SDSU is committed to quality education both in the physical and online classroom. SDSU offers robust training and development opportunities for faculty to successfully transition courses to the online classroom to offer students a rich and rigorous educational experience.
Excellence in Online Teaching
The Excellence in Online Teaching award is to recognize an SDSU faculty member who has demonstrated commitment to excellence in online teaching and course development of for-credit courses through South Dakota State University.
Through this award SDSU recognizes outstanding online teaching faculty who:
- Uses innovative and effective online teaching strategies and technologies that result in student engagement, student satisfaction and achievement of desired student learning outcomes.
- Examines methods of assessment of student learning to inform teaching practices and reshape online courses based on an on-going and data-driven process.
- Utilizes interactive strategies to promote and foster instructor-student interaction, student-student interaction and student collaboration in the online learning environment.
- Exhibits a high level of instruction by using standards established by SDSU’s quality assurance review rubric.
- Demonstrates dedication to enhancing online teaching skills, improving online curriculum and/or advancing research opportunities in the area of online education.
Awardees
| Academic Year | Recipient | Department |
|---|---|---|
2022-2023 | Communications and Journalism | |
| 2021-2022 | Stephen Snyder | English and Interdisciplinary Studies |
| 2020-2021 | Marina Hendricks | Communications and Journalism |
| 2019-2020 | Becky Diischer | Mathematics |
| 2018-2019 | April Myrick | English |
| 2017-2018 | Rocky Dailey | Communications and Journalism |
| 2016-2017 | Sarah Clark | Mathematics |
| 2015-2016 | Rocky Dailey | Communications and Journalism |
| 2014-2015 | Lyle Olson | Communications and Journalism |
Online/Hybrid Instructor Certification Recognition
In order to enhance SDSU’s commitment to academic excellence, a training program has been designed specifically for online/hybrid instructors. This program focuses on the skills, knowledge and best practices required of high quality online/hybrid instruction. The program allows online/hybrid instructors to choose to become certified at one of three levels: Basic, Advanced and Master.
| Instructor | Department |
|---|---|
| Ekaterina Koromyslova | Construction and Operations Management |
| Larry Browning | Physics |
| Madhav Nepal | Biology and Microbiology |
| Ryan McKnight | Economics |
| Steph Jacobson | Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions |
| Rebecca Diischer | Math |
| Jodilyn Andrews | English |
| Carol Birch | Nursing |
| Katie O’Leary | English |
| Sarah Thimsen | Psychology |
| Amanda Lambrechts | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Aileen Garcia | Counseling and Human Development |
| Albena Yordanova | Construction and Operation Management |
| Wendy Ahrendsen | Math and Statistics |
| Gary Hatfield | Math and Statistics |
| Marvin Bhar | Math and Statistics |
| Carri Hales | Math and Statistics |
| Sarah Clark | Math and Statistics |
| Sarah Mollman | Nursing |
| Jo Voss | Nursing |
| Hani Ghosheh | Plant Science |
| Marina Hendricks | Journalism and Mass Communication |
| Brandi Pravecek | Nursing |
| Mary Vockrodt | Nursing |
| LeAnn Lamb | Nursing |
| Alham Abuatiq | Nursing |
| Stella Liu | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Van Der Sluis, Everhardus | Economics |
| Nicole Velgersdky | Counseling and Human Development |
| Zhong Hu | Mechanical Engineering |
| Steve Wingate | English |
| Hung-Ling (Stella) Liu | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Janice Schardin | Nursing |
| Patricia Da Rosa | Nursing |
| Brandon Varilek | Nursing |
| May Beth Johnson | Nursing |
| Wayne Hintz | Nursing |
| Alper Kayaalp | Psychology |
| Xu Li | Consumer Sciences |
| Leda Cempellin | School of Design |
| Kassandra Erickson | Allied and Population Health |
| Takara Schomberg | Nursing |
| Patrick Verley | Nursing |
| Dannica Callies | Nursing |
| Instructor | Department |
|---|---|
| Patricia Ahmed | Sociology |
| SunWoo Kang | Counseling and Human Development |
| Sanjeev Anand | Dairy and Food Science |
| Lacey McCromack | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Peter White | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Natalie Mook | University College |
| William (Bill) Alsaker | Mathematics and Statistics |
| Byron Garry | Construction and Operations Management |
| Anne Buttolph | Nursing |
| Katherine Bissonette | Communication Studies and Theatre |
| Suzette Burckhard | Civil and Environmental Engineering |
| Gus Scully | University Center - Rapid City |
| Larry Taylor | School of Design |
| Cynthia Elverson | Nursing |
| Erika Huber | Nursing |
| Pat Tillie | Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions |
| Ruth Klawiter | Nursing |
| Roxanne Lucchesi | Journalism and Mass Communications |
| Paula Carson | Nursing |
| Kay Foland | Nursing |
| Nicole Klein | Economics |
| Todd Trooien | Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
| Susanne Brokmeier | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Annette Johnson | Pharmacy and Allied Health Professions |
| Christina Plemmons | Nursing |
| Katherine Erdman Becker | |
| Axton Betz-Hamilton | Consumer Science |
| Jessica Schad | Sociology |
| Jamie O'Brien | Economics |
| Heidi Mennenga | Nursing |
| Robin Brown | Nursing |
| Jodilyn Andrews | English |
| Cristina Lammer | Nursing |
| Carol Birch | Nursing |
| Aileen Garcia | Counseling and Human Development |
| Jo Voss | Nursing |
| Albena Yordanova | Construction and Operations Management |
| Ekaterina Koromyslova | Construction and Operations Management |
| Aileen Garcia | Counseling and Human Development |
| Robin Arends | Nursing |
| Heidi Pelzel | Nursing |
| Linda Burdette | Nursing |
| Nicole Velgersdyk | Counseling and Human Development |
| Alhah Abuatiq | Nursing |
| Katie O'Leary | English |
| Sarah Thimsen | Psychology |
| Steven Wingate | English |
| Jennifer Anderson | Communications and Journalism |
| Sarah Mollman | Nursing |
| Leda Cempellin | School of Design |
| Kassandra Erickson | Allied and Population Health |
| Takara Schomberg | Nursing |
| Patrick Verley | Nursing |
| Dannica Callies | Nursing |
| Brandon Varilek | Nursing |
| Stella Liu | Health and Consumer Sciences |
| Cori Heier | Nursing |
| Brandi Pravecek | Nursing |
| Janice Schardin | Nursing |
| Karin Emery | Nursing |
| Xu Li | Health and Consumer Sciences |
| Nicole Albert | Nursing |
| Instructor | Department |
|---|---|
| Kelsey Raml | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Jessica Meendering | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Lori Hayungs | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Mary Bowne | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Lyle Olson | Journalism and Mass Communication |
| Karla Hunter | Communication Studies |
| Melissa Wuellner | Natural Resource Management |
| Nicole Graves | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Tami Dale | Counseling and Human Development |
| Lisa Madsen | English |
| Lauri Sohl | Geography |
| Barbara Christensen | Counseling and Human Development |
| April Myrick | English |
| Rocky Dailey | Journalism and Mass Communication |
| Elijah Van Benschoten | School of Designs |
| Lynda Vanhuizen | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Fathi Halaweish | Chemistry and Biochemistry |
| Melissa Granum | University College |
| Alexander (Sandy) Smart | Natural Resource Management |
| Rebecca Britt | Journalism and Mass Communication |
| George Tsakiridis | History |
| Elizabeth Droke | Health and Nutritional Sciences |
| Erika Huber | Nursing |
| Sanjeev Anand | Dairy and Food Science |
| Susanne Brokmeier | Teaching, Learning and Leadership |
| Ruth Klawiter | Nursing |
| Cynthia Elverson | Nursing |
| Jamie O'Brien | Ness School of Management and Economics |
| Albena Yordanova | Construction and Operation Management |
| Byron Garry | Construction and Operation Management |
| Todd Trooien | Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering |
| Robin Arends | Nursing |
| Heidi Mennenga | Nursing |
| Anne Buttolph | Nursing |
| Ekaterina Koromyslova | Engineering |
| Paula Carson | Nursing |
| Aileen Garcia | Counseling and Human Development |
| Alham Abuatiq | Nursing |
| Sarah Mollman | Nursing |
| Jo Voss | Nursing |
| Stella Liu | Health and Consumer Sciences |
| Heidi Pelzel | Nursing |
| Axton Betz-Hamilton | Health and Consumer Sciences |
| Amber Jensen | English and Interdisciplinary Studies |
Featured Faculty
Diischer serves as the online course coordinator to all online instructors within the math department to maintain consistency with course materials and prepares the teaching assistants to ensure they understand their important role in the online course.
In her online courses, Diischer focuses on how to help students learn and has embraced technology and new ideas in order to achieve that goal. Knowing that most students in her classes are not math majors, she incorporates real life problems to help students think about math in the context of their respective fields.
“She was an amazing teacher. I was a bit nervous about taking math online as I had never done it before. However, Mrs. Diischer was very helpful with any problems I had. These problems varied from actual math problems to technical problems to questions about the course. I really liked the content involved in this class, having some assignments on paper was really nice. Overall, this class taught me a lot and I would highly recommend it to anyone considering taking an online math class.”