OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

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10:30am EDT

Open Education Fresk, a Collaborative Workshop to Explore Benefits of Open Sharing and Best Practices

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:35am EDT

ID: 33868

During this collaborative workshop, using maps, quizzes, and guided discussions, identify concrete situations where Open Education and Open Educational Resources (OER) come into play. Connect best practices to these use cases so you too can take action in your environment.During the workshop:- Understand the growing importance of open sharing and digital learning; open education, beyond OER platforms, is a human, collective adventure full of choices to enrich learning success.- Identify the potential benefits of open education for different users: teachers, instructional designers, and students, as well as the obstacles and how to solve them.- Explore best practices to adopt, according to your aspirations.The Open Education Fresk is conceived as a mediating tool that fosters exchange, discussion of perspectives, and the collective emergence of disciplinary or transdisciplinary use cases, while also examining its capacity to facilitate participants' appropriation of the principles and practices of open education. The "Open Education Fresk" workshop lasts 1.5 hours and is designed for up to 30 participants (teachers, instructional designers, doctoral students, support staff), divided into subgroups of 4 to 5 people. It is designed as a collaborative, experiential, and reflective process, fostering the gradual appropriation of open education concepts and open educational resources (OER).The workshop combines short theoretical presentations, professional role-playing exercises, the use of interactive materials (cards, game board), and peer discussions, all within an active learning framework. The workshop is structured in six successive stages: 1. Icebreaker, aimed at building rapport and introducing the benefits of information sharing; 2. Workshop Framework, presentation of objectives, operating rules, and the facilitator's role; 3. Professional role-playing exercises based on concrete teaching or learning situations; each participant will identify a situation that is relevant for himself-herself. 4. Structured input on open education and OER, in the form of a collaborative quiz and a debate with spatial movement, focusing on Creative Commons licenses; 5. Argumentation exercises, where participants adopt the role of ambassadors for open education and connect benefits with concrete practices; 6. Action-oriented conclusion, allowing each group to identify various best practices and a first "small step" for implementation in their individual context. “The fresk” pedagogical model, applied to numerous topics (climate fresk, biodiversity fresk, etc.), accelerates the understanding of major societal issues. The effectiveness of this educational tool and the collaborative experience allow for the rapid and widespread dissemination of an understanding of the subject and encourage action within one's own environment.

Speakers

Anne-Catherine Baseilhac

Open Education COO (Chief Operating Officer) at Nantes University, Nantes University - France

Anne-Catherine Baseilhac, Open Education Chief Operating Officer at Nantes University, France. Graduated from the Lyon School of Management, Anne-Catherine has held several project management positions, both nationally and internationally in companies, where she gained expertise in... Read More →

Arnaud Guével

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Open Education at Nantes Université, Nantes University - France

Arnaud Guével has been Vice President for Academic Affairs and Open Education at Nantes Université since 2020. A professor in sports science specializing in neuromuscular function, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Director of the "Motricity, Interactions, Performance... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:35am EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Workshop

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

11:05am EDT

Innovating Practices Around Open Education Through BarCamps and Unconferences. Learnings from 14 Years of OERcamps

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

8 DR6

ID: 33851

Open education is widely understood in terms of access and sharing: making resources available, reusable, and visible across contexts.These practices have been central to the development of the field and remain essential for broadening participation in education. At the same time, less explicit attention is often given to how knowledge is collaboratively constructed in participatory settings and to the intentional design of such processes.This presentation explores collaborative knowledge construction as a complementary dimension of openness, using OERcamps as long-standing, practice-based examples.For 14 years now, OERcamps have brought together educators, practitioners, and community members in formats that intentionally balance minimal (but strong) structure with high levels of participant agency.Instead of relying on predefined agendas, participants collectively identify topics, propose sessions, and iteratively shape discussions throughout each event.Across multiple iterations, recurring patterns can be observed: participants move fluidly between roles as learners, contributors, and facilitators; knowledge is not simply shared, but continuously refined through dialogue; and responsibility for outcomes is distributed across the community.These dynamics create environments in which knowledge is treated as evolving and situated, rather than fixed and final, and in which learning emerges through interaction rather than transmission.By examining these patterns, the presentation situates OERcamps within broader conversations about participation, collaboration, and community-building in open education.It argues that participatory formats can extend existing open practices by complementing access and sharing with processes that enable ongoing knowledge construction and collective sense-making.In this way, OERcamps can be understood as examples of how open education can move beyond resource-centered approaches without replacing them, and how communities can take an active role in shaping knowledge practices.Rather than positioning this approach as an alternative to established practices, the session offers a differentiated perspective: openness can be understood as a spectrum that includes access, sharing, and participatory knowledge practices.Recognizing this spectrum allows for more intentional design of open education initiatives that respond to diverse goals, contexts, and institutional settings.Participants will be introduced to concrete design principles derived from the OERcamp experience, including strategies for enabling participant-driven agendas, supporting fluid role transitions, and fostering shared ownership of learning processes.The session will also address practical considerations for adapting such approaches to different institutional and cultural environments, including constraints related to time, resources, facilitation, and organizational structures.By connecting long-term practice with broader conceptual reflection, this presentation contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how open education can evolve—both by expanding access to resources and by creating spaces where knowledge is collaboratively constructed and continuously developed.

Speakers

Jöran Muuß-Merholz

Founder of Agentur J&K, Team OERcamp at Agentur J&K

Jöran Muuß-Merholz, expert on open and progressive learning and working.In 2009 Jöran started his agency “J&K - Jöran und Konsorten” (“Jöran and fellows”) to strengthen the connections between the educational and the digital world. Jöran is consulting educational organizations... Read More →

Nicole Hagen

Co Editorial Director, Team OERcamp at Agentur J&K

Dr. Nicole Hagen is a member of the OERcamp team for the J&K agency in Hamburg, Germany. Her key responsibilities include researching content, preparing editorials and publishing on subjects related to openness and education. In addition to her primary interests, Nicole has a keen... Read More →

Frank Homp

Co Editorial Director, Team OERcamp at Agentur J&K

Frank is a second-generation NOERd — he joined the game when it was already in full swing. On the one hand, he regrets that a bit, since he’s only now getting to know so many great people and past projects. On the other hand, he feels that this sometimes allows him to look at... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
8 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

What If Open Learning Began with the World Each Learner Brings?

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 32255

What if open learning began not with content, but with the world each learner already brings? Open education has done transformative work in widening access to knowledge, resources, and participation. But in an age of artificial intelligence, when information is increasingly abundant and instantly available, a deeper educational question comes into view: what helps learners make meaning from what they encounter, connect it to their own lives, and locate themselves in relation to one another and the world?This session explores that question through a story-first approach to open learning. Rather than beginning with abstract content, predetermined curricular structures, or decontextualized competencies, this approach begins with something personally meaningful to the learner: a language, a family story, a migration history, a food tradition, a place, or another lived point of connection. From there, learning expands outward into broader historical, cultural, ecological, and interdisciplinary understanding. The aim is not simply to make learning more engaging, but to create a form of education that is more humanly relevant, contextually grounded, and responsive to the realities learners already inhabit.At the center of the session is the proposition that openness must now do more than expand access to materials. It must also create conditions for curiosity, connection, recognition, and agency. When learners are invited to begin with their own worlds, openness becomes not only a matter of availability, but also of relevance, participation, and meaning. This has important implications for how we think about global learning, intercultural understanding, and the future of education in diverse, multilingual, and technologically mediated contexts.The session introduces a story-first model for open learning that is designed to be adaptable, translatable, and usable across settings. Participants will consider how such an approach might complement and extend existing understandings of openness by foregrounding lived experience, human connection, and local context. The session will be especially relevant to educators, designers, and institutional leaders interested in the relationship between AI, global learning, and more meaningful forms of open education.After a brief framing of the core idea, participants will be invited into guided reflection and discussion around one central question: What would change in open education if learning began not only with open content, but with the world each learner brings? The goal is to generate both practical and conceptual insight for participants seeking more human-centered, future-facing approaches to open learning, approaches that preserve the values of openness while making space for identity, context, curiosity, and connection.

Speakers

Paula Laurel Jackson

What If Open Learning Began with the World Each Learner Brings?, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Project Zero

Paula Laurel Jackson is a Research Fellow and Education Architect exploring global learning, identity, human development, and the future of education in the age of AI. Drawing on research and field-based work across 56 countries, she examines how learning can become more meaningful... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

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

Building the Open Education Association: A Framework for Field-Building

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT

8 DR6

ID: 33985

This session will walk through what it took to build the Open Education Association from the ground up, and what that process can offer to open education advocates looking to strengthen coordination in their own regions and contexts.The Open Education Association is a newly founded national organization dedicated to strengthening and expanding the open education field across the United States. Rooted in the decades-strong open education community, it represents a national coordinating body shaped entirely by the people working within it. Its development began not with a formal plan, but with a conversation at the 2023 Open Education Conference, where practitioners reflected on what the field still needed to move forward collectively.From there, SPARC, the four regional interstate higher education compacts, and DOERS co-hosted a national discussion series that examined the case for a national strategy. Those conversations pointed to a consistent theme: the field did not need a single program; it needed stronger coordination among existing efforts. A subsequent needs assessment survey gathered input from more than 1,000 community members across all 50 states. The findings confirmed that the field was not lacking solutions. It was lacking the coordination to make those solutions visible and accessible to everyone who needed them.Practitioners identified four priority areas where greater support was needed: finding OER, responding to political and technological change, securing funding, and accessing tools and resources. Just as telling, only 14% of respondents viewed the field as well-coordinated nationally, making the case for a national coordinating body clear.The association responded to those findings by developing governance structures, a membership model, and a first-year programming agenda through a series of open working sessions with the broader community. That process required making real decisions about scope, priorities, and how to balance accessibility with sustainability. It also meant sitting with the tension of building something new while being careful not to duplicate the work that existing organizations were already doing well. This session will present that development arc honestly, including what worked, what required pivoting, and what the association's early days have looked like in practice.Every national context is unique, and this session is not intended to be prescriptive. Rather, it is an opportunity to share our process openly so that others can consider what may be relevant in their own context. For anyone considering coordinating infrastructure at any scale, this session offers frameworks and hard-won lessons in how to build something that reflects the needs of the people it is meant to serve.

Speakers

Nicole Allen

Director of Open Education, SPARC

Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC, leading efforts to advance openness and equity in education. She oversees a state and federal policy program, a librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for open education professionals. Nicole has dedicated... 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 →

Aishah Abdullah

Open Education Project Manager, SPARC

Aishah Abdullah works for SPARC as the Open Education Project Manager. In this role, she helps support SPARC's open education work and provides support to the Open Education Association. She began her journey in open education as a student advocate at her community college and continued... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
8 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

1:40pm EDT

What Would You Do with $100? Student-Centered OER Advocacy in the Library

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 32429

What happens when you put up a poster board in the library and simply ask students about their textbook purchasing experience? The answers are funny, heartbreaking, and powerful. "Textbook Madness" is a tabling event designed to meet students where they are, turning an everyday library space into a site of community, storytelling, and open education advocacy. The format is deliberately simple and low-tech: poster boards invite students to share their most expensive textbook cost and what they would do with that money if they didn't have to spend it on course materials. The responses reveal the very real financial burden students carry and open the door to conversations about open educational resources (OER) and the movement to make knowledge more accessible. Over two iterations of the event, more than 250 students have participated, generating a rich collection of quantitative and qualitative data. That data is not just displayed on a poster board, it becomes a tool for institutional advocacy. Student-generated figures on textbook costs have been presented directly to undergraduate student government and to university leadership, making the case for expanded OER adoption in concrete, human terms. This presentation will walk attendees through that full arc: from the initial design of the event to data collection and analysis, to the advocacy conversations it has made possible at the highest levels of campus administration. An additional component of the event was the distribution of student advocacy cards, a resource designed to empower students to become active voices for OER on their own campuses and in their own academic communities. These cards extend the reach of the event beyond the library table and invite students into a broader movement. This session is grounded in the belief that open education advocacy is fundamentally a relational practice. Numbers matter, but it is the act of listening, of creating space for student experience, and of transforming that experience into collective action, that builds a truly sustainable OER advocacy community. The library, often imagined as a quiet backdrop to academic life, can be reimagined as a frontline space for that work. Attendees will leave with a replicable, low-cost model for community-centered OER advocacy that can be adapted across institutional contexts. Whether you are a librarian, an instructional designer, a faculty member, or an administrator, this session offers both a practical framework and an invitation to think differently about where and how open education advocacy happens AND who gets to lead it.

Speakers

Khrisma McMurray

Open Education and Teaching Librarian, Indiana University Indianapolis

Khrisma McMurray is the Open Education and Teaching Librarian at IU Indianapolis, where she turns library spaces into sites of student empowerment through OER advocacy. Within her role she leads OER initiatives such as Open Education Week, Open Education Award, and OER Development... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

3:00pm EDT

Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Open Education During Politically Challenging Times

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 32094

As Open Education (OE) continues to expand across higher education in the United States, the commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) remains central to its promise of democratizing knowledge. In a political climate marked by increased scrutiny of diversity initiatives, legislative challenges, and public debate about the role of equity in education, EDI-focused work has become both more difficult and more essential. This session explores how the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee has worked to advance inclusive OE practices while navigating a challenging political environment.The committee’s work centers on advocating for OE Practices that empower contributions from diverse learners and educators who have been underrepresented, particularly those served by community colleges. Through professional development, resource sharing, and community dialogue, the committee has focused on identifying ways to advance equity in the open movement and to increase the representation of marginalized educators and students. At the same time, the committee has had to adapt its approaches in response to shifting political pressures that may challenge the language, framing, or implementation of EDI efforts.Hosted by the current Co-Chairs of the committee, this presentation will highlight the challenges faced, key changes, and strategies developed to sustain meaningful EDI work while engaging with our broad community. These strategies include creating safe spaces for dialogue, supporting open advocates doing this work, and highlighting diverse voices, all within the OE community.Drawing on examples from committee initiatives, programming, and collaborative resource development, the session will illustrate how OE networks can continue advancing equity even in politically sensitive contexts. Presenters will discuss lessons learned as the committee navigated the shifting higher-education landscape while continuing its work on priorities and mission. The session invites discussion about how the OE community can remain resilient and values-driven while responding thoughtfully to evolving political realities. By sharing experiences from the CCCOER EDI Committee, this presentation contributes to broader conversations about how OE can remain a powerful vehicle for equity, diversity, and inclusion, even when the political environment complicates such work.

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 →

Lauren Kosrow

Digital Content and Open Access Librarian, College of DuPage

Lauren serves as the Digital Content and Open Access Librarian at College of DuPage and chair of the OER Steering Committee. In this role, she facilitates the Faculty Support Grant program and provides leadership for the college’s textbook affordability initiatives. Lauren has an... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

3:00pm EDT

Conversations in Care: Strategies for Collective Healing in the Open Education Movement

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

8 DR6

ID: 34001

“No individual can meet all the needs of the world. Humans are not built to do big things alone; we are built to do them together.” - Emily & Amelia NagoskiOpen education leaders refer to ourselves regularly and proudly as members of a global open education community. Yet what does our belonging mean to us? How does our belonging sustain us? To be in community is a reciprocal relationship built on trust, shared interest, and care. This session dives deeper into this notion of care, or the obligation we have to past, present, and future generations as human beings. Deep unrest and destabilization in political, civic, and environmental sectors ultimately depletes our capacity to engage in care. This loss is particularly significant for leaders with the responsibility to manage and make direct decisions for open education efforts. During these times of great uncertainty and constant change, how do we continue to labor toward meaningful, transformative, and sustaining open education? How could we come alongside one another, learn from one another, and offer necessary support? This session seeks to take the pulse of the current open movement. We examine stories from 10 interviews with English-speaking open education leaders from around the world. Leaders hold formal or implied authority over an institution’s or department’s open education program, initiative, committee, or task force. Interviews rely on open-ended questions that allow leaders to name unmet needs in open education advocacy, to reflect on the extent of reciprocity of care in their work, to surface personal moments of awe in and outside of open work, and to assess authentic representation and shared decision-making within open education efforts. We see these conversations as an opportunity to give and receive care through focused discussion, intentional listening, and shared reflection. These sessions are also agentic, revealing the motivations, hopes, and actions that leaders seek to offer and receive from their global community. This presentation invites participants to consider how we are able to show up for ourselves and one another within open initiatives and spaces in this current historic moment. We spotlight and celebrate the strategies of our global open community that address common negative experiences like overwhelm, job precarity, and discrimination. Through a critical examination of current working conditions in open leadership, we promote practitioner well-being and collective care. We hope participants at all stages in this discovery process will come away with a greater sense of agency and belonging.

Speakers

Natalie Hill

Scholarly Communications Librarian and Liaison to African American Studies, Anthropology, Education, Global Studies, & Psychology, Colby College

Natalie Hill is dedicated to open education advocacy, ensuring equitable access to information, and increasing representation of historically underrepresented groups in teaching, learning, and research materials. Before joining Colby College in 2023, she worked in library, instructional... 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 →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
8 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

3:00pm EDT

Fostering Creativity in Creative Commons: Empowering Communities to Remix Educational Resources

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 33989

How do you know whether people use your creative-commons-licensed educational resources? Library professionals often do the work of translating complex information into educational resources and engaging learning experiences for their communities to connect with each other, but do not always make time to document and share their resources broadly. Through human-centered approaches that invite playing together, elevating the creativity of library professionals and educators, and joyfully trying out others' ideas in different communities, the inspiration powered by the excitement to share resources can become an unstoppable force. To address the gap of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for a wider audience, MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX, plix.mit.edu) develops creative creative-commons-licensed STEAM ("A" adds the arts to STEM) learning resources and experiences based on MIT research and co-designed for the public library setting. With a reach of over 1,400 public library professionals across all 50 United States, and connections across 40 countries, PLIX programs support learners as 1) designers, rather than consumers, of technology, 2) creators, rather than recipients, of knowledge, and 3) scientists and artists, rather than one or the other. PLIX connects library professionals and MIT researchers to co-design learning experiences and develop and share facilitation practices to inspire engaging STEAM programming in public libraries. Drawing from a repository of 13 thoughtfully designed STEM activities, and over 70 adaptations created by the community for localized contexts, learners create, play, experiement with paper circuits, the sound of food, wearable data trackers, urban ecology, an arcade of offline games to learn AI FUNdamentals, and more. To encourage library professionals' confidence to offer high quality STEM learning experiences, PLIX offers 1) easy-entry free online STEAM workshops that provide space for hands-on practice, 2) multi-session facilitation training on creative STEAM pedagogy available in-person, online, and in a hybrid format, and 3) an annual ambassador program to bring together a cohort of library professionals to connect, collaborate, and inspire each other. (Across 4 iterations of the PLIX ambassador program, over 67 librarians continue to use and promote PLIX resources to their library peers.)In this round table, we joyfully share a showcase of PLIX CC-BY-NC-SA printable zines, the different pathways we use to promote their adaptation and use, and encourage attendees to collaboratively edit, cut, paste, and create their own adaptations about knowledge they are excited to share with the world.

Speakers

Ada Ren-Mitchell

Learning Programs Designer, MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange

Ada Ren-Mitchell is a Learning Programs Designer at the MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX), where she designs cozy communities and creative STEAM learning experiences. Since 2014, her experiences encompass innovative education pedagogy, STEM research, community facilitation... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Round Table

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

3:35pm EDT

Creating Community Through Curiosity: Student Authored Open Texts at the Queensland University of Technology

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

8 DR6

ID: 33465

In this session, we explore how library‑led open publishing can foster connection, creativity, and curiosity by transforming student research into openly shared, community‑building resources.Undergraduate and postgraduate research projects showcase independent inquiry, yet these outputs can all too often remain invisible, read only by supervisors or assessment panels before disappearing into institutional archives. By reimagining these works as contributions within open publications, we can strengthen student belonging within scholarly and professional communities while championing more collaborative publishing practices.Drawing on a series of recent publications made available through QUT Open Texts, we demonstrate how library expertise, open publishing workflows, and collaboration can elevate individual projects into collective assets with broader impact. Each initiative began through conversations with professional and academic staff who recognised the value of surfacing student work. In response, the QUT Open Texts team partnered with Liaison Librarians and academics to create publications that highlight student achievements and model open, supportive scholarly communication practices.Vacation Research Experience Scheme (VRES)In 2024, QUT’s Faculty of Science Liaison Librarians identified an opportunity to present undergraduate VRES projects using the university’s Pressbooks platform. By transforming student outputs into individual chapters within an open publication this, now ongoing, initiative helps students see themselves as contributors to the research community. It introduces students to more advanced concepts including intellectual property (IP), copyright and open licensing while supporting their journey as emerging researchers.From Campus to CollaborationFrom Campus to Collaboration captures the experiences of postgraduate students completing real‑world, partnered research in data science and artificial intelligence. The resulting open publication provides an exemplar for future students, supervisors, and partners while modelling how open publishing pathways can strengthen connections and shape more responsive postgraduate research opportunities.AusiSTAR: The NextGen PlaybookAcademics involved in the AusiSTAR program expressed a strong interest in highlighting student achievements and capturing the unique industry focused, collaborative learning experiences fostered through the Next Generation Graduates Program. By openly publishing student reflections and insights, the publication demonstrates networks across universities, industry, and the public, and shows how open dissemination can sustain communities of innovation and practice.Each of these projects required close partnership with the QUT Open Texts team to navigate the complexities of publishing student‑authored work. Working with different editorial teams meant the Open Text team had to develop flexible workflows, balancing varied timelines, and creating new processes to support student‑owned IP and open licensing. Collectively, these initiatives provide a template for transforming individual student projects into shared open resources with broad appeal. Through accessible platforms like Pressbooks, we can champion creativity and empower students to see their work, and themselves, as active contributors within a more open scholarly community.

Speakers

Sal Kleine

Scholarly Impact Librarian (Acting), Queensland University of Technology

Sal Kleine is a Scholarly Impact Librarian (acting) and Liaison Librarian at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Her work spans information literacy, scholarly communication, and open educational resources, with a particular focus on open scholarship through her management... Read More →

Michael Hawks

Faculty of Business and Law Liaison Librarian, Queensland University of Technology

Michael Hawks supports the Graduate School of Business, School of Management and the School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations in QUT’s Faculty of Business and Law. As an academic librarian, he has a keen interest in digital engagement and has contributed to innovative... Read More →

Gabrielle Hayes

Faculty of Science Liaison Librarian, Queensland University of Technology

Gabrielle Hayes is a Liaison Librarian at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in Brisbane, Australia. With a practical background in developing Open Educational Resources (OER), her work includes co-authoring Research Right and editing the QUT Faculty of Science VRES 2024... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
8 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:35pm EDT

Design Discomfort: The Friction Open Education Requires

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

4 Room T

ID: 33999

Open education has made extraordinary progress dismantling structural barriers to access. But access is not connection, and presence is not participation. As scholars like Audrey Watters have argued, the promises of open education have often defaulted toward scale and efficiency, optimizing for reach while leaving questions of depth, belonging, and relational learning underexplored. This roundtable asks participants to sit with a new provocation: what if the next step isn't more content, but more friction, the slow, relational work of learning together.Design Discomfort is a circulating research series operating across creative and innovative spaces: design studios, schools, and organizations. The research began as a direct response to AI: where AI aggregates anonymous, patterned, average, "scraped" knowledge at scale, Design Discomfort aggregates named, vulnerable, situated, face-to-face knowledge, asking what remains distinctly human about learning together. Participants gather to have both joyful conversations and the harder ones they tend to avoid, about job security, the role of technology, what education actually prepares you for, and what society needs now. No presentations. No panels. Just people in a room, making something together. Drawing on the facilitation traditions of Freire and bell hooks, the methodology is simple: discomfort invites vulnerability, vulnerability builds community, and community is what education urgently needs.This round table puts that methodology into practice. Rather than presenting findings, the facilitator will open the room with provocations adapted for the open education community, creating the conditions for the same kind of dialogue Design Discomfort generates elsewhere. The format embodies the argument: culture is produced between people, not stored inside them, and education's role isn't to decorate culture but to actively participate in producing it.Participants will engage with questions including: What does genuine community feel like inside open education and how do we build more of it? In a landscape defined increasingly by automation and scale, what do we risk losing if we don't design for vulnerability and human contact? Attendees will leave having experienced relational learning in practice, a transferable methodology for facilitating generative dialogue in their own institutions, and the reminder that education, at its best, has always been about what happens between people — not what gets delivered to them. The friction is the point.

Speakers

Cameron King

Vice President, Creative (and Grad Student), CASE Agency (and Vermont College of Fine Arts)

Cameron King is a designer, educator, and advocate for collaborative creative communities.His practice sits at the intersection of visual communication, design leadership, and creative culture. As VP of Creative at CASE, he partners with global brands, including e.l.f. Beauty, Disney... Read More →

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

Round Table

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

4:20pm EDT

Make a Zine and Make Community

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 34010

During this round table session, participants will discuss reasons that we need support right now, and will learn how to make zines as one way to create community. Making things together (crafts, OER) can help us develop relationships, have fun, and feel a sense of accomplishment. We will discuss the ways that we might be able to find connection and hope through the values of open education. Working in higher education in the United States is especially difficult at this moment in history. Beyond the headline-grabbing threats and cancelled research funding, educators are still feeling effects from the pandemic lockdowns and altered teaching practices that began in 2020--2021. Many students today feel anxious and isolated, and have minimal coping skills to handle those feelings. Many have difficulty reading and comprehending written instructions, and some are so overwhelmed by the demands of what used to be a typical college semester that they just shut down or give up. I find this heartbreaking, frustrating, and exhausting. On top of that, I am part of a minority of faculty in my department who use open resources, which can cause a feeling of isolation. Using OER over time has led me to develop and articulate my values around education--especially public higher education--that go beyond “free is good for students” to include “education is a human right” and “my institution exists to serve the people who live in the region, whoever they are.” Sometimes I remix or create new open content, but in recent years the amount of extra work to take the materials from “class handouts” to “open resources that are proofread, formatted, licensed, posted, and publicized” has been beyond my capacity. That said, I have been able to find sources of resilience! I have found like-minded individuals within my institution. We have made changes to our classes that encourage hope and play and just talking to each other more. I attribute the latter to my decade-plus use of OER, which allowed me to decouple my teaching from the rigid structure of a commercial textbook. It has become a habit, now, to check my assumptions, figure out what my students’ needs are now, and then to find or make something that will meet those needs. Zines (from the word magazines) are 8-page booklets folded from a single sheet of letter-sized paper. The zine maker writes, draws, makes collages for each page. The zine can then be photocopied, folded, and distributed.I have used zines in classes as a way for students to engage with the course material in cognitive, affective, creative, and tactile ways that are different from what they usually do. Students summarize and create and imagine something new using what they have learned in class, and they enjoy it so much. Materials and examples will be provided.

Speakers

Elizabeth Siler

Professor, Worcester State University

Elizabeth Siler is a professor at Worcester State University in the Business Administration and Economics Department. She teaches management classes to undergraduate students and almost exclusively uses open education resources, and is an advisor for the Fiber Arts Circle student... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Round Table

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

4:20pm EDT

Inventing Open Together: A Massachusetts Snapshot of Statewide Collaboration

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33778

Open Education (OE) doesn’t scale through tools or policies alone, but through relationships, and Massachusetts offers a vivid example of that work in progress. What becomes possible when OE is approached not just as an institutional effort, but as a statewide, collaborative ecosystem? The Open & Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC) advances statewide efforts to reduce educational costs, promote equity, and support the creation and recognition of open knowledge.This panel offers an evolving snapshot of Open Education in Massachusetts, with a focus on community colleges and the work of OLERAC. Through faculty and administrative perspectives, panelists will explore how cross-institutional collaboration, shared infrastructure, and community-driven approaches are shaping more sustainable and equitable open practices.Rather than presenting a single model, this session highlights work in progress: efforts to scale course marking, support faculty engagement, and navigate emerging questions around sustainability, accessibility, and artificial intelligence. Panelists will reflect on both successes and ongoing challenges, including the realities of coordinating across systems, roles, and capacity constraints.Grounded in the conference theme, this session invites participants into the conversation. After a brief panel discussion, attendees will engage in a full-room dialogue to share how similar (or different) efforts are unfolding in their own states, regions, or countries. Together, we will surface ideas, tensions, and possibilities for “inventing” more connected and resilient open ecosystems.

Speakers

Chris Laney

Professor of History & Coordinator, Honors Scholar Program, Berkshire Community College

Chris Laney teaches history and serves as the Honors Program Coordinator at Berkshire Community College. He has used OER since 2019 and is a member of the BCC OER Committee and the Massachusetts OLERAC. He lives on a homestead in Western Massachusetts with his family and an assortment... Read More →

Gina Foley

Associate Professor of Biology, Berkshire Community College

Gina Foley is an Associate Professor of Biology at Berkshire Community College, where she has spent the past two decades teaching and supporting STEM students. During a recent sabbatical, she developed Storytelling in Biology, an OER resource that uses powerful real-world stories... Read More →

Bernadette Sibuma

Director, Online Learning, Massachusetts Bay Community College

Bernadette Sibuma, Ed.D., is the Director of Online Learning at Massachusetts Bay Community College. She serves as a current member of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Open and Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (MA OLERAC) and the OLERAC Assessment... Read More →

Ceit De Vitto

Sr. Special Programs Coordinator/Open Education, Bunker Hill Community College

Ceit De Vitto holds an M.E.d. in Instructional Design, from UMass Boston. Since 2018 she has worked for Bunker Hill Community College as the Open Education Cooridinator. She also chairs the Course Flagging Committee for Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Open and Low-Cost... Read More →

Heather Blicher

Director, Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER), Open Education Global

Heather Blicher is the Director of the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER) with Open Education Global, where she leads efforts to expand and support Open Education across community and technical colleges in North America. A passionate advocate for access, equity, and collaboration... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

4:20pm EDT

Sparking Connection, Creativity, and Curiosity with the Open Education Network

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 31480

Engage in creative conversation with other open practitioners as you experience unique open spaces and centers around the MIT campus and nearby Cambridge. A chance to unwind, interact, and pursue ideas while stepping outside of the confines of the traditional conference setting. Convened by the staff of the Open Education Network, who are also always happy to chat about their work and offering of support resources!

Speakers

Open Education Network

Staff, Open Education Network

The OEN is a global collective of more than 1,700 higher education institutions and consortia that partner together to make higher education more affordable and equitable through engagement with open education. We are not a vendor, a business, or even a non-profit; we are part of... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Special Activity

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Catalyzing Human Connection Creativity and Curiosity to Thrive

5:30pm EDT

Designing Open Support Ecosystems for First-Year Open and Distance Learners: Lessons from PASE SUAyED

Thursday October 8, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT

6 DR4

ID: 33916

This presentation explores the design of an open support ecosystem for first-year students in distance higher education through the case of PASE SUAyED, an initiative developed at UNAM to accompany students during their transition into open and distance learning. In many conversations about open education, access is often framed in terms of content availability. However, students' ability to enter, navigate, and remain in digital learning environments also depends on the availability of guidance, orientation, and affective support. From this perspective, openness can be understood not only as access to educational materials, but also as access to resources that help learners develop confidence, belonging, and strategies for participation. PASE SUAyED was conceived as a support initiative for first-year students in the university's open and distance education system. Its purpose is to offer practical, accessible, and student-centered resources that respond to the challenges of transition, self-management, digital participation, and persistence. An important dimension of the project is its potential evolution toward a more open portal of support resources that can be shared more broadly with learners beyond the immediate institutional setting. By sharing this case, the session invites participants to rethink openness through the lens of student support and to consider how institutions can build more humane and inclusive ecosystems for learners entering digital and distance modalities.

Speakers

Indira Ochoa

Director of Digital Transformation Projects for Education at the Coordination of Open University and Digital Education (CUAED, UNAM), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Indira Ochoa Carrasco holds a Master’s degree in Communication and Educational Technologies from the Latin American Institute of Educational Communication and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She is also certified in Flipped... Read More →

María José Barrera Olmedo

Head of the Research and Development Project Department (CUAED), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

María José Barrera Olmedo holds a PhD in Psychology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, a Master’s degree in Psychology and Education from the University of Cambridge, and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology with honors from UNAM. Her academic training has focused... Read More →

Anabel de la Rosa Gómez

Coordinator of Open University and Digital Education (CUAED), National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)

Dr. Anabel de la Rosa Gómez is the Coordinator of Open University and Digital Education (CUAED) at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from UNAM, where she also earned her undergraduate degree with honors. As a distinguished academic... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
6 DR4 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

5:30pm EDT

Inventing Together: Collaborative Product Strategy in the Open edX Ecosystem

Thursday October 8, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT

8 DR6

ID: 33996

As open education communities step into a critical role on the frontlines of disseminating knowledge as a public good, the challenge extends beyond creating open resources to designing sustainable, collaborative systems that ensure their relevance and impact. This session explores how the global Open edX community offers a compelling model for “inventing together” through a community-driven approach to product strategy and governance.Open edX is an open source teaching and learning platform used by millions of learners worldwide, with more than 2,000 active instances and a robust network of contributors spanning institutions, organizations, and countries. Stewarded by a nonprofit, the platform reflects the values of openness not only in content but also in its development and decision-making processes. What makes Open edX particularly distinctive is its investment in a formal product management organization—an uncommon feature in open source ecosystems. This model brings together nonprofit staff and community members to collaboratively shape the platform’s roadmap, aligning contributions with shared strategic priorities.This session will examine how the Open edX product management function operates as a bridge between vision and execution in a distributed, participatory environment. Attendees will learn about key practices such as gathering and synthesizing user input, reviewing and prioritizing product proposals, and ensuring that contributions align with long-term goals. Central to this approach is a commitment to learner impact: decisions are guided not only by technical feasibility or contributor interest, but by the potential to improve teaching and learning outcomes at scale.We will also explore the challenges inherent in building a product organization within an open source community. These include balancing openness with strategic coherence, navigating diverse stakeholder needs, and maintaining momentum across a decentralized contributor base. At the same time, this model presents significant opportunities: it fosters deeper community engagement, enables innovation across sectors, and creates a shared sense of ownership over the platform’s future.By connecting this work to the broader open education ecosystem—including organizations like OEGlobal and initiatives such as MIT Open Learning—the session highlights how open source infrastructure can strengthen global efforts to expand equitable access to knowledge. Participants will gain insight into how collaborative product strategy can serve as a mechanism for resilience and collective thriving, supporting the conference’s call to catalyze human connection, creativity, and curiosity.Ultimately, this session invites attendees to consider how similar approaches might be applied in their own contexts, and how open communities can work together to design systems that not only share knowledge, but actively sustain and evolve it for the benefit of all.

Speakers