Each year, SIDLIT awards three deserving individuals for their contributions to technical support, teaching, and innovative leadership. These winners represent some of the best advocates of our online community who encourage excellent experiences for all distance learners.  

For 2014, the winners are Dr. Linda Yarrow of Kansas State University for Innovation in Teaching, Kathryn Barker of Metropolitan Community College for Outstanding Technical Support Staff, and Dr. Marcus Childress of Emporia State University for the Jonathan Bacon Outstanding Leadership Award.

Linda Yarrow:  Sometimes in education, the use of social media is suspect, but Dr. Linda Yarrow embraces its use in her classes to enhance the communication between herself and her students.  Students who take her classes are actively engaged in their learning and seem to love it based on her consistently high student evaluations.  Not only does she work to keep her students engaged, she also considers their learning styles and incorporates group discussions and projects, electronic presentations, interactive web-based instruction, wikis, blogs and games and she continually looks for new and leading edge tools for learning.  

Kathryn Baker:  Ms. Kathryn Barker’s nomination offers praise for her timely support of teachers and students as well as displaying dependability, flexibility and patience with the wide variety of individuals she assists.  As an instructional designer for Metropolitan Community College, she also teaches and trains faculty as well as stays abreast of the newest technologies that may be incorporated into the online classroom.  She also exemplifies customer service - a high praise for someone who deals with all levels of patrons each day!

Marc Childress:  Emporia State University benefited from the innovation and vision of Dr. Marc Childress as chair of the  Instructional Design and Technology Department from 2003-2014.  He is now a member of the Baker University staff as Professor and Director of the Ed.D. in Instructional Design and Technology program.   While at ESU, Dr. Childress helped the IDT program grow to graduate over 40 masters students each year and embraced and encouraged the growth of enrollment from international students.  He not only acted as a visible advocate for online learning but he encouraged students and faculty to engage in a system of principles of design and facilitate each other’s learning.  For 6 of the last 7 years, ESU IDT graduate student teams have achieved finalist status in national competitions sponsored by AECT.  His influence and encouragement as a leader in online learning is far-reaching and long-lasting.

Congratulations to the three winners for 2014!