Just hearing the enthusiastic voice of Alegría Ribadeneira, Professor and Director of World Languages at Colorado State University – Pueblo, not to mention her projects, practices, and passion for supporting her students, will make it clear why she was awarded a 2020 Award for Excellence in the Educator category.

In this episode of OEG Voices, Alan Levine and Marcela Morales from Open Education Global chat with Alegría about her path to realizing her teaching practices (as pointed by colleague Jonathan Poritz) were already acts of open education before she knew there was a name for it. Alegría describes the role of open pedagogy for her heritage language learners, where they engage in projects producing authentic products such as student authored textbooks and stories of experience.

Also in this episode learn about Alegría’s ambitious new project, working with a team code-named “Los Valientes” to develop an all OER, zero textbook cost Spanish language degree program at CSU-Pueblo.

Alegría Ribadeneira and her OE Excellence of Award trophy

Do you know an open educator deserving of this kind of recognition? Nominations are now open for the 2021 Open Education Awards for Excellence.

Learn More About Alegría Ribadeneira


Music for this episode is  “Joyful Meeting” by Crowander from the Free Music Archive shared under a Creative Commons BY-NC (Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0) license.