Rodger Smith is the Director of the Institute for Digital Entertainment and Education (IDEE) and an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre & Dance.

Rodger works with high definition cinema, live theatre, and interactive media. In the summer of 2008 he produced Ball State's first commercial full-length professional film, My Name is Jerry, starring Doug Jones (Pan in Pan's Labyrinth, Abe Sapien in Hellboy: the Golden Army, etc.)

IDEE works with traditional curriculums to develop alternative and immersive services, as well as partnering with outside industry to create content for a variety of web and mobile platforms.

Smith's work has resulted in projects aimed at new wave digital publishing and high definition cinema pieces.   In 2006-07 he guided the Digital Entertainment Option Pilot (DEOP) that resulted in two webisode series, three music videos, one sliver Addy award, numbers of film and theatre trailers and over forty different new media experiments. 

Before completing his Ph.D. at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Rodger was an actor, director, and producer of live and recorded Theatre and film. His respect for those two art forms and his desire to prepare his students for the Los Angeles TV/film industry and for the developing independent digital entertainment industry have guided his academic career. Rodger first came to Ball State to create a two-semester Acting for Camera sequence. 

That effort resulted in three interdisciplinary courses composed of screen writing, directing for film, and acting for camera.  These courses simulate the Los Angeles TV/film production system.  This interdisciplinary effort (CEC) now capitalizes on the efforts of five professors in three colleges to create a minimum of 24 short entertainments per year involving more than 120 students. 

This sequence has produced over one hundred and twenty films in the last seven years and lead to Rodger’s being awarded a Virginia Ball Center for Creativity Fellowship in the fall of 2001. His efforts produced Ball State’s first entertainment website totally constructed by students. 

Since coming to Ball State Rodger has produced over thirty media projects including two Student Academy Award winners, a Billboard Educational Entertainment first prize, and an Arts and Entertainment Great American Screen Contest winner.  He has directed four films, a television drama, numerous plays and three original sitcoms for WIPB. He has been nominated for two Emmys for his efforts with Cardinal Stage and Screen.  His work has lead him to investigate and support live performance enhanced by new technology. 

Further, he is interested in the use of new media to increase the effectiveness of traditional visual experiences in entertainment, education, and professional development.