Each year, the Apereo Foundation celebrates the many volunteer efforts, innovations, and success stories of our open source community. In 2022, the Apereo community honored Executive Director Emeritus, Ian Dolphin by naming the Apereo awards in his honor. The inaugural Apereo Dolphin Awards and Fellowships were announced at Open Apereo 2022. Join us in congratulating our recipients and thanking them for their service to the Foundation.

Apereo Dolphin Fellows for 2022

Fellows are selected for their exceptional service and contributions to the Apereo community. Recipients' roles vary and include software development, project management, community engagement, or other areas that support projects and people across the Foundation.

Alan Regan, Pepperdine University

The Apereo Board was particularly impressed with Alan’s commitment to Apereo and Sakai over the past ten years, from his work advocating for teachers and learners through user-driven development initiatives to his broader foundation-wide contributions supporting the annual Open Apereo Conference. Thank you, Alan, for your commitment to Apereo, Sakai, open source software, and higher education.

Carlos Ribalta, Universitat Politècnica de València

The Apereo Board was particularly impressed with Carlos’ commitment to Apereo and the Opencast project, from his technical contributions with the new Paella player to his collaboration across the community to ensure accessibility and usability are top of mind in design and development. Thank you, Carlos!

Christopher Beach, Unicon, Inc.

The Apereo Board was impressed with Christopher’s commitment to Apereo, open source software, and community through his advocacy of OpenEQUELLA, technical contributions to uPortal, and leadership as a steering committee member, committer, and release manager. Thank you, Christopher!

Julianne Morgan, University of Dayton

The Apereo Board was particularly impressed with Julianne’s commitment to Apereo and Sakai through years of--often behind-the-scenes--contributions helping to define and drive improvements in Sakai. Julianne’s involvement with the Sakai marketing team, outreach at the Educause ELI conference, and participation with SakaiCon were just a few of her contributions listed in the fellow nomination. Thank you, Julianne!

Apereo Dolphin Awardees for 2022

Tobias Thelen, Universität Osnabrück

Tobias Thelen has been awarded the Dolphin Award for Teaching and Learning.

This Dolphin Award recognizes innovation in teaching and learning using open source software, promoting excellent pedagogy, sharing new practices in education, and encouraging more faculty involvement in software evolution.

The Apereo Board was particularly impressed with Tobias’ continued efforts to improve educational technology in teaching and learning over the last ten years. Innovative flipped classrooms and his new "Open Source Software Development" course inspired students and colleagues to explore new modes of education and the software to deliver it. On a technical note, the Board congratulates Tobias on his success in integrating open source tools for building online courses directly into the University's learning management system, an approach now used by several other universities. Congratulations Tobias and thank you!

Jim Helwig, University of Wisconsin

Jim Helwig has been awarded the inaugural Dolphin Award for Innovation, Advocacy, and Networking, "The IAN."

The IAN recognizes creative and visionary community members who promote and propel open source initiatives to meet higher education's diverse and evolving needs. 

The Apereo Board was particularly impressed with Jim’s record of leadership in the Apereo community across several projects and initiatives. A few examples of Jim's service to the community include his roles as a member of the Apereo and Jasig Boards, holding multiple roles with the uPortal Project including chairing the uPortal Steering Committee and serving on the Apereo Financial Committee. Thank you Jim, Apereo appreciates all you have done and continue to do for the Foundation!

We look forward to learning more about our Dolphin Awardees and Fellows over the coming months.