After a little digging and a walk down memory lane for some of us, it seemed like a good time to report about the history of the SIDLIT awards.  Special thanks to Meg McGranaghan, Jonathan Bacon and Dennis King who answered a number of questions on very short notice in order to make this article as accurate as possible and an extra special thanks goes to Shalin Hai-Jew for the original idea to write it all down for posterity. The disclaimer that goes with this article is that we’re pretty sure about most of the information but not completely certain about some of it, so we’re going with our best knowledge. That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it.

As a part of the Heartland Alliance, Colleague to Colleague (C2C) was formed in 1998.  The first SIDLIT conference, sponsored by C2C, was in 2000.  After SIDLIT was fairly well established, the awards were added in 2002.  

The first winner for Excellence in Leadership went to Jonathan Bacon (JCCC), Outstanding Online Course to Dr. Kim Karr (BCCC), and Outstanding Technical Support to Kay Shireman (ESU).  There may also have been a winner of the Outstanding Online Instructor Award but that information has disappeared from memory.  If anyone remembers, we’d be happy to know and add to the history!  

Since inception, SIDLIT has been held on the Johnson County Community College campus except for a few years when it was located at the University of Kansas Edwards campus.

The Outstanding Online Course Award only lasted six years because it was so difficult to get access to view the courses nominated due to the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and permission from each college or university.  At the point the Outstanding Online Course Award was discontinued, the name for the Outstanding Online Instructor Award changed to the Innovation in Teaching Award.

From 2001 through 2008, the leadership award was simply called the Excellence in Leadership Award but before the 2009 awards, several on the Steering Committee thought it would be a good idea to change the name to honor Jonathan Bacon who had been the president of C2C for about four or five years and done an outstanding job.  At the ceremony to announce the change of name, Jonathan did protest the renaming because the award was presented as The Jonathan Bacon Memorial Award. Jonathan was not ready to be memorialized since he was still quite alive (and still is) so the award was officially changed to be called The Jonathan Bacon Leadership Award.

Criteria for selection in each of these categories is close to the same as the original awards but has been tweaked and formalized through the years.  Below is a chart of all of the winners for whom we have records and the names of the awards as they changed.

Year	Excellence in Leadership Award	Outstanding Online Instructor Award	Outstanding Online Course Award	Outstanding Technical Support Award
2001-02	Jonathan Bacon, Johnson County Community College	(Not certain)	Dr. Kim Karr, Butler County Community College	Kay Shireman, Emporia State University
2002-03	Dr. John Ziegler, Emporia State University	Dr. Karolyn Kells, Fort Hays State University	Mike Brotherton, Labette Community College	Kay Shireman, Emporia State University
2003-04	Rob Caffey, Kansas State University	Dr. Joella Mehrhof, Emporia State University	Chuck Fann (Criminal Justice) Fort Hays State University	Mitch Weber, Fort Hays State University
2004-05	Glen McNeil, Interim Chair of Health and Human Performance, Fort Hays State University		Alan Featherstone (Agricultural Economics), Kansas State University	Jodie Wear-Leiker, Fort Hays State University
2005-06	Dr. Elizabeth Unger, Kansas State University		Dr. Beth Walizer, Fort Hays State University	Bryan Vandiviere, Kansas State University
2006-07	Meg McGranaghan, Director of Instructional Technology, Butler Community College	Dorothy Ochs, Fort Hays State University	Julie Cotter, Johnson County Community College	Julie Rorabaugh, Instructional Technologist, Cowley County Community College
		Innovation in Teaching Award
2007-08	Anita Mills, Nursing, Butler Community College	Robert Walker, Associate Professor, Music, Labette Community College		Linda Wapelhorst, Assistant Director, Instructional Technology, Butler Community College Grant James, University of Kansas Medical Center
	Jonathan Bacon Leadership Award
2008-09	Dr. Chris Crawford, Fort Hays State University	Jeff Merritt, Johnson County Community College		Brenda Wilson, University of Central Missouri
2009-10	Dr. Leo Hirner, Director, Distance Education, Metropolitan Community College	Dr. Zeni Colorado, Assistant Professor, Emporia State University		Julie Smith, Online System Administrator, Butler Community College
2010-11	Dr. Ed Lovitt, Assistant Dean, Distance Learning, Johnson County Community College	Mark Jarvis, Humanities and Fine Arts Instructor, Butler Community College		Anibal Pacheco, Multimedia Specialist, Barton Community College
2011-12	Sue Maes, Dean, Continuing Education, Kansas State University	Christa Weigel, Assistant Professor, Allied Health, Fort Hays State University		Terry Keeling, Manager, Instructional Services, University of Kansas Medical Center
2012-13	Greg Rose, Director of Operations, Park University	Debra Erickson, Biology, Allen Community College		Phyllis Epps, Manager, Tech Training and Instructional Support, Kansas State University
2013-14	Marcus Childress, PhD, Professor and Program Director, Instructional Design and Technology, Emporia State University	Linda Yarrow, RD, LD, CDE, PhD, Assistant Professor, College of Human Ecology, Kansas State University		Kathryn Barker, Instructional Designer, Metropolitan Community College
2014-15	Adam Holden, Fort Hays State University	Beth Toland, Allen Community College		Ben Ward, Kansas State University
2015-16	Dr. Rob Gibson, Emporia State University	Dr. Robert Moody, Fort Hays State University		Hattie Wiley, National Weather Service

Angela Glascock is a Business teacher, Assessments Coordinator, and Jill-of-All-Trades for Fairfield Schools, USD 310.  She has worked in education for 24 years both in secondary and post-secondary as a business/math/computer teacher and instructional designer.  Her degrees are B.S. Business Administration, B.A. Secondary Education, and M.S. Instructional Design & Technology.