Innovation in Online Credit Teaching Award

Brian Sidlauskas - College of Agricultural Sciences

Since joining Oregon State’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife as an assistant professor in 2009, Brian Sidlauskas has embraced the challenge and promise of online education. And “Dr. Sid” – as his students affectionately call him – is guided by the same principle, no matter the audience: Deliver the best education possible, and don’t let distance be an excuse to take shortcuts.

Dr. Sid teaches one of the most current and polished courses on ichthyology anywhere in the country. It is an intensive course on the study of fishes, and he has worked tirelessly to build an integrated program that bridges biodiversity research on three continents and serves the academic enterprise at Oregon State and beyond.

Among the many innovative features of his course are an interactive phylogeny chart of fishes, and a robust discussion component that would be impractical in a traditional classroom of 70 students.

Dr. Sid’s students say he strikes the “perfect balance between brevity and depth, informative and interesting, (and) visual and audio components.”