Leah Henson Awarded 2018 Outstanding Language and Technology Award

By Erika Nisbet, Student Writer for Office of Communications

Leah Henson, Senior Lecturer in the Departments of Languages, Literatures, Writing (Regionals) and Spanish and Portuguese (Oxford) has won the 2018 Outstanding Language Technology Award given by the Ohio Foreign Language Association (OFLA).

Leah received her master's degree from Miami University in 1999, with a focus in Spanish linguistics. She is currently teaches at Miami Regionals, where she has also worked with E-Campus as an Instructional Designer. In 2008, she piloted the inverted or "flipped" classroom approach in her Intensive Basic Spanish courses, which then led to the development of hybrid (2010) and online (2012) language courses. Leah has authored and maintains five online courses and assists faculty in training, course set-up, and course facilitation.She was also instrumental in creating a modified program for students with language learning-difficulties and revamping the writing component of the basic language courses to a proficiency-oriented approach. Most recently, she has worked to transition her language courses from a grammar-based approach to one that blends technology and performance-based activities to build students' language proficiency.

Leah has been a key element of Miami Regionals E-Campus' foreign language online courses. She has been collaborating with them since 2012 to help build and offer Spanish and French courses online. Many schools have abandoned online foreign language classes because of barriers in course design and implementation, but with Leah's partnership, Miami University has been able to create high-quality, effective online language experiences where completion and retention is high.

Leah will be presented with her award at the 2018 OFLA Conference in Cleveland on Friday, April 6.