OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

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11:05am EDT

Connecting the Opens in Europe: From Strategy to Alliance-Building for Knowledge as a Public Good

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT

ID: 32921

Across Europe, open education has often developed alongside, rather than together with, related movements such as open science, open access, and open knowledge policy. Yet in a period marked by rapid digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and pressure on public-interest infrastructures, fragmentation is becoming a strategic weakness. This session examines how “connecting the opens” can provide a stronger foundation for open education by linking policy, practice, and community across sectors.The presentation draws on three connected strands of work. First, it discusses SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens position paper (https://zenodo.org/records/17572650), which makes the case for intentionally aligning Open Science and Open Education to build a more equitable and future-oriented higher education system in Europe. Second, it presents insights from the feasibility work for a possible European Open Education Alliance (https://zenodo.org/records/18862080), which identified strong support for a broader coordinating structure able to strengthen policy coherence, infrastructure conversations, shared understanding, and collective action across countries. Third, it reflects on the contribution that community-based activities can make to sustaining exchange, experimentation, and implementation, exploring the European Network of Open Education Librarians as an example of this approach.Rather than presenting these as separate initiatives, the session argues that they represent three layers of the same change strategy: conceptual alignment, ecosystem coordination, and community practice. Taken together, they suggest that open education can gain greater visibility, legitimacy, and impact when understood not as an isolated field but as part of a wider movement to uphold knowledge as a public good.The session will offer participants a strategic framework and practical insights for thinking about how open education communities can connect across institutional, national, and thematic boundaries. It will be of interest to policymakers, network leaders, librarians, educators, and open practitioners seeking ways to move from dispersed activity toward durable collaboration.

Speakers

Paola Corti

Senior Open Education Expert, SPARC Europe

Paola Corti is a Senior Open Education Expert at SPARC Europe, and she manages the European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL); she supports librarians in taking action to implement the UNESCO OER Recommendation. She also works part of her time at Politecnico di Milano (Italy... Read More →

Vanessa Proudman

Director, SPARC Europe

Vanessa Proudman is Director of SPARC Europe, working to make Open the default in Europe. Vanessa has well over 20 years of experience in international, national and regional policymaking and advocacy in the areas of Open Access, Open Science, Open Culture and Open Education with... Read More →

Paul Stacey

Independent Consultant, https://paulstacey.global

Based in Vancouver Canada Paul Stacey is an independent consultant on open education and the strategic use of open in education, science, culture and other sectors. From 2022 through to current times Paul helped SPARC Europe connect Open Science with Open Education through their... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:05am EDT

From Campsite to Commons: Reimagining Who Builds and Owns Open Knowledge

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT

4 Room T

ID: 33568

For decades, National Geographic Education has translated the work of Explorers, storytellers, educators and community leaders, into classroom-ready resources, reaching millions of educators and learners worldwide. But like many institutions, we found ourselves “making camp”: Publishing high-quality content that was widely accessed, yet largely static. Difficult to adapt, remix, or meaningfully co-own across contexts.This session explores what it takes to move from that campsite to a true commons.In partnership with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), we are building the PowerED by National Geographic Society Hub on OER Commons: Not just as a repository, but as a participatory ecosystem. This shift is not primarily technical; it is cultural. It asks: Who builds knowledge? Who adapts it? Who owns it?At the center of this work is a reimagining of authorship. National Geographic Explorers are no longer only sources of expertise; they are co-creators alongside educators and, increasingly, learners. Together, they design open educational resources that are intended to be adapted: across geographies, cultures, and learning environments. An Explorer’s fieldwork becomes not a finished product, but a starting point for collective knowledge-building.We will share key strategies that have supported this transition from publishing to shared ownership:Designing modular OER templates that invite remix, localization, and reinterpretationBuilding capacity through an OER Fundamentals Academy, where educators learn to license, adapt, and publish their own workUsing platform analytics (e.g., remixing, downloads, global participation) to understand how knowledge moves and evolvesCreating feedback loops that position educators and communities as contributors—not just consumersParticipants will engage with real examples from the hub, including co-created lessons on topics such as volcanism and cultural storytelling, and see how these resources evolve as they are remixed and recontextualized. We will also share early insights from our academy model, where participants reported increased confidence in contributing to OER and a stronger sense of belonging within a global knowledge community.Ultimately, this session invites a shift in perspective: What if open education is not a collection of resources, but a shared space we build and rebuild together?

Speakers

Tyson Brown

Director, National Geographic Society

Tyson Brown leads the Dissemination, Platforms and Explorer Experience team for the National Geographic Society. In this role, he contributes to the organization’s strategic plan, leads product development and marketing for a library of materials, and delivers delightful content... Read More →

Patrick Cavanagh

Manager, Content Design, National Geographic Society

Patrick has been with the Education division of National Geographic Society for ten years. His background is in graphic design, and he also has training and experience in project management. He co-leads the Society's OER initiative.

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

11:50am EDT

Sometimes Open Isn’t Enough: Leveraging Library Resources in an Oer Ecosystem

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33637

While OER initiatives in higher education have historically emphasized openly licensed materials, many institutions, states, and consortia have been adopting course material affordability initiatives (sometimes called Zero Textbook Cost, or ZTC initiatives). This broader focus includes OER, library-licensed materials, items used within the bounds of fair use/fair dealing, and other free-to-use options – sometimes with all-rights-reserved copyright, and sometimes behind paywalls requiring user authentication. This focus on affordability rather than openness responds to the real-world problem of expensive course materials but also raises new questions about librarians’ roles in upholding the values of the open movement.For many academic librarians, affordability initiatives represent both an opportunity and a tension. On one hand, this approach can scale affordability efforts more quickly by allowing the use of library collections and other existing materials. On the other hand, these approaches may move institutions away from the long-term goals of openness, remixability, and public access that have historically defined the open education movement. Librarians working in this space must often balance pragmatic affordability solutions with broader commitments to open knowledge, ultimately considering whether course material affordability initiatives are hacking the open ecosystem or undermining it.This panel will feature three librarians from different institutions, all of whom are tasked with solving the real-world problem of textbook costs for students and all of whom sometimes recommend “closed” content to reduce the cost of course materials. By hearing the voices of librarians working at different public institutions – a four-year regional university, a large land-grant university, and an urban research university – we will explore the tensions of closed content in an OER world. Panelists will briefly describe their institutional contexts and the strategies they use to support affordability initiatives, followed by a moderated conversation exploring the philosophical, practical, and strategic questions that arise when affordability rather than openness becomes the primary goal. In addition to a Q&A period at the end of the session, panelists will invite attendees to share their thoughts throughout the panel to encourage engaged conversation. Some of the issues to be explored include:What tensions and challenges exist in a space where affordability is the goal, rather than openness?How do librarians define and communicate the differences between affordable course materials and OER?Do affordability initiatives expand or dilute open education goals?What strategic tradeoffs do librarians face in the context of affordability and OER?What specific strategies do librarians use to leverage library collections as course materials?How can librarians leverage relationships with their campus stores to advance affordability goals?How do affordability and OER initiatives enhance or compete with automatic textbook billing programs?By examining these questions through multiple institutional perspectives, this panel will offer participants a nuanced look at the evolving landscape of affordability work in academic libraries. Attendees will gain practical insights into how librarians are navigating the intersection of affordability and OER initiatives, communicating these concepts to faculty and administrators, and making strategic decisions about course materials in complex policy and institutional environments.

Speakers

Cheryl Casey

Open Education Librarian, University of Arizona

Cheryl Casey has led OER initiatives at the University of Arizona since 2014. She’s active in the OER community as a trainer for the Open Education Network (OEN) and one of the instructors for the OEN's Certificate in Open Education Librarianship. She holds a a Master’s in Library... Read More →

Anna Crosswhite

Affordable Course Materials Librarian, Central Washington University

Anna Crosswhite serves as the Affordable Course Materials Librarian at Central Washington University. Her work focuses on affordable course materials including Open Access (OA), Open Educational Resources (OER), and library licensed eBooks. She holds a Bachelors of Social Work (BSW... Read More →

Nancy A. Henke

Open Education Librarian, University of Colorado Denver

Nancy A. Henke is the Open Education Librarian at the University of Colorado Denver where she works to advance initiatives related to Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) and Open Educational Resources (OER). She earned her degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Iowa... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

12:25pm EDT

Digital Resilience of ePortfolios for Open Education – Lessons for the Future

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 31780

The focus of this session is to describe, discuss, and debate the collaborative process that was used to publish an edited open-access, online book on ePortfolios that consists of 43 chapters from 85 authors around the globe and was published in 9 months. The goal of the session is to provide “lessons learned” that others can use to publish their own collaborative open-access books and resources.The book is entitled Digital Resilience of ePortfolios During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for the Future, and it delves into the transformative role that ePortfolios have played during and after this global crisis. We have both previously experienced the challenges of academic book publishing: financial cost, extended time to publication, and restricted access for readers. Thus, we selected the Pressbooks publishing platform for this book to decrease the financial cost (virtually zero with an institutional license), increase publication time (9 months), and increase access (online open access).We sent out a global call for chapter proposals via international listservs in November 2024. Based on this invitation, we received 73 proposals in January 2025 from authors around the globe who were passionate and curious about the international use of ePortfolios. During the month of February, we reviewed the proposals and sorted them into 8 themes. We then invited authors from 47 proposals to submit full chapters. These authors submitted the first draft of their chapters in May. These chapters were then anonymized, converted to a Google Doc, and placed in a unique Google folder for each chapter. Each author was then required to peer review two related chapters using a peer review template created in Google Docs. This peer review process took place during the months of June and July and ended with the selection of 43 chapters for the book. At the beginning of August, each chapter team was provided access to their Google folder, which contained the two peer reviews. Authors then revised their chapters and uploaded their revised work along with a table describing how they had addressed the required revisions. In September, we reviewed each of the revised chapters, suggested final revisions, and then received preprint approval from each of the author teams. We then finalized publication, copyright, and accessibility criteria with our institutional library, resulting in the launch of our open access, online book in October 2025 during International Open Access Week.There are four main lessons learned that we would like to share with others from the collaborative, open-access, online publishing experience:Clarity and communication (everyone is clear on expectations of the publication process (e.g., peer reviews) and receives constant and consistent communication about the process).Planning and timelines (a clear plan has been established and communicated with the authors, with an emphasis on the importance and rationale for timelines (deadlines)).Review process integrity (importance of ensuring anonymity throughout the peer review process)Operational challenges (importance of having a support team (e.g., IT and librarians) to overcome publishing challenges (e.g., copyright and accessibility issues)).

Speakers

Norm Vaughn

Professor, Mount Royal University

Norman Vaughan, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Education at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He has co-edited the Digital Resilience of ePortfolios During and Beyond the COVID-19 Pandemic (2025) book as well as co-authored Principles of Blended... Read More →

Mphoentle Modise

Associate Professor, University of South Africa

Mpho-Entle Puleng Modise, PhD, is a multi-award-winning Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instructional Studies, College of Education, at the University of South Africa. Her research areas include digital transformation in open distance e-learning, faculty and... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

1:40pm EDT

Charting the Path: Seeding the Open Education Movement

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33949

The open education movement itself may be the biggest legacy of the announcement made on the front page of the New York Times on April 4, 2001, “Auditing Classes at M.I.T., on the Web and Free.” The innovation and leadership of MIT and the William and Flora Hewlett and the Andrew W. Mellow Foundations, along with Creative Commons, did more than just break paths for access to learning as a public good in the digital age, they made possible the impact from countless other organizations globally. This announcement twenty five years ago accelerated a global online movement in open education. This session invites selected organizations from the early days of open education to describe their paths and impact, thanks in small part to paths opened by MIT OpenCourseWare.Panelists will tell their organization’s open education origin stories and celebrate their impact and innovation over the last two decades.Delft University Technology: TU Delft, the oldest and largest technical university in the Netherlands, is at the forefront of open and online learning and a long standing advocate for open education. One of the first opencoursewares globally, TU Delft continues to offer openly licensed course materials through its OpenCourseWare, which was launched in 2007.Open Education Japan: OE Japan represents universities and companies in Japan promoting open education and disseminating open educational resources. With its origins in the Japan OCW Consortium, OE Japan includes two early opencoursewares celebrating their 20+ year anniversaries, the University of Tokyo OpenCourseWare, the University of Kyoto OpenCourseWare and Nagoya University OpenCourseWare.Open Education Global: Today, OEGlobal connects a broad global community of open education organizations and leads international initiatives such as Open Education Week. It has its origins as the OpenCourseWare Consortium with informal meetings beginning in 2006. Mountain Heights Academy: Mountain Heights serves approximately 3,000 middle and high school students across Utah in the United States with a curriculum based on open education resources. Founded as the Open High School of Utah in 2009, it was the first K-12 school to embrace open education resources as the primary educational content for its courses.

Speakers

DeLaina Tonks

Executive Director, Mountain Heights Academy

Dr. DeLaina Tonks has been involved in education since 1991, as a teacher, instructional designer, and administrator. Prior to coming to Mountain Heights Academy, she taught high school French and Spanish in Upper Arlington, Ohio. DeLaina is a 2020 “Best of State – Administrator... Read More →

Katsusuke Shigeta

Professor, Information Inititative Center / Hokkaido University

Dr. Katsusuke Shigeta is a Professor at the Information Initiative Center and Director of the Data-Driven Education Initiative Center at Hokkaido University. He serves as the President of Open Education Japan (OEJ) and was previously a member of the Board of Directors for Open Education... Read More →

Willem van Valkenburg

Executive Director TU Delft Learning for Life Centre, Delft University of Technology

Willem van Valkenburg is the Executive Director of the Learning for Life Centre of Delft University of Technology based in the Netherlands. The Centre offers online and blended education to empower professionals and lifelong learners worldwide. The Centre has developed more than 250... Read More →

Curt Newton

Director, MIT OpenCourseWare, MIT Open Learning

Curt Newton leads MIT OpenCourseWare in supporting millions of global learners and educators every year with freely shared materials from over 2,500 MIT courses. He joined OpenCourseWare in 2004, shortly after its launch, captivated by the promise of open education, and worked as... Read More →

Brandon Muramatsu

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

2:15pm EDT

Multilingual Glossary – an OER Addressing Social Injustice in Learning Pharmacology at Nelson Mandela University

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 33338

South Africa has 12 official languages and a multilingual population, with IsiZulu (24.4%) and isiXhosa (16.3%) being the largest languages, and English (8.7%) being one of the least spoken languages in the country [1]. Nevertheless, English dominates the academic learning and teaching across all public universities, with some South African Higher Education Institutions also offering courses in Afrikaans [2].Academic achievements are influenced by numerous factors and linguistic barriers have been extensively documented as significant obstacles to student success [3]. The Bachelor of Pharmacy student cohort at Nelson Mandela University is demographically and culturally diverse. English does not represent the primary language of communication among the students therefore overcoming the language barrier requires deliberate and targeted pedagogical intervention to ensure equitable academic outcomes. Pharmacology modules in the Bachelor of Pharmacy, are presented in English, posing a significant linguistic challenge for students with poor command of this language. The disparity between the language of instruction and students’ primary language can create a comprehension and learning gap, which can be seen as a form of social injustice. A thorough understanding of pharmacological terms is key for pharmacy students to engage more easily with the material and achieve better academic results. This understanding increases confidence in the topic and helps graduates improve collaboration with other healthcare professionals in the workplace, ultimately optimising patient therapeutic outcomes and quality of life.The multilingual glossary was compiled through a comprehensive review of nearly fifty pharmacology reference books, journals, and publications. Upon reviewing the definitions, the researchers focused on simple, understandable English terminology, thereby facilitating translation into South African indigenous languages, which lack specialised medical terminology.This glossary will be a tool that students can easily engage with and will incorporate the referenced English definitions of some of the most commonly used pharmacology terms and their translation into isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. The glossary project rollout and growth is being constructed in similar ways as Together, an openly licensed, free and collaborative picture book project funded via the Global Open Education Graduate Network. As an Open Educational Resource (OER), Together has been used to create international learning communities and foster engagement in learning [4] [5]. Our multilingual glossary of pharmacological terminology is being developed to address the linguistic challenge experienced by pharmacy and health science students in South Africa, whilst simultaneously establishing a foundation for both local and global collaboration to enhance learning among healthcare professionals requiring pharmacological knowledge. The multilingual glossary is envisioned to not only be a reference tool but also an Open, dynamic, contributory platform through which users may add terminology and translations across multiple languages, including all the other indigenous South African languages. Current outputs do not reflect the wealth of languages and diversity the landscape engages with [6]. If the medium allows, an audio pronunciation of each term will be considered. The use of the glossary as a mobile application could facilitate convenient content accessibility. Besides being a study resource, the tool could be used in game-based learning pedagogies or the gamification of learning.

Speakers

Gino Fransman

Project Leader: OpenEdInfluencers, Nelson Mandela University

Gino Fransman is the founder of the Open Education Influencers project (https://openedinfluencers.mandela.ac.za) at Nelson Mandela University in South Africa. He is the current Africa Hub Coordinator for the UNESCO Open Education for a Better World [OE4BW] program, plus both a mentor... Read More →

Doina Naude

Nelson Mandela University

Doina Naude is an academic professional and clinical pharmacy expert based in South Africa. With over two decades of experience spanning clinical practice, pharmaceutical industry, and higher education, she brings a unique blend of practical expertise, intercultural perspective, and... Read More →

Janet Barry

Nelson Mandela University

Janet Barry is a registered pharmacist and academic based in South Africa, currently serving as Stream Coordinator of Pharmaceutical Chemistry in the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme at Nelson Mandela University. She holds a B.Pharm degree (1995) from the University of Port Elizabeth... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

2:15pm EDT

The Pit Stop Program at NC State: Where Emerging Educational Technology Meets Open Practice

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 33663

As emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) reshape the educational landscape, what is their impact on core open educational practices? This session explores the development and outcomes of the Open Pedagogy Pit Stop program at NC State University, a cohort initiative that builds upon a successful incubator model to integrate interactive technologies with open pedagogy. The program is designed for instructors who have identified a specific teaching problem they want to address through the application of emerging technologies in an open pedagogy framework. Rather than viewing emergent tools in isolation, our program examines their practical and ethical implications within the framework of open education. We will share key curriculum decisions, successes, and challenges encountered while cultivating a supportive, cross-campus community of practice. This community-centric approach demonstrates how, when purposefully aligned with open principles, interactive technologies such as AI and VR can deepen human connections among faculty and staff while supporting student creativity and curiosity.At the heart of the Pit Stop program is a collaborative cohort model designed to break down institutional silos. By bringing together an interdisciplinary group of faculty and staff for a shared incubator experience, the program transforms isolated experimentation with AI and VR into a robust community of practice. This peer-to-peer environment provides a safe space to grapple with the ethical and practical implications of emerging tools, ensuring participants feel supported as they co-create, troubleshoot, and redesign their courses around open pedagogy principles. By the end of Pit Stop, participants will have developed a tangible, technology-enhanced teaching solution rooted in open pedagogical principles. They will leave the program with both a practical deliverable and the confidence to apply emerging tools in support of student-centered learning.The team of facilitators includes representatives from the NC State University Libraries, the Office for Faculty Excellence, and DELTA (Digital Education and Learning Technologies Applications). Pit Stop is free of charge to NC State faculty, thanks to grant support from the NC State Foundation & the Betsy Etheridge Brown Open Education Resource and Pedagogy Endowment.Session attendees will receive a practical roadmap for developing similar programs at their own institutions. We will cover strategies for combining new technologies with open education principles to achieve community-driven, impactful outcomes, alongside methods for documenting resulting innovations for scholarly dissemination. Pit Stop’s results to date will highlight the program’s positive impact on both faculty development and student engagement, offering a strong, reproducible model for advancing a culture of openness through the ethical and intentional application of emergent technologies.

Speakers

Maria Gallardo-Williams

Director of Faculty Development, North Carolina State University

Maria Gallardo-Williams, PhD, is the Director of Faculty Development in the Office for Faculty Excellence at North Carolina State University. With a background in chemistry education, she spent most of her academic career as a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry. During... 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 →

Tyler Kroon

Research Librarian for Engineering, North Carolina State University Libraries

Tyler Kroon is a Research Librarian for Engineering at North Carolina State University. He plans and teaches library instruction sessions, research workshops, and provides research consultation services for engineering students and faculty. He serves as the library liaison to the... 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 →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Exploring Emergent Technologies and the Future of Openness

3:00pm EDT

Open Publishing in Practice Across Europe

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 4:05pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33888

In this panel, leaders from institutions across Europe will share how they are building and scaling open publishing networks to support institution-wide publishing initiatives — and what those efforts mean for knowledge as a public good.Each panelist will showcase their open catalogs, highlight key Open Educational Resources (OER) projects, and offer a behind-the-scenes look at how open publishing is being implemented across different national and institutional contexts. We'll explore how and why each institution chose to launch their initiatives, the types of publishing they support, and how they are working to advance institutional goals around openness, access, and teaching innovation.Attendees will hear what each team is most proud of, lessons learned along the way, and what's next for open publishing at their institutions. Whether you're just getting started with open education or looking to scale an existing program, this session offers practical insights and perspectives from across Europe on building sustainable open publishing infrastructure.

Speakers

Celine Peignen

Deputy Librarian, Technological University of the Shannon

Celine Peignen is the Deputy Librarian and Open Education Librarian at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), where she has worked in the library sector for over 15 years. She has been a driving force behind TUS's open education strategy, securing funding from the National... Read More →

Maura Flynn

Open Educational Resources Librarian, Technological University of the Shannon

Maura Flynn is the Open Educational Resources (OER) Librarian at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS), where she leads the development and promotion of open publishing and open education initiatives across the institution. She is the founder of TUS Open Press, the university's... 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 →

Kirstine McDermid

Open Education Resources Manager, University of Leeds

Kirstine McDermid is dedicated to fostering inclusive and equitable learning pathways through open education. With expertise in Pressbooks, instructional technologies, WordPress, course design, accessibility, copyright, and licensing, she supports educators in adapting and creating... Read More →

Jane Saunders

Associate Director: Content and Discovery, University of Leeds

Jane is responsible for the Libraries’ main research and teaching collections. (Rare books and archives fall under the remit of our Cultural Collections). She manages the Libraries’ information resources budget, which buys the books, journals, databases and digitised collections... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 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 (Re)Inventing our Shared Global Vision Together

3:35pm EDT

Activating Open Collections for Education: Developing Decolonial OER from Cultural Heritage Collections

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 32593

As museums and archives increasingly release digital collections under open licenses, millions of cultural heritage objects are now freely accessible online. Yet their pedagogical potential remains largely untapped, and educators often face challenges discovering, contextualizing, and integrating these materials into teaching.Since its launch in 2022, Curationist enables global users to search more than 5.4 million objects from the open-access collections of museums and archives worldwide, connecting curious minds to the histories, stories, and ideas these works inspire. Building on this foundation, Curationist is developing Open Educational Resources (OER) that activate museum collections for use in educational settings.This work responds to persistent gaps in educational materials about cultural heritage in regions shaped by colonization and political conflict. Cultural heritage in these contexts is often vulnerable to loss, displacement, and contested interpretation. At the same time, curricula frequently simplify these histories or rely on archival records shaped by colonial frameworks. Accessible resources that foreground Indigenous knowledge systems and multi-language cultural heritage remain limited.This session shares Curationist’s approach to developing open educational materials for undergraduate students that explore cultural heritage and at-risk histories in times of conflict. Using openly licensed museum objects and archival materials, these resources encourage critical engagement with how conflict, colonization, and cultural resilience shape the preservation and interpretation of heritage.Grounded in a collaborative and decolonial model of knowledge production, this initiative brings together educators, scholars, and community contributors to develop educational content while redistributing resources. By activating open museum collections for teaching and learning, this approach offers a model for expanding access to cultural heritage and democratizing knowledge through open education.

Speakers

Amanda Figueroa

Platform Director, Curationist Foundation

Amanda Figueroa works at the intersection of cultural heritage, digital access, and community engagement. Her work focuses on making collections more accessible, contextualized, and usable for diverse audiences. She brings experience in bridging institutional collections with public-facing... Read More →

Nicole Malli

Community Director, Curationist

Nicole Malli is the Community Director at Curationist, where she brings extensive experience in cultural heritage, community partnerships, and public programming to expand engagement with open access collections. With a background in cultural anthropology, she focuses on building... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

3:35pm EDT

Building the Next Generation of Open Educators: Open Textbooks, Networks and Conversations for the Future

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33737

The #RhodesMustFall student protests of 2015 highlighted the alienation that students in South Africa experience at universities whose colonial origins still dominate institutional culture, resulting in societal and institutional injustices that make it challenging for students to transition to university (Luckett and Shay, 2017). Ten years on, despite a variety of institutional responses to address the issues, transformation is still a work in progress. Open education is considered a global response to address social injustices in Higher education (HE) such as lack of access to quality, localized, relevant teaching and learning materials. Interviews with open textbook authors and student co-creators have shown the authoring process enabled pedagogical change, collaboration with multiple authors and students (Cox et al. 2024).Student voice was amplified and acknowledged during the protests. The inclusion of student voice can continue to bring about transformation and is essential for shaping conversations about the future of HE considering students are embedded in their lived realities and are uniquely placed to understand the needs of their communities. This presentation will address the question: How do we partner with students in OER authoring and bring students into conversation about open education and the future of higher education?There is a growing body of literature describing student partnership but previous work has not included student recognition for co-creating curricula and course materials and how to bring students into conversation with open education practitioners. This presentation will introduce students as partner models and specifically relate them to openness. Three examples of partnership will be introduced, a University of Cape Town pilot project: student fellowships in Digital Open Textbooks for Development. An exciting example of student authorship process in open textbook production “Science is tough but so are you” (Willmers et al. in press). The UNITWIN network of Open Education (UNOE) will be described, including its objectives. The important new and different approach of UNOE has been to begin its collaborative multi-national work with a project enabling student voice.Interviews were carried out with academic authors and students. Students also wrote their own reflections on their experiences. The current UNOE student fellowships project will include outputs and documents collected during the process and reflections of the student co-ordinator responsible for growing the student network. Student fellowships at UCT highlighted the strong student voice concerned with issues of social justice and building sharing resources into future HE systems. The findings from interviews revealed the power of open textbook initiatives to serve as vehicles for promote multilingualism, ‘localisation’ (including translation), epistemic representation and institutional change (Masuku et al. 2025). This presentation highlights a pathway for Open Education sustainability, renewed focus on epistemic justice through open education and students as partners. This research and practice has implication for democratising knowledge, authoring content for specific contexts and circumstance. UNESCO student fellows project if designed to build an open community of academics and students who can support and guide new types of content, knowledge and network for sustainable open education with the aim of addressing epistemic injustice.

Speakers

Glenda Cox

Building the next generation of open educators: open textbooks, networks and conversations for the future., University of Cape Town

Associate Professor Glenda Cox works in the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT) at the University of Cape Town (UCT). She leads the Digital Open Textbooks for Development (DOT4D) initiative at UCT. She holds the UNESCO chair in Open Education and Social Justice and... Read More →

Nico Pampier

Student, University of Caoe Town

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

4:55pm EDT

Beyond Open Access: The CARE–KNOW–DO Framework for Transformative Open Education

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33905

What if openness meant more than access?Open education has made knowledge available to millions — but availability is not transformation. This interactive session introduces the CARE–KNOW–DO framework: a decade in the making, empirically validated across four continents, and built on a deceptively simple proposition: that responsible values, open knowledge, and sustainable action are not separate goals but a single, integrated process of meaningful learning.Who this session is forResearchers, project coordinators, and network leaders who design, study, or advocate for open education — and who want models that do more than describe openness, but actually operationalise it by catalysing its impact.The problem we're addressingOpen education has a well-documented gap: it excels at content delivery but rarely connects affective-cognitive learning with social responsibility and real-world action. Curricula align with SDGs on paper; learners rarely feel it in practice. CARE–KNOW–DO was built specifically to close that gap.What CARE–KNOW–DO is — and what it has doneDeveloped across four major international projects — EC-funded weSPOT (2013–15), ENGAGE (2015–17), CONNECT (2020–24), and the ongoing METEOR (2025–) — the framework has evolved from early inquiry-based learning designs to AI-enhanced, socially impactful open education ecosystems. Its reach is not theoretical:Implemented in 80+ schools across Latin America, Europe, and Africa.Engaged 55,000+ learners, educators, and community partners, with particular reach into underserved regionsDemonstrated measurable gains in engagement, participation, and progression.Extended to education in emergencies through the CatchUp programme — evidence of its relevance where equitable learning recovery matters most.Recognised with the 2025 Open Education Award for Excellence (Open Practices — Open Pedagogy).What makes it originalMost frameworks treat engagement, knowledge, and action as a sequence. CARE–KNOW–DO demonstrates — through large-scale empirical work — that they are interconnected dimensions, not steps. Change one and you change all three. That insight has direct consequences for how we design curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment across open education and digital transformation, including emerging technologies such as AI.In practice, it means: real-life challenges tied to the SDGs, genuine co-creation of knowledge with families and communities, and ethical, critical engagement with emerging technologies — including AI-Unplugged approaches and human-led AI-supported knowledge mapping.What you'll do in this sessionThis is not a presentation with a Q&A bolted on. You will:Encounter the framework through international. implementation examples — including crisis contexts and AI-enhanced designs.Share your own practices advancing Agenda 2030 and SDG-aligned research or proposals.Apply structured reflection to map CARE–KNOW–DO onto your own institutional, network, or project context — including future proposals.Leave with a concrete starting point — not just inspiration.The bigger pictureBy bridging research, policy, and practice, this session contributes to a shared and urgent question: what does open education owe the world beyond open access? The answer CARE–KNOW–DO proposes is both ambitious and achievable — and this session is the place to pilot it.

Speakers

Alexandra Okada

Associate Professor on Global Education and Digital Transformation, The Open University

Dr Alexandra Okada is Associate Research Professor in Global Education and Digital Transformation at The Open University UK and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is an internationally recognised expert in open learning and AI for sustainable futures, focusing on equity... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

4:55pm EDT

How Can Open Education and Artificial Intelligence Be Sustained to Build a Better World?

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT

8 DR6

ID: 33726

The Open Education for Better World OE4BW (https://oe4bw.org/) program was born in 2017 after the second World OER Congress held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.OE4BW is a international, online and tuition free mentoring programme with the goal to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) through the development of Open Education projects in a yearly cycle.After 8 years implemented, it has developed 420 projects by 607 participants from 53 countries, based on voluntary work of a committed group of coordinators and prestigious and high-skilled mentors. Till today, the program has been mostly sustained by the UNESCO Chair in Open Education, Mitja Jermol, and the UNESCO National Commission of Slovenia.Although the continuous work and relative success in some countries like India, the program struggles to strengthen its mission/vision accordingly to its growth and opportunities, posing serious questions on its future sustainability. Also, OE4BW has been allocated as a program in the International Research Center on Artificial Intelligence IRCAI, which obliges and challenges to shift focus towards AI development and deployment.This session will present and discuss the previous attempts and the results of workshops to create a short and mid-term strategy mission for OE4BW (2030), complemented by a sustainability model that creates value and revenue. This sustainability model has to be the foundation to uptake new opportunities within IRCAI, embrace AI in its foresight as a core component, build on successful projects, hubs and countries, exploit recent promising partnerships, explore recognition and credentialing practices.The discussion should lead to connect a lifelong-learning, participatory Open Education approach to enhance design, development and deployment of AI, specially in contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. There is the assumption, also to be discussed, that the focus of AI development should be orientated for solving educational needs and challenges, like continuous teacher-professional development aligned to AI Competence for Teachers (UNESCO). But the underlying questions in these and other scenarios is: how can it be sustainable?

Speakers

Werner Westermann

Can K-12 teachers and students build Open Source AI tools for education?, International Research Center on Artificial Intelligence IRCAI

Werner Westermann Juárez works at the Civic Education Program, at the Library of National Congress of Chile since 2015. He is a History, Geography and Social Sciences Teacher and Bachelor Graduate in History (Pontificia Universidad Católica, Chile) and a Master’s on Open Education... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
8 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Exploring Emergent Technologies and the Future of Openness

4:55pm EDT

When Open Content Moves Beyond Vision: Tactile and Multisensory Design for Accessibility

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33897

Most educational content is often created assuming that learning primarily happens through vision. My work in graphic design has been shaped by a related question: how can communication go beyond just vision? This question arose because I experienced a vision problem caused by retinal detachment. While visual approaches work for many people, they can also create barriers for learners with visual impairments and for contexts where visual access is limited or unreliable. This session explores how graphic design can expand open content by engaging touch, material, and physical interaction.Drawing from practice-based research in tactile and multisensory design, the presentation introduces methods for creating accessible learning materials that go beyond visual methods. Examples include 3D-printed tactile graphics, embossed typographic systems, and hands-on learning tools that can be produced using accessible fabrication techniques and shared as open resources. These approaches demonstrate how design can turn information into physical forms, enabling learners to access content through multiple sensory channels.This session positions accessibility not only as a requirement, but as a generative strategy for innovating open content. Open education has made significant progress in improving access through open licensing and digital distribution. However, much of this content remains visually dependent. Expanding open content to include tactile and multisensory formats can better support diverse learners, including those with visual impairments, as well as those working in environments where screens, bandwidth, or visual attention are limited.The presentation will address how these materials can be shared, adapted, and reproduced. By sharing design files, utilizing common tools like desktop 3D printers or embossing techniques, and encouraging local adaptation, educators and practitioners can create context-responsive learning materials. This method supports the larger goals of open education by supporting not only access, but also participation and co-creation.Attendees will gain an understanding of how graphic design can help develop new types of open content that are inclusive, adaptable, and scalable. The session encourages participants to rethink the role of design in open education, not just as a tool for visual communication, but as a way to shape how knowledge is experienced, shared, and understood across different sensory and material conditions.

Speakers

Taekyeom Lee

Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Indiana University

Taekyeom Lee is an award-winning interdisciplinary graphic designer and design educator whose work explores emerging technologies, digital fabrication, and accessible visual communication. He is an Associate Professor of Graphic Design at Indiana University Bloomington and received... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation