Dr. Dillon Augustus Simmons
Founder, Surrealdente, LLC
Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, emphasis in Online Learning — Kansas State University, 2021
Research and Grant Coordinator, Rural Education Center, Kansas State University
Background
Dillon’s doctoral work is in curriculum and instruction with an emphasis on online learning. His published research covers gamified intervention design, K-12 online learning, and STEM learning experiences, including a randomized controlled trial of a gamified prevention program, and he co-authored an open-access graduate textbook on curriculum, instruction, and assessment through Kansas State University’s New Prairie Press.
At the Rural Education Center he has secured $4.47 million in state equipment awards through Kansas’s Advancing Digital Opportunities to Promote Technology (ADOPT) program, run by the Kansas Office of Broadband Development — 3 awards totaling $1,484,215 in 2024 and 3 awards totaling $2,985,077 in 2025 — putting tablets and Chromebooks in the hands of elementary, middle, and high school students across rural Kansas districts.
Surrealdente is an independent company. The degree, the textbook, and the grant work above belong to Dillon’s academic career — Kansas State University holds no ownership of, investment in, or endorsement of Surrealdente or RPGLMS.
Research & Publications
Open Textbook
EDCI 702: Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment. New Prairie Press, Kansas State University Libraries, 2020.
Selected Publications
- Randomized controlled trial of an online gamified version of the Strengthening Families Program to reduce youth substance abuse. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 2026.
- Comparison of a Pretest Versus a Retrospective Pretest with Parents and Children Involved in the Strengthening Families Program. Health Behavior Research, 2025.
- Exploring Teachers’ Perceived Needs for Quality STEM Learning Experiences. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 2024.
- Exploring Virtual and Augmented Reality STEM Learning Experiences with American K-12 Students: A Scoping Review. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 2024.
- Lessons from COVID-19: Four Reasons School Communities Should Embrace K-12 Online Learning. Journal of Online Learning Research, 2022.
From Research to Product
RPGLMS applies that work directly: the cohort structure, the investigation-and-report assessment loop, and the AI-assisted authoring that lets one teacher produce a term of narrative curriculum. The research is not decoration on the product — it is the specification.