Dr. Len Annetta is the Dean of the Zucker Family School of Education and serves as the Zucker Chair of Entrepreneurial Educational Leadership at The Citadel. Before joining The Citadel, he was the Taft Distinguished Professor of Science Education at East Carolina University, a full professor at George Mason University, and an assistant and associate professor of Science Education at North Carolina State University. Early in his career, his research focused on distance learning and the effect of instructional technology on science learning for teachers and students in rural and underserved populations. Although there is considerable research on distance learning, Dr. Annetta focused on the untapped analyses of learning science through various distance delivery strategies. His research has evolved from his dissertation on comparing three different distance delivery strategies on science teacher professional development to studying the impact of video games, and the design and development of Serious Educational Games (a term he created in his 2008 book) as a teaching and learning tool and as a vehicle for synchronous online instruction.
Understanding the popularity of online, multiuser video games, Dr. Annetta began to use his past programming knowledge to build a virtual environment that became the platform for his research agenda that grew from exploring distance learning to Serious Educational Games. Through two separate internally funded grants, he designed and created a synchronous, online 3D virtual environment for distance learning courses offered at North Carolina State. Those internal grants cascaded into a career, thus far, where Dr. Annetta has secured over $19 million dollars as principal or co-principal investigator to further study Serious Educational Games deployed through computer, virtual reality, augmented reality, and spatial computing.
In 2008, Dr. Annetta was honored with three awards for his extension work teaching K-12 teachers and students video game design for science and mathematics learning. The awards were progressive; starting with the College of Education Outstanding Extension Service Award to the induction into the NC State University Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension and finally, the Distinguished Alumni Engaged in Extension and Outreach Award. In both 2006 and 2010 he, along with his colleagues as co-writers, received the National Technology Leadership Initiative Award. With over 4500 entries spanning from 2010 through 2015, Dr. Annetta was also honored as a Nifty Fifty speaker for the United States Science and Engineering Festival. In 2022, Dr. Annetta was the recipient of the Association of Science Teacher Education National Mentor of the Year Award. As well, Dr. Annetta, as author and co-author, has received best research paper honors from Eurasia EduCon and the Association of Science Teacher Education conferences, respectively.
Dr. Annetta has a BS in Physical Science (Chemistry and Physics) and MAT in Secondary Science Education from Salisbury University and his Ph.D. in Science Education from the University of Missouri. Residence: Charleston, SC
