OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

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10:30am EDT

The Curious Commons: Towards a Digital Public Goods Lab

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

ID: 33849

What does it actually mean to uphold knowledge as a public good in a multilingual and digitally divided world? Too often our answers stay stuck in separate silos. Or they chase reforms that do not scale and lack the longevity to serve global majority audiences. We separate arts from sciences. Global North from Global South. Research from lived experience. And open education from other open movements like open source software, open data, open access and open science.We think democratising knowledge means bringing things together intentionally, and we would like to host a panel discussion on these lines. That means drawing on the philosophical and social foundations of the commons, from Elinor Ostrom's work on collective governance to contemporary critical thinking about knowledge as a shared and abundant resource. It also means paying attention to the symbiosis of arts and sciences, learning from the lived experiences of other open communities, and recognising curiosity as a real driver. Curiosity is what turns access into engagement and infrastructure into community.We are bringing together open source advocates, academicians and community builders from across these movements to ask a practical question. How might we build a shared agenda, and perhaps a shared space like a Digital Public Goods Lab, for multilingual open education that is grounded in ideas but also practical and genuinely curious?Our conversation will draw on real experiments. These include the Future of the Commons series, inspired by Ostrom, which runs monthly discussions on AI, archives and Indian languages. Also the Content Partnerships Hub. And recognised DPGs like Wikipedia and Wikidata, which we see as useful examples rather than the main story.We will focus on three questions.First, what philosophical and social frameworks can help us understand knowledge democratisation beyond technical or bureaucratic approaches? Second, how have other open movements navigated barriers of language, power and participation, and what can open education learn from their lived experiences? Third, what would a Digital Public Goods Lab look like if it bridged open knowledge and open education, placed arts and sciences alongside each other, treated curiosity as a design principle, and served marginalised language communities in the Global South?The session will end with audience Q&A and an invitation to join a shared online workspace. The goal is to move from conversation to collective action.

Speakers

Tanveer Hasan

International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad

Tanveer Hasan – Works at the intersection of digital commons, open knowledge and multilingual open education. Convenor of the Future of the Commons series, an informal collective inspired by Elinor Ostrom that runs monthly discussions on AI, archives and Indian languages. Currently... Read More →

Vasudeva Varma

Professor, International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad

Professor at IIIT Hyderabad, specialising in information retrieval, language technologies and AI. Works on making AI and digital infrastructure accessible for Indian languages and marginalised communities in the Global South. Advises on DPG policy and open knowledge initiatives.

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:35am EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

11:50am EDT

Embedding Open Scholarship into the Ecosystem

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

3 Room I

ID: 33942

MIT has a storied history of hacking, born of a culture of creative problem-solving, boundary-pushing, and building the system you believe in if it doesn’t yet exist. The MIT Libraries bring that same spirit of hacking to the open scholarship ecosystem, in service of our vision of “a world where enduring, abundant, equitable, and meaningful access to information serves to empower and inspire humanity." This panel explores the conditions that enabled MIT Libraries to embed open scholarship not as a single program or role, but as an institutional commitment woven through every aspect of our work. Central to the MIT Libraries’ vision is a clear strategic principle: to be relentless in the pursuit of a more open and equitable scholarly landscape. This relentlessness requires intentional structural decision-making to invest in open scholarship, strong cultural emphasis on open scholarship as a tool for “working wisely, creatively, and effectively for the betterment of humankind” and courage as a leadership imperative. Through a moderated discussion, our panelists will speak to each of these conditions from their own areas of responsibility, and engage with the audience in reflective discussion on what moves the needle in their own organizational environments: Director of Libraries Chris Bourg will briefly set the stage by describing how MIT's strategic priorities — open scholarship, data and computation, digital-first libraries — are deeply interdependent, and how open scholarship is inseparable from MIT's institutional identity and values. She will then moderate a panel discussion and open a conversation with the audience.Erin Stalberg, Associate Director for Knowledge Strategy and Access, will focus on how MIT’s collections strategy operationalizes these values and how we navigate our goals for openness within a publishing ecosystem that, while changing, still remains heavily influenced by profit motives.Sue Kriegsman, Deputy Director for the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship, will focus on how research informs the development of policies and funding models, to ensure institutional practices for open scholarship are built on a foundation of data and rigorous analysis.Heather Sardis, Associate Director for Data, Discovery, and Technology Solutions will will describe how openness is built into the Libraries' technology infrastructure, from open APIs enabling computational access to research, to repositories as platforms for open scholarship, to a discovery strategy designed to make it easy to choose open resources.After framing the MIT example of a successful ecosystem (that is still and always evolving), the moderator will open the conversation to the room: through the lenses of scholarly communications, research, data and technology, what conditions have made it possible (or challenging) to infuse open scholarship through your own organization? What advice, alternatives, and tools have been successful or challenging? The goal is a collective conversation about what it takes to move from open as aspiration to open as embedded practice.

Speakers

Chris Bourg

Director of Libraries, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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

Sue Kriegsman

Deputy Director, Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship, MIT LIbraries

Sue Kriegsman is the deputy director for the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS) at MIT Libraries where her porfio includes managing the interdisciplinary team that produces and supports research and education on the policies, practices, and impacts of open... Read More →

Heather Sardis

Associate Director for Data, Discovery, and Technology Solutions, MIT Libraries

Heather Sardis is the Associate Director for Data, Discovery, and Technology Solutions at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Libraries. Prior to assuming her role at MIT, Heather directed the library of the California Academy of Sciences. Her work in the nonprofit... Read More →

Erin Stalberg

Associate Director for Knowledge Strategy and Access, MIT Libraries

Erin Stalberg is the Associate Director for Collections and Faculty Relations Strategy at MIT Libraries, where her portfolio includes general and distinctive collections, scholarly communications and copyright strategy, technical and access services, and liaisons, instruction, and... Read More →

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

Panel

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

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

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

1:40pm EDT

Commons, Ecosystems, and Schools: Structures for Futuring Open

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

3 Room I

ID: 33966

The open education movement stands at a critical inflection point. After 25 years of evolution, and in the midst of emerging technologies largely controlled by commercial interests, this is a critical time to pause, reflect, and re-consider the philosophical foundations and building blocks shaping its future—specifically the commons, ecosystems, and schools. Moving forward, questions of sustainability, participation, and purpose are becoming increasingly urgent to revisit, particularly in the context of a changing world with rapid technological and institutional shifts.This panel brings together a collective set of voices that reflect their lived experience within the open education movement and are uniquely positioned to suggest a way to reset and reframe as we think about what comes next. Drawing on decades of experience across research, practice, innovation, and system-building, the panelists will offer grounded perspectives on how the movement can evolve and how we can shape the future of open education with intention, clarity, and collective responsibility.Framing open education through the lens of the learning commons, the session will explore how shared open resources can be governed, sustained, and expanded in ways that ensure equitable participation and benefit without exploitation. It will invite participants to engage deeply with the commons-based approach as a foundation for the next phase of open education, prioritizing collective ownership, stewardship, and long-term sustainability.Building on this, the panel will examine the role of ecosystems as the enabling structures that connect people, resources, and practices. We will explore how stakeholders in the open education ecosystems can function as stewards of the movement and as force multipliers, where collaboration amplifies impact and accelerates innovation. The conversation will surface the frameworks for such ecosystems to thrive, including aligned incentives, shared infrastructure, and governance approaches that support trust and long-term collaboration.Finally, the session will focus on schools as critical sites of application and innovation within these ecosystems. The panel will explore how schools can support and sustain the movement becoming active contributors and co-creators while navigating current challenges such as resource constraints and shifting ideological landscapes. It will examine why and how faculty, students, and institutional leadership can engage meaningfully in open practices and become active participants in shaping the next 25 years of the movement beyond a narrow focus on access to resources.The panel will then solicit reactions and thoughts from the audience, both in-person and online. Together we will initiate a dialogue on what directions, choices, and changes we collectively need to make at the ecosystem, commons, and school/library levels to move open education forward.Across these three interconnected structures, the session will also engage with emerging ethical dilemmas and technological shifts—particularly the growing role of AI in the creation, adaptation, and dissemination of open resources. The panel will critically examine what it means to remain truly open, equitable, and community-driven, and how the values of openness can be upheld in an evolving digital landscape.

Speakers

Lisa Petrides

CEO and Founder, Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)

Lisa Petrides is CEO and founder of the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), a nonprofit dedicated to making learning and knowledge-sharing participatory and open for all. She is a scholar and international open education expert who has led the development... Read More →

Jim Luke

Independent Scholar and Professor of Economics (ret), Planning Solutions LLC

Jim Luke is an independent scholar and planning consultant. He is a retired professor of economics and was Open Learning Faculty Fellow at a community college in Michigan (USA), where he created the Open Learning Lab, a web-based pedagogy innovation incubator. Jim has expertise in... Read More →

Robin DeRosa

Executive Director, Open Education Network

Dr. Robin DeRosa is an educator and community leader who has served in many roles over the span of her career. She has been a middle school theater teacher, a high school literature and writing teacher, and a college professor of both English and Interdisciplinary Studies. She has... Read More →

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

Panel

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

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

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

5:30pm EDT

Preparing for the Future of Work: Communications Between Workforce and OER

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

3 Room I

ID: 33960

Upskilling and reskilling of the current workforce has become an essential part of achieving the global development agenda of the UN’s Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Skills centered on equitable access, digital competency, and principles of sustainability are vital not only for economic growth, but also for our societies to thrive. While educational institutions and industries guide students from one stop on their path to the next, collaboration or even communication between both parties is limited.This panel brings together representatives from the DOERS Workforce Development Project to share their perspectives on the rapidly-evolving relationship between workforce and post-secondary education systems, and the value of open education in this currently prioritized landscape. Industry representatives, directors of workforce initiatives, college & university administrators and faculty, open education leaders, and working group leaders will discuss challenges and achievements in strategic outreach and forged connections. Sharing concrete examples demonstrating how the openly licensed, customizable nature of OER facilitates innovative approaches to support career-connected learning and align programs with workforce needs will impart the value of OER in workforce development to session attendees. This project explores open educational resources (OER) as a practical policy tool supporting institutional innovation, affordability, and workforce alignment across many US states and Canadian provinces. OER use allows institutions to update curriculum efficiently, embed industry-recognized competencies, and reduce cost barriers; goals that are particularly relevant as states expand work-based learning, dual enrollment, competency-based education, and stackable credential pathways. Since 2024, the DOERS Workforce Project has focused on a three-phase approach toward its goal of supporting higher education systems and consortia toward the growth and integration of open education and OER across workforce-aligned education. Phase One was the creation and testing of an OER + Workforce Collaboration System at OpenEd25 and a plenary workshop at the Wyoming OER Conference 2026. This co-design experience invites participants to explore and test a suite of collaboration tools designed to help cross-sector teams imagine, create, and implement workforce-aligned OER solutions. Phase Two was the convening of 3 focus groups to further spotlight gaps in OER + workforce and offer future directions. Phase Three saw the generation of a Workforce OER Playbook. This living resource (forthcoming Summer 2026) will collect real-world use cases, stories, and evidence from across the OER and workforce development communities — showcasing how collaboration can lead to better learning outcomes and stronger regional economies. Both the Collaboration System and the Playbook will be openly published and made available to session attendees. DOERS acknowledges its valuable partnership with The Rebus Foundation and Clear Kinetic on the Workforce Project.

Speakers

Jaimie Henthorn

Director, Academic Innovation Programs, University of Colorado System

As Director of Academic Innovation Programs for the University of Colorado System, Jaimie leads initiatives across four campuses aimed at lowering barriers to quality education through innovation. Initiatives include OER, micro-credentialing, MOOCs, and more. Currently, the Innovation... Read More →