Hirner Brings Home the Bacon

Leo Hirner, MCC director of distance education, has been awarded the 2010 Jonathan Bacon Leadership Award from Colleague 2 Colleague, a professional association whose goal is to share technology expertise, resources, and training with a special emphasis on distance education and instructional technology in Kansas and Missouri.

Hirner received the honor at the organization’s regional Summer Institute on Distance Learning and Instructional Technology. Each year, the award is given to a person who has "pushed the envelope at any level in support of instructional technology,” according to Johnson County Community College’s Ed Lovitt, chair of Colleague to Colleague.

Nominees are chosen based on the following criteria:

• Setting organizational direction or climate to create an innovative, technology-based student-centered, learning-oriented climate
• Encouraging or using key comparative data and information to track student learning to support operational and strategic decision making for learning innovation
• Promoting diverse ideas among faculty and students to enhance a culture of technology usage
• Staying up-to-date on learning technology innovation and promoting funding streams to support growth to improve student learning

Hirner’s nominator said he should be recognized because of his diligent work "to create an innovative, technology-based learning environment for online and hybrid students.” The nominator goes on to say, “The ultimate goal that he has embraced since his days as a full time faculty person is to insure a quality learning experience for students engaged in online learning."

Hirner has been at the helm of MCC’s distance education program since 2000. Since then, MCC has seen enrollment grow from about 200 students to more than 6,000 each semester. Before his current role, Leo spent 10 years as a physics and engineering instructor at MCC-Longview, where he helped pioneer the teaching and development of TV, online, and hybrid courses.

Hirner holds a Ph.D. in educational technology from the University of Missouri, where his research focused on the quality measures used to assess online programs in community colleges. He participated in the inaugural SLOAN–C Institute for Emerging Leaders in Online Learning in 2009; has served as the committee chair of KC REACHE, a local distance education consortium; has been on the Board of the Missouri Distance Learning Association since 2005; and has served as a consultant-evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission since 2007.