” And in 2024, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) named Curt as a Fellow and he became Executive Board Chair of the International E-Learn Conference from the Association for Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) where he is a Fellow as well. In 2026, he received an honorary doctorate from the Open University of the Netherlands and was awarded “Distinguished Professor” rank at Indiana University

 

Curt has been on dozens of radio and podcast shows and been interviewed for articles in the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, China Daily, Boston Globe, Education Week, AARP, APA Monitor, Chronicle of Higher Education, Time Higher Education, and Sydney Morning Herald. He has consulted with the CIA, NSA, Microsoft, Cisco, the Army Research Institute, the U.S. Department of Defense, Blackboard, Sun, Saudi Aramco, Contact North, McGraw-Hill Publishing, LG, Samsung, NASA, Intel, Defense Acquisition University, and dozens of school districts, colleges, and universities.

 

Curt co-hosts the weekly multiple award-winning podcast show, Silver Lining for Learning (https://silverliningforlearning.org/). He can be contacted at cjbonk@iu.edu and his homepage is http://curtbonk.com/.