[7] Wiley is originally from Barboursville, West Virginia, where he received his undergraduate degree in vocal performance from Marshall University in 1997.

In 2003 Wiley announced, the Open Content Project has been succeeded by Creative Commons, where he joined as "Director of Educational Licenses".

[12] He has received the National Science Foundation's CAREER award and served as a nonresident fellow of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

Because it is getting easier to develop and distribute electronic tools around the globe, COSL sees the use of learning objects as a way to bring "open education" to all areas in an effort to fulfill "a greater ethical obligation than ever before to increase the reach of opportunity".

[17] From 2001 to 2004, Wiley wrote a column in the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) academic journal TechTrends entitled "Back Burner".