Dr. Dynes teaches two types of classes that make him eligible for this recognition. Since 2000, he has been teaching interactive dual-credit composition and literature courses. English 101 DL is a freshman English composition class emphasizing the process of writing through multiple drafts and collaboration among students as readers and critics. English 102 DL continues the emphasis on argumentative and analytical writing and provides a survey of Western literature. These classes use interactive video conferencing and the Internet to link students from as many as four separate sites while maintaining an emphasis on quality interaction and student engagement.

The university’s distance learning classroom consists of the following equipment: two video cameras (student tracking and instructor tracking), a document camera, 53" monitor, 27" monitor, VCR, built-in microphones, wireless remote control, touch pad control, wall mounted speakers, and an instructor workstation. Classes meet in person three hours a week. Because Dr. Dynes stresses interaction and active learning, students at all sites are encouraged to ask questions, share insights, and raise new issues as naturally as they might were they all together in the same room. The document camera facilitates sharing writing samples, and peer group work can be shared within and across remote sites.

Dr. Dynes supplements his personal communication with students with Blackboard’s e-learning platform. Students check a daily assignment/announcement page, get assignment information, take online quizzes, chat with synchronous and asynchronous discussion boards, and submit essays and exercises through a digital dropbox. Composition is notoriously difficult to teach even in the most convenient face-to-face environments, but Dr. Dynes works successfully to make his distance learning classrooms friendly and encouraging learning environments.

Dr. Dynes also teaches an upper-division science fiction class that is offered exclusively online via Blackboard. Initially conceived as a one-time event to satisfy a particular need for the English department, the course has proven so popular that Dr. Dynes has offered it several times for both undergraduate and graduate credit and through the University’s School for Adult Learning. This class offers a dynamic, student-centered survey of the principal authors and motifs of science fiction through the twentieth-century, and it makes a very effective fit for online delivery. While the heart of the course is focused on student interaction by means of asynchronous discussion boards, Dr. Dynes has prepared substantive preliminary materials that help students better explore the thematic issues being raised by the fiction. This material includes short discursive essays, quizzes over relevant secondary sources, and links to other Internet sites that help either to explain the science of the fiction or participate in the speculation that the fiction is developing. For a novel featuring robots, for example, Dynes can connect his students both to sites explaining current technology and utility of robots and to sites exploring the sociological and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. Dynes also involves outside experts into this course; about a year ago, the author of one of the class’ featured novels participated in more than a week’s worth of conversation via discussion board, an exciting opportunity that wouldn’t have been possible in a more traditional classroom.

Supporting material

Dr. Dynes’ success in integrating technology in his distance education classes is evidenced by the consistently enthusiastic reviews of his students and the ongoing popularity of his classes. The outcomes of these classes have been very encouraging. Student grades, among both local and dual-credit students, have been reliably above-average, and dual-credit students have been accepted and later enrolled at the University over the life of the program. Overall student evaluations and reactions have been very positive; university students found themselves mentoring and encouraging “near-peers,” and high school students appreciated the opportunity to gain college credit and college experience. One student who took the first semester of this course later wrote, “Personally, what helped me out a great deal in coming to college was the distance learning class I took through the University of Indianapolis.” Perhaps the clearest sign of the class’ success is that we have enjoyed a steady stream of applications from students from these same high schools for upcoming distance learning classes.

Dr. Dynes has spoken on his experiences and insights teaching via distance learning technology at a variety of professional conferences, including the Indiana Teachers of Writing Topics on Distance Learning at Purdue Calumet, and at the University of Wisconsin’s Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning. In 2002, he became a Blackboard Certified Instructor, and will be helping other teachers learn how to use Blackboard effectively. At the University of Indianapolis, he serves as Instructional Technologies Director for the English department and chairs the faculty Teaching and Learning Technologies Committee. Dr. Dynes is an enthusiastic supporter of the roles that technology can play in supporting meaningful, student-centered pedagogy throughout the university.