OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

All sessions are available online except round tables, special activities, and workshops.

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11:50am EDT

AI and the Future of Openness: Insights from the DOERS AI+OER Project

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT

ID: 34021

This panel session introduces the DOERS AI+OER Case Studies Project, a collaborative, multi-institutional initiative exploring how artificial intelligence is intersecting with open educational resources (OER) and shaping the future of openness. As AI tools continue to impact teaching, learning, and knowledge production, open education faces both new opportunities and urgent questions: How do we ensure that AI-enabled practices align with the values of openness and student success? What does it mean to create, adapt, and share knowledge in an era of generative systems? And how can open education practitioners lead in defining ethical, transparent, and sustainable approaches to using AI in education?The DOERS Collaborative launched the AI+OER Case Studies Project to document and examine real-world implementations at the intersection of AI and open education. Drawing on contributions from a wide range of institutional contexts and disciplines, the project centers practice-based case studies that explore how educators, researchers, and program leaders are integrating AI into open education workflows, pedagogies, and infrastructures.This session frames AI not simply as a tool, but as an opportunity for rethinking openness itself. Author/Panelists will present selected case studies that highlight diverse applications, such as using AI to support OER creation and adaptation, enhancing accessibility through automated tools, enabling new forms of student engagement and co-creation, and leveraging AI for data-informed decision-making. At the same time, the session will critically examine tensions that emerge at this intersection, including questions of authorship, intellectual property, bias, transparency, and the environmental and labor implications of AI systems.A central focus of the session is how open education values can inform the development and use of AI in ways that prioritize public good. Panelists will discuss how openness can serve as both a framework and a set of practices for guiding AI integration—emphasizing transparency in processes, openness in licensing and sharing, and collaboration across roles and institutions. They will also explore how case study methodology enables the field to move beyond abstract debates, offering grounded, contextualized insights that can inform both local practice and broader policy conversations.Each contributor will share practical insights from their work, including how they designed their projects, navigated ethical and institutional considerations, and assessed impact. The session will highlight patterns emerging across cases, as well as areas of divergence that point to the complexity of implementing AI in open education contexts.Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of how AI is currently being used within open education, along with concrete examples and critical questions to inform their own work. The session will conclude with a facilitated discussion, inviting participants to reflect on how they can engage with AI in ways that not only extend the reach of open education, but also uphold and evolve its core principles.

Speakers

Kathy Essmiller

Coordinator, OpenOKState, Oklahoma State University

Kathy is an open education leader, librarian, and educator dedicated to advancing access to education and community through the adoption and creation of open educational resources (OER). As the Coordinator of OpenOKState at Oklahoma State University, Kathy collaborates with faculty... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Exploring Emergent Technologies and the Future of Openness

11:50am EDT

From Frameworks to Futures: Rethinking OER Quality as a Shared Practice

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33068

As open educational resources (OER) continue to expand across regions, systems, and cultures, critical questions remain: Who defines quality? How do we build trust in OER without constraining openness, diversity, and innovation?Efforts to scale OER often surface tensions between the need for shared standards and the reality of local context. What does “quality” mean across disciplines, cultures, and learning environments? And how can we move beyond fragmented or implicit definitions toward a more transparent, participatory, and adaptable global vision of OER quality?This panel invites participants into that conversation through the lens of Open 4 Peer Review, a collaborative initiative across 13 partners that developed six peer-review rubrics designed to support formative, feedback-centered approaches to OER quality. Addressing areas such as accessibility, copyright, copyediting, disciplinary appropriateness, eLearning, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL), these rubrics are intentionally designed not to score, rank, or gatekeep OER. Instead, they aim to make quality more visible, discussable, and improvable through structured peer feedback.Panelists include project leads from multiple partnering institutions and one institutional representative from outside the project who is actively considering how—and whether—to adopt these tools. Together, they will explore both the promise and the complexity of shared frameworks: How can we articulate standards of quality without enforcing uniformity? How do we ensure that peer review empowers educators rather than constrains them? And what does it take to build trust in OER across systems that differ in priorities, resources, and cultural context?Rather than positioning quality as a fixed benchmark, this session reframes it as a collective, evolving practice—one that emerges through dialogue, reflection, and continuous improvement. Participants will be invited to engage with guiding questions, share perspectives from their own contexts, and consider how peer review might function as a bridge between global alignment and local autonomy.At a time when open education is both expanding and being reimagined, this session challenges us to think differently: not about how to standardize OER quality, but how to co-create it. By bringing together multiple perspectives, the panel aims to spark a broader conversation about how we can design processes, tools, and communities that support trustworthy, inclusive, and context-responsive OER ecosystems worldwide.The goal of the session is to share the rubrics with a global audience. Session participants will be invited to review and provide feedback on these rubrics. The hope of the session is that participants will consider adopting or adapting an OER quality framework.

Speakers

Wayde Oshiro

Head Librarian, Leeward Community College

Wayde Oshiro is a professor and library director at Leeward Community College, Hawaiʻi, with over two decades of experience in academic librarianship. Since 2015, he has co-led the University of Hawaiʻi Community Colleges System's OER initiative across seven campuses. He co-chairs... Read More →

Andrea Scott

Open Educational Resources Office of Learning Advancement, Salt Lake Community College

Andrea Scott is Director of Open Educational Resources in the Office of Learning Advancement and Co‑Chair of the Open SLCC Advisory Committee at Salt Lake Community College. Active in Open Education since 2013, she helped establish Open SLCC and now oversees program development... Read More →

Danielle Leek

Project Director, Scottsdale Community College

Danielle Leek, PhD, is an instructor at Johns Hopkins University. She is also Project Director for the federally funded Open 4Peer Review initiative at Maricopa Community Colleges and Founder and Principal at Danielle Leek Consulting.

Gracie McDonough

Reference/Instruction/OER Librarian, College of Southern Nevada

Gracie McDonough serves as an Instruction and Reference Librarian at the College of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas. Since joining CSN, she has been a dedicated advocate for Open Educational Resources (OER), contributing to a significant increase in institutional OER adoption from less... Read More →

Debbie Baker

OER Coordinator, Instructional designer, Maricopa Community College District

Dr. Debbie Baker serves as the open educational resources coordinator and an instructional designer for the Maricopa Community Colleges (MCCCD), and has been an educator for almost 30 years. Her work has centered on reshaping traditional classroom dynamics by involving students in... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track (Re)Inventing our Shared Global Vision Together

1:40pm EDT

Design, Build, Share: A Panel Workshop on Open Microcredential Content and Credential Metadata

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33581

As the shift toward skills-based learning accelerates, educators and institutions are increasingly called to design learning experiences that are not only aligned to workforce needs but also open, adaptable, and transparent. While open educational resources (OER) have expanded access to content, there is a growing need to support the development of open, skills-based microcredential content that can be reused, adapted, and recognized across learning and employment contexts. This interactive panel and workshop session invites participants to “come invent with us” by engaging directly in the process of authoring open microcredential content.Grounded in emerging practices at the intersection of open education, microcredentials, and Learning and Employment Records (LERs), this session will move beyond conceptual discussion into hands-on application. Participants will be introduced to key considerations in designing open, skills-based content, including alignment to validated skills, structuring for modularity and stackability, and embedding metadata to support transparency, interoperability, and credential portability (Credential Engine, 2024). Building on principles of OER-enabled pedagogy (Wiley & Hilton, 2018), the session emphasizes not only access to content, but the ability for educators and institutions to actively create, adapt, and share skills-aligned learning resources.A central component of the session will be guided, experiential engagement with the Pressbooks Microcredential Authoring platform. Participants will work within a templated microcredential structure designed to support consistent, high-quality development of skills-based content. Through facilitated activities, attendees will explore how to translate skills into learning outcomes, develop aligned content and assessments, and incorporate content-level metadata that connects learning experiences to verifiable credentials. The workshop will also surface key design decisions, such as how to balance openness with institutional or industry requirements, and how to support multiple models of content sharing (open, closed, and hybrid).Panelists will provide brief framing perspectives from institutional, international, and ecosystem viewpoints, but the majority of the session will focus on participant engagement. Attendees will have the opportunity to workshop their own ideas, collaborate with peers, and receive feedback from facilitators with expertise in open education, microcredentials, and skills-based design.By the end of the session, participants will have a practical understanding of how to design and author open microcredential content, experience a platform-enabled approach to scalable content development, and gain actionable strategies for implementing open, skills-based learning initiatives within their own contexts. This session directly supports the conference track by advancing innovative approaches to open content that democratize knowledge and expand opportunities for learners across educational and workforce systems.

Speakers

Başak Büyükçelen

Chief Executive Officer, Pressbooks

Başak Büyükçelen is the CEO of Pressbooks, where she has spent the last seven years helping shape the company's direction and culture. With a background spanning consulting, manufacturing, banking, finance, film, and video games, she brings a cross-industry lens to the challenges... Read More →

Kevin Corcoran

Assistant Vice Provost, University of Central Florida

Kevin Corcoran is the Assistant Vice Provost of the Center for Distributed Learning. Kevin has over 25 years of experience in the development and support of strategies for the effective use of digital learning tools and content that focuses on quality standards and practices, student... Read More →

Amanda Coolidge

VP, Strategic Engagement and Growth, Pressbooks

Amanda Coolidge is VP of Strategic Engagement and Growth at Pressbooks, where she leads marketing, sales, and customer success and serves as product manager for the company's microcredential platform. She is the founder of Coolidge Collaborative and former Executive Director of BCcampus... Read More →

Lisa Young

Founder & Principal, EduEssentials Consulting

Dr. Lisa Young is a longtime advocate for open education and learner centered innovation in higher education. She recently retired after more than 30 years with the Maricopa County Community College District, where she served in several leadership roles, including Faculty Administrator... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

1:40pm EDT

The Leading Edge of Open Education: Meet the 2026 Awardees of the OE Awards for Excellence

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33277

By the start of this conference, Open Education Global will have announced the winners of the 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence, the fifteenth year of this community driven program to recognize the people, projects, and practices that exemplify open education in action. We bring together representatives of this years awardees from both ones present at the conference and others who will join is online. Each will share conversational style an overview of the work for which they were recognized, but also to share what motivates them. This is an opportunity for those attending the conference to extend congratulations, for the awardees to express appreciation, and most importantly to build stronger interconnections within the open education community.Since 2011, the OEAwards have recognized over 300 individuals, projects, and practices. Over the past few years, we have been sifting the awards from a "competition" like focus on the "winners" to a celebration and making visible all-- the details of hundreds of nominees are shared. Furthermore, the program is extending itself into an ongoing encouragement all year long of "micro-recognition" as expressions of gratitude for the often invisible work that makes open education possible.Join us for a conversation with the people identified through the program who are modeling in action what Open Education does around the world.

Speakers

Marcela Morales

Executive Co-Director, Open Education Global

Marcela is an avid promotor of access to knowledge and a true believer in the power of education to transform lives and societies all around the world. She believes that education is an essential, shared, and collaborative social good for which we are all responsible.As Co-Executive... Read More →

Alan Levine

Director of Community Engagement, Open Education Global

Alan Levine explores the potential of new technologies for education. In 1993 he set up a web server on a Mac SE/30 at the Maricopa Community Colleges and has not left since. His current role is Director of Community Engagement at Open Education Global. Before that he provided consulting... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

3:00pm EDT

How Open Should Open Be? The AI Question for Archives, Repositories, and Open Scholarship

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 4:05pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 34865

Libraries, archives, and mission-driven publishers have been key players in the global movement to increase open and equitable access to scholarship and to primary source materials. One key question that stewards of archival and general collections, and publishers of scholarly content, must wrestle with today is whether the principles behind making content open for individual readers and users can be applied to LLMs and generative AI tools. Concerns over loss of provenance, control, and lack of attribution bump up against a conviction that the high quality content stewarded by research libraries, archives, and scholarly publishers would enhance the quality of output produced by AI tools. As AI systems seek access to scholarly content for training data, long-standing assumptions and values about openness, stewardship, control and provenance are being challenged and reexamined. In this panel discussion, we bring together different perspectives on the core question of whether and how scholarly content should be open for AI use.Panelists:Dave Hansen, Executive Director of Authors Alliance, argues that control and gatekeeping are the wrong approach for libraries and archives, and instead asserts that “building the infrastructure that supports open, accountable research of every kind.” will be the most values-aligned and productive role for the library community.Alison Muddit, Chief Executive Officer of the Public Library of Science (PLOS), asserts that AI and open access are not naturally in tension; but/and that a mission-driven publisher like PLOS must take seriously the fact that AI intensifies the need for rigor, transparency, and signals of trustworthiness. She emphasizes the responsibility to ensure that the scholarly record functions as trustworthy infrastructure for both human and machine reasoning.Chris Bourg, Director of Libraries at MIT, is a global leader in open scholarship and an advocate for the public mission of knowledge institutions. At MIT, she is co-chair of the MIT Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI, and a member of the MIT Committee on AI in Teaching, Learning, and Research Training. Panel facilitator: Mike Furlough, Executive Director of HathiTrust, works with dozens of member libraries to steward over 19 million digitized items from their collections, recognizing that memory institutions have a responsibility to make collections broadly accessible for all modes of research. However, emergent modes of research have brought new, more urgent demands for access to those collections, which in turn pose new questions regarding sustainable stewardship.

Speakers

Chris Bourg

Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Chris Bourg is the Director of Libraries at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she is also the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS). Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Chris worked for 12 years in the Stanford University... Read More →

Mike Furlough

Executive Director, HathiTrust

Furlough leads an organization that includes over 90 academic and research institutions working to transform scholarship and research in the 21st century. The partnering institutions currently own and maintain a trusted digital repository of more than 11 million volumes, digitized... Read More →

Dave Hansen

Executive Director, Authors Alliance

David Hansen is the Executive Director of Authors Alliance, a nonprofit that aims to support authors who want to see their works widely distributed for the benefit of the public. Authors Alliance has led efforts to secure copyright exemptions for text data mining researchers and has... Read More →

Alison Muddit

Chief Executive Officer, Public Library of Science

Since June 2017 Alison has been Chief Executive Officer of the Public Library of Science (PLOS), an organization on a mission to drive open science forward with measurable, meaningful change in research publishing, policy, and practice. Prior to PLOS, Alison served as Executive Director... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 4:05pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

3:35pm EDT

GO-GN Canada Hub - Rediscovering the Land as Open Educators

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 34731

In the summer of 2025, the GO-GN Canada Hub was formed as an extension of the global GO-GN network based in the Open University, United Kingdom. Because community building and in-person convenings are so important to the GO-GN network of PhD students and GO-GN alumni, the GO-GN Canada Hub spent a 2-day Indigenous land-based learning experience at the Cultural Use Area in Jasper National Park, guided by Darrion Letendre and Ni’tokisiks (Blackfoot elder) Lance Scout. This land-based learning extended and deepened conversations about the compatibility/incompatibility of open education and Indigenous knowledge that began through Darrion’s keynote address at the Open Education Global 2023 keynote in Edmonton (i.e., OEGlobal23 Keynote: Embracing 2-Eyed Seeing to Revitalize Sustainable Relations). During the grant period and beyond, regular online meetings support GO-GN student updates, progress on meeting the Hub’s deliverables, and other educational activities including a community of practice book study of Wahi Wah Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act of Reconciliation and Anti-racist Education (Chrona, 2022). The members of the Canada Hub co-authored a multi-modal collection of their land-based learning. In these reflections, the tensions and intersections of the history of colonization are revealed alongside open education, research perspectives, and Indigenous ways of knowing(Canadian Commission for UNESCO, 2021). The pressbook (released Spring 2026) will be part of the panel presentation. Several blog posts and growing the GO-GN awareness and membership were also key deliverables from the Hub. The community of practice online meetings continues with the taking up of open access articles, reports, and practitioner concerns. The GO-GN Canada Hub supports and expands GO-GN’s strategic direction to “inspire alternative ways of being and understanding the world” (Farrow et al., 2024, p. 42). As a collaborative community, the Canada Hub is part of the maturation of open education and the challenges that individuals and the community face as this hub continues to be an imperfect act of conciliation and reconciliation for its Canadian members. The online panel discussion will highlight the Hub’s activities and its ongoing efforts of walking alongside, learning from and with our Indigenous and more than human relatives.

Speakers

Connie Blomgren

Professor, Athabasca University

Dr. Constance Blomgren is a Professor in the Open, Digital and Distance Education Master of Education programs at Athabasca University and the Masters of Education Program Director. She teaches and researches about openness in education. She is an associate editor for the International... Read More →

Darrion Letendre

InSTEM and Land Based Learning Specialist, Norquest College

Darrion is a dedicated and passionate Nehiyaw-Métis educator with over 10 years of experience of land-based learning for Indigenous youth. He is an advocate for Indigenous education and revitalizing cultural knowledge through Western education systems. He has been a member of the... Read More →

Agnieszka (Aga) Palalas

Professor, Athabasca University

Dr. Palals is a Professor in Open, Digital, and Distance Education, and Program Director in the Doctor of Distance Education Program at Athabasca University. She is an experienced practitioner and researcher of technology-assisted learning and teaching with a focus on innovative pedagogy... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Online
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

4:20pm EDT

Practicing Rebellion: Strategies to Sustain Open Education Leadership

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33975

The Rebus Luminary Fellowship for Education Leaders brought together fifteen postsecondary leaders across Canada and the United States for a three-month program dedicated to collective learning and renewal. Together in the winter and spring of 2026, we witnessed transformation in one another and ourselves through three online synchronous sessions and a three-day in-person summit. Our inquiry focused on individual and collective liberation. We developed an honest assessment of disparity in higher education, drawing on real-time pressures in our workplaces to track and examine the distribution of power at the systems-level. Rebus Luminary Fellows serve in multiple leadership roles within education institutions and organizations, ranging from directors to program leads to design specialists. Our community offers valuable perspectives rooted in our own leadership needs and educational contexts. We also dedicated time for inner work, personal reflection, and discussion, fueling visions of possible futures.In this hybrid panel, Rebus Luminary Fellows speak candidly about the challenges of leading open education initiatives, including isolation, burnout, and overwork. We also detail the newly acquired liberatory strategies that continue to make a difference for us in our daily work. In particular, the panel invites participants to consider the miracle of shifting perspective, deep values alignment, and moving from extractive to generative practices. Panelists will examine how these new practices, which started out as suggestions and flashes of curiosity, contribute to restorative, playful, and inventive leadership. Panelists will also discuss realistic methods for sustaining a cross-regional community of practice following the formal completion of a program. Fellows remain committed to nurturing our relationships and continued shared growth, but navigate active schedules and lead multiple projects. To this end, we share innovative ways to nourish and protect meaningful connection across the distance. We invite participants to replicate and experiment with examples of our asynchronous and synchronous engagement for ongoing interaction in your own communities. This session offers both solidarity and strategy. Methods for inclusive hybrid interaction include: open-ended Menti questions and polls to gauge participant priorities and special interests in leadership and collective transformation; a shared online document for real-time note-taking to ensure participation is open and equitable for online participants; and voicing the Meeting Chat comments aloud at regular intervals to ensure multiple means of access to the contributions of online participants. Come away with concrete practices for sustaining yourself and your communities, as well as affirmation that we are not alone in this work.

Speakers

Christina Hendricks

Professor of Teaching and Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology., University of British Columbia Vancouver

Christina Hendricks is a Professor of Teaching in philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she also serves as the Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. She has been an open education practitioner, advocate, and researchers... Read More →

Christine Rickabaugh

Open Education Librarian, University of Arkansas Libraries

Christine Rickabaugh is a former early childhood educator who traded crayons and glitter for Pressbooks and Creative Commons licenses — and hasn't looked back. Now the Open Education Librarian at the University of Arkansas Libraries, she leads the university's OER program, chairs... Read More →

Joan Giovannini

Manager of Faculty Development with Instructional Design, Engagement, and Support (IDEAS), University of Massachusetts Amherst

Joan Giovannini is Manager of Faculty Development with Instructional Design, Engagement, and Support (IDEAS) at University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she leads institution‑wide initiatives that support evidence‑based, and technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Joan designs... Read More →

Allison Buckley

Program Specialist, Southern Regional Education Board

Allison Buckley manages and supports the work of open educational resources and the Education Technology Cooperative, where she aids in increasing open educational resources awareness at the local and national levels. She joined SREB’s postsecondary education team in 2024 as a... Read More →

Ginelle Baskin

Assistant Professor and Open Education Librarian, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)

Ginelle Baskin is the Open Education Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University, where she leads campus initiatives to advance textbook affordability and the adoption of open educational resources (OER). She works closely with faculty, departments, and campus partners to support... Read More →

Veronica Vold

Education Consultant, Equinox Learning Design, LLC

Veronica Vold, PhD, created Equinox Learning Design, LLC to champion equity in higher education. With Open Oregon Educational Resources, she led an instructional design team and created statewide initiatives for accessibility and design justice. As an education consultant, she provides... Read More →

Brandon Carson

Sessional Instructor and Research Associate, Ontario Tech University

Brandon Carson is an open education scholar-practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of teaching and learning, educational technology, and higher education change. With more than 17 years of experience in the post-secondary sector, Brandon has supported initiatives related... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

5:30pm EDT

California to the World: Co-Creating an Open Educational Equity Toolkit for Global Use

Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33124

In 2024, OEG recognized the Open for Antiracism Program as an outstanding program for inclusive excellence. In moving OFAR beyond its base in California, what does it look like when open education for equity moves to other US and global contexts? This panel presents the Open for Antiracism (OFAR) Toolkit—a collaborative, openly licensed resource rooted in five years of program data from the California Community College system—as a living prototype for how the open education community can collectively advance UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4: inclusive and equitable quality education for all.OFAR began as professional development to help educators examine the relationship between OER, open pedagogy, and educational equity. The OFAR Toolkit extends that work into a freely adaptable Canvas Commons course to assist educators, institutions, and administrators in adapting our research-backed model for their own communities and contexts. The Toolkit is designed to resist one-size-fits-all definitions of equity—because equity looks different depending on the place, institution, and individual. This session features an OFAR coach who has guided educators through the program's community-of-practice model; two adapters localizing OFAR for distinct contexts; and the project's leadership team. Together, panelists will share what OFAR has accomplished, what it cannot accomplish alone, and how open collaboration is reinventing its possibilities via the Toolkit.Session StructureThe panel has four segments: (1) the project leadership introduces OFAR's five-year research base, outcomes data, and core design principles; (2) Our lead coach discusses the community-of-learners model at the program's core: how cohort structures, mentorship, and sustained professional relationships create conditions for genuine pedagogical transformation—and what requires local roots to replicate; (3) Two adapters share how they are localizing the Toolkit for their own educational communities: what they changed, what they kept, and what tensions arose between the Toolkit's assumptions and their own contexts. They speak directly to the SDG 4 challenge of building equity frameworks across borders without imposing them; and (4) The session closes with structured audience dialogue. Attendees are invited to reflect: What terms, practices, or structures would you change? What does equity-centered open pedagogy look like where you are? What can we build together that none of us can build alone? This segment draws on the Toolkit's "Room to Grow" framework, modeling the reflective and collaborative spirit the resource is designed to cultivate.

Speakers

James Glapa-Grossklag

Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources and Distance Learning; and Technical Assistance Provider, College of the Canyons; and ZTC Grant Program California Community College Chancellor’s Office

James Glapa-Grossklag is Dean, Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning at College of the Canyons (USA). He serves as Technical Assistance Provider for the California Community Colleges' Zero Textbook Cost Degree Program, the largest-ever public investment... Read More →

Cindy Domaika

Academic Engagement Partner, Nicolet College, WI

Cindy Domaika is a long-time higher-education professional at Nicolet College who specializes in open educational resources (OER), socially-just academics, and service-learning. Her work centers on expanding affordable and equitable access to education through zero-textbook-cost initiatives... Read More →

Joy Shoemate

Director of Online Education, College of Canyons

Joy Shoemate is the Director of Online Education at College of the Canyons where she supports instructors’ successful integration of technology into teaching and learning to promote student success, persistence and completion in distance education courses. She also oversees the... Read More →

Laura Dunn

Director, Open for Antiracism

aura Malia Dunn, Ph.D. is a scholar of Pacific-Asian religions, contemplative practice, and educational equity. She is the Co-Director of the Open for Antiracism Program (OFAR), a statewide professional development initiative for California Community Colleges, and faculty at the University... Read More →

Jamie Thomas

Lead Coach and Course Facilitator, Open for Antiracism

Dr. Jamie Thomas is OFAR Lead Coach and a Lecturer in Linguistics and TESOL at CSU Dominguez Hills. She holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics, with a focus on African languages, and she has been proud to support OFAR as a coach since 2021. In 2022, Jamie was recognized with the Distance... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track (Re)Inventing our Shared Global Vision Together

5:30pm EDT

EdTech, Open Values: Preparing Open Educators for AI, and the Next Big Thing

Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33918

As artificial intelligence (AI) becomes increasingly integrated into education, educators face significant challenges in understanding how to effectively and ethically incorporate these tools into their teaching practices. Issues such as privacy, surveillance, intellectual property, plagiarism and policy gaps create uncertainty around AI use in the classroom. Additionally, educators lack structured guidance on how to align new integrations with the principles of open pedagogy, which emphasize student-centered learning, access to education, and public engagement. Without support, educators risk implementing emerging technologies in ways that may compromise educational equity, student autonomy, and ethical standards. But these are not new issues, and considering AI as if it were a unique challenge risks us thinking there must be a uniquely AI-focused solution. Instead, libraries and educators need a framework for understanding new and emerging educational technologies in a way that centers our values. Today it’s AI, but education has always been and will continue to be impacted by new and emerging technologies. Some (like with Wikipedia and the World Wide Web) will be empowering and useful, others (like Second Life or NFTs) will be distracting and disruptive. Many new technologies will be a mix of all of these pressures. In order to prepare librarians to understand the opportunities and challenges created by new technologies, and guide educators as they develop new practices and pedagogies, we have adapted our Open Pedagogy Incubator program to use AI as a case study to introduce a framework for evaluating new technologies. This framework equips librarians and educators with the tools needed to a) understand and evaluate the technical affordances and legal implications of these technologies, b) explore the new pedagogical opportunities created or foreclosed by these technologies, and c) build a plan for engaging with (or putting aside) new technologies in a way that centers open values of inclusion and student-centered impact in the classroom and for lifelong learning. With support from the IMLS and our state library we supported our first online cohort in the spring of 2026 and led a series of workshops across our state in the summer. These cohorts brought together educators from across the state, including academic librarians, community college educators, and public librarians. Together we developed and expanded a framework for open values in edtech and explored strategies for incorporating that framework into our communities of practice. This panel brings together participants to discuss their experiences, introduce the framework, and share lessons learned from this program.

Speakers

William Cross

Director, Open Knowledge Center, North Carolina State University

Will Cross is a medium-sized pile of diplomas in a trench coat. He serves as the Director of the Open Knowledge Center at N.C. State University, an instructor at UNC Chapel Hill, and a Senior Policy Fellow at American University's Washington College of Law. Will holds a law degree... Read More →

David Tully

Principal Librarian for Student Affordability, North Carolina State University Libraries

David is the Principal Librarian for Student Affordability at NC State University Libraries, focused on advancing student success by reducing the financial barriers to higher education. Through leadership in open education and strategic fundraising, he works to expand access to affordable... Read More →

Katya Mueller

Libraries Fellow, North Carolina State University Libraries

Katya Mueller (pronounced KA-tee-uh MAW-luhr) is a Libraries Fellow (2024-2027) at North Carolina State University Libraries. She works on the Libraries’ open education initiatives in supporting the use of OERs in coursework and designing programs that empower faculty to meaningfully... Read More →

Campbell Barnes

Graduate Research Assistant, North Carolina State University Libraries

Campbell Barnes is the Graduate Research Assistant for the Open Knowledge Center at NC State University Libraries, where she supports faculty and student success through open educational initiatives. She is a facilitator on the Open Pedagogy Pit Stop and Open Pedagogy Incubator programs... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel