OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

arrow_back View All Dates

10:30am EDT

AI Enhanced Open Pedagogy: Empowering Students as OER Creators in Mathematics

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

ID: 34040

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Pedagogy have long emphasized learner agency, collaboration, and knowledge sharing. As generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools become increasingly integrated into educational contexts, there is a timely opportunity to examine how these tools can be leveraged ethically and productively within open educational practices.

This session presents an exploration of AI‑enhanced Open Pedagogy in undergraduate mathematics courses, where students were positioned not as passive consumers of content, but as creators of openly licensed knowledge.

In this study, students engaged in renewable assignments that contributed directly to the OER community. Learners created mathematical problems, explanations, and learning resources, openly licensed their work, and agreed to shared it publicly. AI tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot were used as learning partners, supporting brainstorming, exploring alternative solution paths, generating practice questions, and refining explanations. Students were explicitly guided to use AI critically such as verifying outputs, reflecting on reasoning to ensuring that all final submissions demonstrated their own understanding.

Survey results revealed that the majority of participants preferred this AI‑enhanced Open Pedagogy approach over traditional assignments. Students reported reduced stress, improved confidence, stronger conceptual understanding, and deeper engagement with the material. Many learners highlighted how AI tools supported metacognitive processes such as self‑checking answers, identifying gaps in understanding, and simplifying explanations for broader audiences. Importantly, students consistently emphasized that AI did not replace learning, but rather supported reflection and critical thinking.

Participants also expressed enthusiasm about contributing to openly available resources and valued the authenticity of producing work that extended beyond the classroom. However, findings showed that student‑created OERs were often limited in format, underscoring the need for intentional design strategies. This session highlights the importance of brainstorming diverse, interdisciplinary, and creative OER formats with students early in the course to fully realize the potential of Open Pedagogy.

The session will conclude with practical lessons learned, ethical considerations for AI use in open contexts, and future directions, including integrating student‑created questions into platforms such as MyOpenMath for global sharing.

Key takeaways for attendees include:

Practical strategies for integrating AI tools into Open Pedagogy while preserving academic integrity and learner agency

Design principles for renewable assignments that promote creativity, reflection, and openness

Student perspectives on AI use in OER creation

Actionable ideas for expanding the scope and impact of student‑generated OERs

This session offers an early but promising model for how AI‑enhanced Open Pedagogy can support active learning and transform mathematics education within the global open education movement.

Speakers

Virginia Thompson

Associate Professor, CUNY York College

Professor Thompson currently teaches 100‑level gateway courses in the Mathematics & Computer Science Department at York College. She coordinates all Mathematics General Education (GE) courses, which includes orienting new faculty to the curriculum, updating syllabi, choosing textbook... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

10:30am EDT

From Print to Audiobook: Amplifying Student Voices Through Open Pedagogy

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 31683

This session explores the creation of an open audiobook for College of DuPage’s introductory-level speech communication OER textbook, Exploring Communication in the Real World. The audiobook was developed to expand access to learning materials while engaging students as collaborators in the creation of open educational resources.

Designed to accompany and reinvigorate an existing OER speech communication textbook, the audiobook leverages open pedagogy by involving students in the recording, editing, and production of chapter segments. Through this process, students contributed directly to a resource that benefits future learners while developing practical communication, media production, and collaboration skills.

This session will discuss how students can transform into a speaker in narration, an audio technician in editing and post-production, and a textbook editor in suggesting or discovering what content may be outdated or may not be clearly understood by students. Presenters will give examples of what was discovered by working with students as co-creators of course material content.

The project demonstrates how open pedagogy can transform students from consumers of course materials into active knowledge creators. Participants will learn about the project’s design, including workflows for student participation, accessibility considerations, and strategies for maintaining quality in a collaborative production process.

Presenters will give an overview of textbook selection and considerations for selecting this content over others, including information on how a multimedia version of the text can enhance or complement the digital or print version. The session will also explore how open audiobooks can expand the format of OER to better support diverse learners, including those who benefit from multimodal and accessible content.

This presentation invites discussion about how institutions and the broader open education community can support innovative forms of open content that democratize knowledge production and make learning materials more inclusive, adaptable, and sustainable.

This project was a collaboration between the Library's OER Grant Program and Media Lab. Presenters welcome questions about the process of open publishing and the differences between digital, print, and audio with special consideration for funding, licensing, and necessary skills.

In addition, the post-production process, scope of work for students, part-time staff, and full-time staff, and how the success of the program was measured will be discussed.

This session will include interactive elements such as links, resources, and audio samples of the work created so attendees can visualize the process along with the presentation. Attendees will be provided with access to the published audiobook at the conclusion of the session.

Speakers

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 →

Danielle Oakes

Media Lab Supervisor, College of DuPage

Danielle Oakes, MLIS, works as Media Lab Supervisor at the College of DuPage Library. Past credentials include work in multiple libraries, archives, and museums in Illinois with a focus on emerging and/or vintage technologies. This Guinness World Record holder has been published for... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

10:30am EDT

Open Pedagogy in Action: Enhancing Information Literacy Through Student-Led OER Revision

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

4 - Salon T - 7th Floor

ID: 32228

Open pedagogy provides students with opportunities for their work to have purpose outside of the classroom through the creation or improvement of open educational resources (OER; Witt, 2020). One potential application of open pedagogy is for students to collaborate with their instructor to update an OER (Tillinghast et al., 2020).

OER textbooks in particular need updating as new research is conducted and the findings reported in the textbook may be found to be inaccurate or incomplete given the current body of knowledge. In this case study, students across two semesters of an introductory-level child development course collaborated with the instructor to update the research findings reported in the course OER.

Throughout the course, students used social annotation to flag citations that were five years or older. A librarian demonstrated to the students how to find scholarly articles using the campus library databases. Students at the end of the term were assigned to chapters to find a scholarly article to update one of the outdated citations. The article was first approved by the instructor to check that it was indeed scholarly and appropriate for the textbook. Then, students organized the information from the article into tables with suggestions for where and how the article could be cited in the textbook.

Because students were learning how to identify, use, and create information in this open pedagogy project, it was expected that information literacy skills would be developed. To test this expectation, the students in the course were invited to complete information literacy self-reports of their skills before and after the project (using a measure adapted from Sommer et al., 2021). There was a focus on examining changes in source evaluation skills, given that the project emphasized finding and identifying appropriate sources for updating the OER textbook.

Students reported an increase in source evaluation skills based on their indicated level of confidence in items such as “evaluate internet sources,” and “select information most appropriate for the need” from the beginning (M = 3.72, SD = .54) to the end of the semester (M = 4.25, SD = .50; t(90) = 7.73, p < .001).

In open-ended responses to skills developed, 72 students mentioned research and source finding skills (e.g., “I learned how to use the library’s databases to find a relevant article”), 48 stated identifying outdated information (e.g., “I developed a focus on comparing information that is modern to information that is outdated”), 38 mentioned critical thinking (e.g., “Looking at sources and realizing not everything in a textbook is law”), 22 mentioned reading and note taking skills (e.g., “It gave me an opportunity to dissect the textbook in many sections”), and 18 mentioned deeper comprehension and engagement (e.g., “It helped me get a better understanding of the concepts”; note that students mentioned multiple skills in their responses).

Taken together, the findings indicate that having students collaborate on updating an OER textbook benefits the students involved in developing important skills and benefits future students through an improved textbook.

Speakers

Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Associate Professor, University of North Dakota

Dr. Virginia Clinton-Lisell began her career in education as an ESL teacher in New York City. She then obtained her PhD in Educational Psychology with a minor in Cognitive Science at the University of Minnesota where she was trained in educational research. She has published over... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
4 - Salon T - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

10:30am EDT

Reframing the Past, Reimagining the Future: OER Project’s Approach to History and Climate Education

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33807

As access to information expands globally, the question is no longer whether knowledge is available, but whose knowledge is represented and how it is framed. OER offers a powerful opportunity not only to remove cost barriers but also to rethink the narratives and perspectives embedded in educational content—and OER Project brings this opportunity to social studies, an often-overlooked discipline that so greatly impacts our present and future.

This session explores how openly licensed history and climate curricula offered by OER Project can contribute to a more inclusive and democratic approach to learning.

In social studies education, the phrase “to the victor go the spoils” too often underpins historical narratives. Many state standards lean heavily toward a more “traditional narrative,” and textbook publishers therefore follow their lead. OER provides an opportunity to transcend these narratives and open a conversation about who history is about and who it is for. The nature of OER allows for an expanded view of history, enabling students to learn about the diverse underpinnings of our past. OER Project history courses—Big History and World History—were designed to meet standards (because yes, standards are important), but also to provide opportunities for students to learn a more comprehensive and inclusive history, from the impact of Islamic scholars on our understanding of science to the contributions of lesser-known individuals who shaped history, such as Sorqoqtani Beki, who used her networks to shape the Mongol Empire, and Manuel Quezon, who helped more than 1,300 Jewish refugees escaping persecution find a home in the Philippines.

OER Project: Climate is a course designed to bring climate change into all classrooms. We believe solving the climate crisis is not a topic that should be contained to science classrooms; solutions are interdisciplinary, and we believe all students—and teachers—should feel equipped to understand and confront the issue.

Participants will consider how incorporating multiple perspectives—across regions, cultures, and voices—can help learners better understand complexity, challenge dominant narratives, and engage more critically with historical interpretation.

In addition to social studies content, the session highlights the role of open resources in addressing urgent global challenges. Using a climate change course grounded in solutions-oriented thinking, we will explore how OER Project can empower learners not just with knowledge of problems but with frameworks for action and agency. This approach reflects a broader shift in education toward equipping learners to navigate uncertainty and participate meaningfully in shaping the future.

Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about a variety of OER Project resources that help democratize knowledge and to reflect on how they could incorporate these resources into their own teaching.

By the end of the session, participants will leave with practical strategies for evaluating and implementing open resources that prioritize inclusivity, representation, and learner agency.

Speakers

Chelsea Katzenberg

Academic Lead, OER Project

Chelsea Katzenberg is the Academic Lead at OER Project where she is responsible for managing the content development and updates for all OER Project courses. Before joining OER Project, Chelsea was a founding member of a charter high school in the South Bronx, where she taught world... Read More →

Angelina Meadows Comb

Director of Education, OER Project

Angelina Meadows Comb serves as Director of OER Project, where she leads the development of innovative K-12 social studies curriculum and educator resources. Her leadership advances collaboration and empowers educators to strengthen teaching and learning nationwide.

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

10:30am EDT

Service Learning: Decolonizing Open Education Through African Knowledge Co-Creation

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33634

In Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa, Catholic Higher Education Institutions (CHEIs) are at a critical crossroads. While international knowledge systems have expanded through digital transformation and Open Educational Resources (OER), much of the content, pedagogy, and epistemology remains rooted in colonial legacies that marginalize indigenous knowledge systems and African voices.

Open Education has expanded access to knowledge globally, yet critical gaps remain regarding whose knowledge is represented and legitimized. In African CHEIs, colonial legacies through Christianity continue to shape curricula, often marginalizing indigenous knowledge systems and local epistemologies (Ngungi Wa Thiong’o, 1968; Andrew Furco, 1996; Linda Tuhiwai Smith, 1999; Boaventura de Sousa Santos, 2014 & Pete, J. 2019).

This presentation examines how open practices can advance the decolonization of education by repositioning knowledge as a contextualized public good for all. Drawing on over a decade of practice in Service Learning and OER, the session presents case studies from selected African CHEIs where students and communities co-create knowledge.

Practical examples include:

Service Learning projects where students document indigenous knowledge and community innovations as open resources (local language use);
collaborative development of localized OER to support context-relevant teaching (faculty led); and
regional initiatives promoting open knowledge sharing across CHEIs in 13 Nations of Africa.

These practices demonstrate how open pedagogy can shift universities from knowledge transmitters to knowledge co-creators embedded in society’s local context.

The session contributes to the conference theme by showcasing African-led innovations that not only adopt but reimagine open education through equity (Solidarity Service Learning), relevance (Empathy), and epistemic justice(Synodality). The conference Pathway of Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge provides a unique opportunity to reimagine education as a public good for all, emphasizing accessibility, inclusion, and contextually relevant. By embracing open practices, African institutions especially CHEIs can democratize knowledge production and dissemination while reclaiming epistemic agency in the 21st century.

In a nutshell, this presentation explores the intersection of open education, service learning, and decolonization within African education contexts. While OER and open practices aim to democratize knowledge, they often reproduce global inequalities when detached from local realities.

Drawing from the presenter’s work as a regional director in Service Learning and involvement in international OER initiatives, the session highlights three practice-based case studies from several African universities:

Service Learning as Open Knowledge Creation: At Catholic Higher Education Institutions and other partner universities in Eastern, Western, Central and Southern Africa, students engage with communities to co-create knowledge. Projects include documenting indigenous agricultural practices, community health solutions, prison ministry and local innovations.
Localizing Open Educational Resources: Through curriculum integration efforts, faculty and students collaboratively adapt and develop OER that reflect African context thus embedding local case studies, languages, and lived realities. This addresses the disconnect between imported content and contextual relevance.
Regional Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Cross-institutional initiatives have fostered networks of educators working on open practices, enabling sharing of resources, pedagogies, and strategies for embedding openness within teaching, learning, and research.

Speakers

Dr Judith Pete

Senior Lecturer/Researcher & Africa Director for Service Learning in Higer Education, Tangaza University

Dr. Judith Pete is a Senior Lecturer, Global Researcher and Africa Director for Service Learning at Higher Education institutions in Africa for over a decade. Worked in Regional Non-Governmental Organizations in different managerial and leadership capacities. She is currently the... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 10:30am - 11:00am EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:05am EDT

Charting the Course: A National Research Agenda for Open Education

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33577

The open education field has grown significantly over the past two decades, yet critical gaps in evidence remain and the research landscape is fragmented. Studies are often siloed, datasets go untapped, and parallel efforts rarely connect. Without a coordinated national research strategy, the field risks repeating itself rather than building the cumulative, scalable knowledge base that policymakers, funders, and practitioners urgently need.

In 2025, the National Consortium for Open Educational Resources (NCOER), a collaboration among the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE), Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), and Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE), supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, launched a national initiative to address this challenge.

The result is a comprehensive Open Education and OER Research Agenda, developed through an extensive mixed-methods consultation process involving a national survey of 126 participants and in-depth interviews with 15 researchers, faculty, librarians, system leaders, and policy stakeholders across the United States and Canada.

This session will present the agenda's findings and invite the global open education community to engage with its six national research priorities:

Student Outcomes and Experiences — moving beyond affordability metrics toward deeper understanding of how students learn, engage, and persist in open environments;

Long-Term Sustainability and Institutional Support — understanding how OER programs evolve, persist, and adapt over time, including funding models, governance, and recognition systems;

Intersection of Open Education and Artificial Intelligence — examining how AI reshapes OER creation, pedagogy, student behavior, and the broader knowledge ecosystem;

Evolution of Cost-Savings and Affordability Research — updating cost analyses and expanding research on student decision-making and the long-term academic impacts of affordability;

Discipline-Specific Approaches, Needs, and Practices — identifying how disciplinary cultures and curricular structures influence OER adoption and open pedagogy; and

Research Collaboration and Shared Infrastructure — addressing fragmentation by building coordinated research systems, aligning priorities across regions, and supporting shared data and cross-institutional inquiry.

Presenters will highlight key research gaps, share findings from the national consultation process, and discuss how the agenda can inform policy, practice, and investment in open education. Presenters will prioritize audience connections to broader themes of research in their context, with an emphasis on global research connections to the above themes. Participants will have the opportunity to identify priority research questions, consider how the agenda can shape their own work and partnerships, and reflect on how a shared research infrastructure might advance the global open education movement.

Speakers

Kate Baca

Policy Analyst, Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

Kate Baca is a Policy Analyst with The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Her work spans research and supporting Open Educational Resources and student success in post-secondary across the WICHE region. In her work at WICHE, she collaborates with a community of OER... 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 →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:05am EDT

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

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 32921

Across Europe, open education has often developed alongside, rather than together with, related movements such as open science, open access, and open knowledge policy. Yet in a period marked by rapid digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and pressure on public-interest infrastructures, fragmentation is becoming a strategic weakness. This session examines how “connecting the opens” can provide a stronger foundation for open education by linking policy, practice, and community across sectors.

The presentation draws on three connected strands of work. First, it discusses SPARC Europe’s Connecting the Opens position paper (https://zenodo.org/records/17572650), which makes the case for intentionally aligning Open Science and Open Education to build a more equitable and future-oriented higher education system in Europe.

Second, it presents insights from the feasibility work for a possible European Open Education Alliance (https://zenodo.org/records/18862080), which identified strong support for a broader coordinating structure able to strengthen policy coherence, infrastructure conversations, shared understanding, and collective action across countries.

Third, it reflects on the contribution that community-based activities can make to sustaining exchange, experimentation, and implementation, exploring the European Network of Open Education Librarians as an example of this approach.

Rather than presenting these as separate initiatives, the session argues that they represent three layers of the same change strategy: conceptual alignment, ecosystem coordination, and community practice. Taken together, they suggest that open education can gain greater visibility, legitimacy, and impact when understood not as an isolated field but as part of a wider movement to uphold knowledge as a public good.

The session will offer participants a strategic framework and practical insights for thinking about how open education communities can connect across institutional, national, and thematic boundaries. It will be of interest to policymakers, network leaders, librarians, educators, and open practitioners seeking ways to move from dispersed activity toward durable collaboration.

Speakers

Paola Corti

Senior Open Education Expert, SPARC Europe

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

Vanessa Proudman

Director, SPARC Europe

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

Paul Stacey

Independent Consultant, https://paulstacey.global

Based in Vancouver Canada I'm an independent consultant specializing in the use of open education, open science, open access, and open culture. I'm currently working with SPARC Europe on initiatives related to Connecting The Opens and the formation of a European Open Education Alliance... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:05am EDT

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

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

4 - Salon T - 7th Floor

ID: 33568

For decades, National Geographic Education has translated the work of Explorers, storytellers, educators and community leaders, into classroom-ready resources, reaching millions of educators and learners worldwide. But like many institutions, we found ourselves “making camp”: Publishing high-quality content that was widely accessed, yet largely static. Difficult to adapt, remix, or meaningfully co-own across contexts.

This session explores what it takes to move from that campsite to a true commons.

In partnership with the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), we are building the PowerED by National Geographic Society Hub on OER Commons: Not just as a repository, but as a participatory ecosystem. This shift is not primarily technical; it is cultural. It asks: Who builds knowledge? Who adapts it? Who owns it?

At the center of this work is a reimagining of authorship. National Geographic Explorers are no longer only sources of expertise; they are co-creators alongside educators and, increasingly, learners. Together, they design open educational resources that are intended to be adapted: across geographies, cultures, and learning environments. An Explorer’s fieldwork becomes not a finished product, but a starting point for collective knowledge-building.

We will share key strategies that have supported this transition from publishing to shared ownership:

Designing modular OER templates that invite remix, localization, and reinterpretation

Building capacity through an OER Fundamentals Academy, where educators learn to license, adapt, and publish their own work

Using platform analytics (e.g., remixing, downloads, global participation) to understand how knowledge moves and evolves

Creating feedback loops that position educators and communities as contributors—not just consumers

Participants will engage with real examples from the hub, including co-created lessons on topics such as volcanism and cultural storytelling, and see how these resources evolve as they are remixed and recontextualized. We will also share early insights from our academy model, where participants reported increased confidence in contributing to OER and a stronger sense of belonging within a global knowledge community.

Ultimately, this session invites a shift in perspective: What if open education is not a collection of resources, but a shared space we build and rebuild together?

Speakers

Tyson Brown

Director, National Geographic Society

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

Patrick Cavanagh

Manager, Content Design, National Geographic Society

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
4 - Salon T - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:05am EDT

TESSFEG: An Open Source Gamified Simulations System for Democratizing Technical Knowledge for Global Learners

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 32456

The rapid advancement of frontier technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing indirectly threatens to widen the global knowledge gap. While these fields define the future of industry, high quality engineering education even in open access remains largely gatekept by high-bandwidth requirements or complex proprietary software.

This session introduces TESSFEG - an open source, mission-driven digital platform designed to reinvent how young learners engage with the emerging technological fields. By transforming abstract STEM concepts into tactile, interactive and engaging engineering challenges, TESSFEG serves as a functional prototype for fulfilling crucial goals such as the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 (Quality Education).

TESSFEG utilises a rigorous yet user friendly 2D simulation environment bult to ensure high-performance learning that remains accessible even on low bandwidth network and low spec-hardware. The platform replaces shallow metaphors with real mathematical and physical laws, such as Ohm's law and strict Boolean logic. Learners engage in an authentic engineering design loop : moving from passive learning to active investigation and iterative testing under realistic simulated environments.

Moreover, TESSFEG demonstrates a strong connection to real-world engineering challenges as the mission modules will directly mirro contemporary global research initiatives such as processing telemetry data from deep space probes or designing systems for ecological conservation and sustainable development. This approach shifts motivation from simple progression to understanding how technology impacts the world.

To ensure global inclusivity, TESSFEG employs universal design principles and adaptive learning interactions. The interface minimizes text in favor of standard scientific symbols and interactive tutorials, facilitating participation across linguistic barriers. Designed as a lightweight 2D browser tool, it is optimized for environments with fluctuating internet connections, making it a scalable resource for remote connectivity.

As an open source tool, TESSFEG is a collaborative invitation to the open education community. Finally, TESSFEG demonstrates that while at present, we cannot solve global educational inequality effortlessly, we can invent tools that make the vision of open knowledge a reality.

Speakers

Pariton Langpoklakpam

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU)

Pariton Langpoklakpam is a citizen scientist and educator currently pursuing M.Sc Physics at IGNOU. With a foundational degree in Physics Honours from Manipur University, his work focuses on the intersection of frontier technology and open education. Pariton is the lead architect... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:05am - 11:35am EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Online
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

11:50am EDT

A Massachusetts Initiative to Connect OER with Responsible AI Use

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33662

As open education continues to evolve, practitioners are being asked to rethink how emergent technologies, particularly generative artificial intelligence (AI) can strengthen, rather than undermine, the core values of openness. This session explores how open educational practices can adapt to rapid technological change while remaining grounded in human connection, creativity, and the public good.

The session draws on the Career and AI Readiness while Remixing Open Textbooks through an Equity Lens (CA-ROTEL) initiative, a collaborative project bringing together faculty and support teams across multiple institutions in Massachusetts. The project is supported by a $1.98 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to adopt open-source textbooks and create ancillary materials for general education courses that are applicable across public college systems. Framingham State University is the lead recipient and has partnered with UMass-Lowell and Northern Essex Community College on the initiative. CA-ROTEL integrates open educational resources (OER), ethical uses of generative AI, and career-connected learning into general education courses that serve diverse learner populations.

Rather than positioning AI as a shortcut or efficiency tool, CA-ROTEL approaches it as a participatory and reflective technology, one that can support creativity, deepen learning, and help students articulate transferable skills when used transparently and responsibly. Faculty participating in the initiative remix openly licensed textbooks and create ancillary materials that are culturally responsive, adaptable, and locally relevant. Generative AI is used intentionally to support authentic learning activities, such as modeling workplace scenarios, discussing the ethics of AI, generating prompts for reflection and revision, and helping learners practice describing their knowledge and skills for future academic or professional contexts.

This session will share how CA-ROTEL intentionally combines open licensing, faculty support, and collaborative professional development to build sustainable open educational ecosystems. Particular attention will be given to the processes that enabled both materials and teaching practices to circulate across institutions while remaining flexible enough to support local context and instructional autonomy.

Speakers will highlight how integrating generative AI and career readiness prompted faculty to critically examine their own perspectives on AI and to more intentionally embed the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Competencies within their curricula. Through CA-ROTEL’s structured professional development, faculty gained a practical, values-aligned framework for thoughtfully integrating AI with OER that moves beyond experimentation toward purposeful pedagogical design.

As a result, instructors reported increased confidence and readiness to incorporate AI-enhanced learning activities into their courses. This preparation directly supports students in developing essential digital literacy and career-relevant skills, better positioning them to navigate and contribute to today’s AI-influenced workplace.

This session positions CA-ROTEL as a transferable case study, not a fixed model. While the initiative emerged within a specific regional context, its methods—remixing OER, supporting faculty through open workflows, and treating AI as a tool for inquiry rather than compliance—are intentionally designed to share. The session invites participants to consider how similar approaches might be adapted to different educational systems, languages, policy environments, and cultural contexts.

Dr. Robert Awkward will facilitate this session, offering perspective on the ways the CA‑ROTEL project is influencing OER development in Massachusetts and contributing to wider conversations about openness and educational innovation.

Speakers

Susan Tashjian

Academic Innovations Programs Manager, Northern Essex Community College (NECC)

Susan Tashjian is Academic Innovations Programs Manager at Northern Essex Community College and a CA-ROTEL principal investigator. She supports faculty in instructional innovation, OER adoption/creation, and practical AI integration. Her work emphasizes equitable access, culturally... Read More →

Donna Mellen

Executive Director of Academic Technology, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Donna Mellen is the Executive Director of Academic Technology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, where she leads campus initiatives focused on learning platforms, open education, digital accessibility, and partnering with faculty to scale inclusive, learner‑centered teaching... Read More →

Robert Awkward

Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Dr. Robert Awkward is an educator and scholar based in Massachusetts whose work explores the intersection of open education, inclusive pedagogy, and emerging technologies in higher education. His interests focus on how open practices—such as OER, collaborative knowledge creation... Read More →

Ben Atchison

Professor of Mathematics, Framingham State University (FSU)

Benjamin Atchison is a Professor of Mathematics at Framingham State University and is a CA-ROTEL principal investigator. He served as an Assessment Coordinator for the original ROTEL grant (2021-2025). He is a long-time OER adopter and an advocate for the development and adoption... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

An Open Introduction to Film: Lessons from a NotebookLM Case Study

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33808

The transition to Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) for foundational survey courses poses a unique challenge: how do we replace beloved, publisher-provided textbooks that come bundled with extensive, high-quality supplementary resources? At the College of San Mateo, an AANAPISI and Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), the Film 100 (Introduction to Film) course is a core degree requirement and a highly popular general education transfer course. As part of a statewide Acceleration Grant initiative aimed at converting the entire Film AA degree to full ZTC status by Fall 2027, our team is addressing this challenge through the creation of Reframing Cinema, a new, OER ZTC textbook.

Crucially, Reframing Cinema is built from a decolonial lens, integrating film history and analysis while centering BIPOC, AANAPISI, and HSI film traditions as constitutive of film history rather than supplementary to it. However, writing a culturally responsive textbook is only half the battle. To truly support both student success and widespread instructor adoption, the text needs a robust ecosystem of visual aids, study materials, and a structured delivery method that rivals commercial publisher packages.

This session presents a case study on how we are leveraging Google’s NotebookLM and other generative AI tools to build this comprehensive, scalable, open-access ecosystem. We will showcase how we use generative AI to develop custom images and infographics to illustrate complex film craft concepts, and how NotebookLM transforms the foundational OER text into dynamic study materials—such as interactive podcasts, explainer videos, and study guides—that seamlessly align with the course's decolonial framework.

Beyond generating individual assets, we will discuss how we are packaging the textbook and all AI-enhanced supplementary materials into a comprehensive, ready-to-use Canvas Course Shell. This turnkey model allows future instructors to simply copy and adapt the shell, effectively removing the logistical barriers and overwhelming workload often associated with transitioning to ZTC materials. We view this holistic approach as a scalable framework that can support ZTC degree pathways across film and other disciplines.

By sharing our work-in-progress, we aim to spark an active dialogue about the intersection of artificial intelligence, open education, and culturally responsive pedagogy. How can we creatively leverage emergent AI tools to build media-rich, inclusive resources? And how do these tools empower faculty to center equity without succumbing to burnout? Participants will leave with actionable strategies for building their own scalable, AI-supported OER frameworks.

Speakers

Tamara Perkins

Film Professor and Filmmaker, College of San Mateo

Tamara Perkins is an award-winning documentary director, producer, and educator with over 20 years of filmmaking experience and over six years teaching film at the College of San Mateo (an AANAPISI and Hispanic-Serving Institution). Deeply committed to equity-centered pedagogy, she... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

From Conference Spark to Campus Change: Students as Co-Creators of Open Practice

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 31878

What happens when a student encounters open education for the very first time, not in a classroom, but in the dynamic, participatory space of a conference? This session explores that question through the shared journey of an experienced open education practitioner and an undergraduate education student who, just two years ago, attended an open education conference together. For the student, the experience was transformative. What began as exposure quickly evolved into curiosity, and now into action: a senior capstone project designed to investigate and expand open education awareness at her home institution, where knowledge of open practices remains limited.

Framed within the conference theme “Come Invent With Us! Innovating Open Practices to Uphold and Uplift Knowledge as a Public Good,” this session positions students not as passive recipients of open education, but as active agents in “hacking” and reshaping the open ecosystem. Together, the presenters will share their intergenerational and cross-role perspectives on entering, navigating, and contributing to the open education movement.

At the heart of the session is the student’s emerging research design. She is developing a faculty survey to assess awareness of, and interest in, open educational practices, alongside plans for student-centered outreach and focus groups. These efforts aim to surface both barriers and opportunities for open education adoption at her institution, while also elevating student voice as a critical yet often underrepresented dimension of open praxis. Participants will be invited to contribute feedback on survey design, question framing, and strategies for engaging both faculty and students in meaningful dialogue about openness.

This interactive session aligns with the “Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good” track by centering experimentation, co-creation, and grassroots innovation. It highlights how small, relational entry points, such as bringing a student to a conference, can catalyze broader institutional and cultural shifts. Attendees will engage in rapid ideation activities to help refine the student’s research instruments and outreach strategies, effectively becoming co-designers in a real-time open education initiative.

The session is also grounded in emerging literature on the value of student participation in academic conferences and high-impact practices. Research suggests that undergraduate engagement in scholarly communities enhances students’ sense of belonging, professional identity, and academic motivation (Kuh, 2008; Lopatto, 2010). Additionally, involving students as partners in educational innovation aligns with calls for more inclusive and participatory approaches to knowledge creation (Cook-Sather, Bovill, & Felten, 2014).

By weaving together lived experience, research design, and participatory engagement, this session invites attendees to consider: What might be possible if we more intentionally invited students into the open ecosystem, not just as beneficiaries, but as co-inventors of the future of knowledge as a public good?

Speakers

Sydney DelMastro

Student, Endicott College

Sydney DelMastro is a student at Endicott College, majoring in English Secondary Education with a minor in Spanish. Her academic work and field experiences have focused on supporting diverse learners and creating inclusive, engaging classroom environments. She has completed field... Read More →

Lisa Young

Founder & Principal, EduEssentials Consulting

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

Futures Thinking in Open Education, and What to Do When the AI Bubble Bursts

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

ID: 34012

Education done with some sort of “open” ethos has existed for decades, changing shape and direction as new technologies like the World Wide Web and mobile connectivity made learning possible in new places and new ways. Over the last few years, what we previously referred to as machine learning has been repackaged with applications and software layers that communicate with humans in their native language – AI has arrived.

But questions surrounding the onset and expansion of AI in the OER and broader Open Education spaces have increased, while conclusive answers about the direct and indirect impacts of its use elude us. What is AI able to do for us that we were previously unable to do, and at what social, financial, legal, and environmental costs? What changes between learners and across collaborators when various blackbox AI tools remain unreliable in their outputs? How do financial inequities shift as AI is taken up unequally by different groups, closing some gaps and further stratifying others?

How do OER practitioners change their approaches to copyright and content sharing or reuse as AI models scrape and churn all content, not just that which has been openly licensed? And how might people at all levels of OER leadership and practice consider the implications on the environment, weighing them against the increased potential to democratize education? This session will explore key questions beyond just AI technology itself, but as Heidegger theorized nearly a century ago, the question concerning technology is not simply a technological question.

This session will also discuss the process of futures modeling pioneered by Jim Dator, and how images of the future can be created based on trends and patterns of the past and present. Specific focus will be given to opening up the possibility that the current AI ecosystem may experience a bubble burst, similar to the Dot-com bubble in the late 1990ʻs.

How do we assess the durability of our work in Open Education in the context of a potential AI bubble burst? And what do we do when it happens? While the future itself cannot be predicted, it is worth considering how Open Education changed as a result of previous seismic shifts in technology.

At minimum, we can prepare to tackle undesirable future trajectories while charting paths towards those which uphold (and expand) efforts in Open Education to democratize access to public knowledge and level the learning playing field for anyone, anywhere.

Speakers

Billy Meinke-Lau

Director, Instructional Design and Development, Outreach College, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

Billy Meinke is the Director of Instructional Design and Development (IDD) of the Outreach College at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, leading a team developing online programs and Open Educational Resources (OER). He has worked across many areas of Open Education, and enjoys... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

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

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

4 - Salon T - 7th Floor

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 - Salon T - 7th Floor 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 - Salon M - 7th Floor

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 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

12:25pm EDT

From AI Disclosure to Human Declaration: Centring Human Authorship in OER Creation

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 32892

As AI tools become increasingly common in the creation of Open Educational Resources, the open education community faces a pressing question: how do we talk honestly about AI use in a way that is transparent, nuanced, and fair to the humans doing the work?

Rather than debating whether AI should be used in OER creation, this session starts from a different premise: that authors are already using these tools, and that the more productive question is how to support transparent, human-centred disclosure of that use. Most approaches to AI disclosure focus narrowly on what the AI produced — treating it as a binary of used or not used. The KPU AI Declaration Framework for OER Creation takes a different approach, asking not "what did AI do?" but "what was the relationship between the author and AI?" — recognising that human involvement, judgment, and creative direction are essential to the process.

The framework is an adaptation of the Artificial Intelligence Disclosure (AID) Framework developed by Kari D. Weaver at the University of Waterloo, reworked for the specific context of OER creation. Where the original framework was oriented toward research processes, the KPU adaptation identifies ten categories of activity relevant to OER development — from conceptualisation and instructional design to media creation and accessibility features — giving authors a structured way to describe their AI use throughout a publishing project.

To capture the nuance of the human-AI relationship at each stage, the framework incorporates the Me & My Machine (MMM) labels developed by Fontys University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands — with adaptations to better suit a Canadian and North American context. The five labels (Craftsperson, Handyperson, Cyborg, Curator, and Generator) describe a spectrum from fully independent human creation to AI-generated content, without judgment. Even where AI generates most of the content, human effort is present in the crafting of prompts, the shaping of outputs, and the decisions made throughout — and the incorporation of the label system into the AI declaration framework makes that contribution visible.

To support authors in applying the framework, the presenters developed a self-assessment rubric that guides them in selecting the appropriate label for each category — moving beyond definitions to practical descriptions of what each level of human-AI collaboration looks like. An interactive version of the rubric is also available to guide authors through the process of building their own declaration statement. A Pressbooks front matter template brings everything together into a format authors can import directly into their OER projects.

The framework has been well received at KPU, with authors appreciating the structure and guidance it provides. Interest has extended beyond OER creation to staff evaluating their AI use across a range of resource types. While developed in an OER context, the framework is applicable to any resource creation project — a deliberate design choice that reflects that the questions it addresses are not unique to open education.

This session walks participants through the categories, labels, rubric, and template, and discusses how human-centred AI disclosure might be implemented in other contexts.

Speakers

Amanda Grey

Open Education Strategist, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Amanda Grey, MLIS, is the Open Education Strategist at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in British Columbia, Canada. Over the past several years, she has worked across the full spectrum of open education practice, supporting educators in textbook affordability, OER adoption and... Read More →

Karen Meijer

Scholarly Communications & Copyright Librarian, Kwantlen Polytechnic University

Karen Meijer, MLIS, MA, is the Scholarly Communications and Copyright Librarian at Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) in British Columbia, Canada. She has worked in publishing since 2003 and has been active in the field of Open Education in its many forms since 2015. Throughout... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

12:25pm EDT

Teachers as Changemakers: Adopting OER for Environmental and Sustainability Education in Middle School

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

ID: 32351

This session presents findings from recent research focused on the availability and efficacy of Open Educational Resources (OER) for environmental and sustainability education, specifically tailored for learners in Grades 5 through 7.

In a time of escalating environmental challenges, ranging from climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource conservation, education is essential in promoting change. The middle years are a critical time for this education; children are forming their values, critical thinking, and a sense of responsibility. When environmental education reaches this age group, it can shape not only what they understand, but what they do about it and who they become. This is captured in a saying by Baba Dioum, “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will only understand what we are taught.”

However, there are barriers to teaching this. Although several countries, including Canada, have committed to integrating environmental and climate education, progress has been slow, teachers lack access to resources and don’t have the time or expertise to create their own, and teachers are intimidated by topics like climate change which are highly controversial and political. Teachers want to empower their students, but they need the right tools.

OER offer an opportunity to provide equitable, scalable, and adaptable materials. These digital resources allow educators to customize content to reflect local environmental contexts and specific learner needs. Furthermore, OER for environmental education align with UNESCO’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly Goal 4 (Quality Education), Goal 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and Goal 13 (Climate Action).

Despite their potential, the extent to which existing OER meet the needs of kindergarten to Grade 12 (K-12) educators is not well understood. This study identifies existing resources that align with Grade 5 to 7 curriculum standards, as well as gaps and areas for improvement to ensure OER can be effectively integrated into K-12 curriculum. The research also provides a systematic process for analyzing OER that can be applied to other K-12 subjects and educational standards, including the use of AI technologies to analyze resources.

The outcome of this study is a curated collection of resources within the OER Commons Climate Hub which teachers can integrate immediately into their curriculum. This supports educators in accessing high-quality materials that promote environmental awareness and sustainable practices among youth.

Ultimately, these findings are intended for educators, policymakers, GLAM institutions (galleries, libraries, archives, museums), and environmental organizations to encourage OER use for environmental education and to contribute to the broader discussion on OER adoption in K-12. This research contributes to the development of environmentally conscious and empowered citizens and supports UNESCOs Sustainable Development Goals, including promoting ongoing dialogue on the role of OER in K-12 and the importance of environmental education across all subjects.

Speakers

Emily Grady

Master's student, Athabasca University

Emily Grady is in her final year of Athabasca University's Master of Education in Open, Digital and Distance Education, specializing in instructional design. As an avid outdoorsperson, a parent, and an environmental advocate, her personal, academic and professional interests center... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

12:25pm EDT

The Open Science Adoption Gap in Research Training

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33915

Open science has become a central element of global science policy and open education. International initiatives such as the UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science (2021) encourage transparency, accessibility, and collaboration in research. Universities and research agencies have increasingly implemented infrastructures and policies supporting open access publishing, open repositories, and open research data.

However, open science requires not only open infrastructures but also capacity building for the collective process of knowledge creation (Peršić and Straza, 2023). How are future researchers educated to embrace open practices and become part of this open ecosystem?

This session examines the relationship between open science policies and the educational practices (Cronin, 2017) that prepare researchers to engage in open science. It provides a Latin American perspective by examining how open science is translated into research training within a public university in Uruguay. The study analyzes how open science concepts and practices appear in social sciences undergraduate studies and humanities programs at a large public university. The research focuses on the curricular content of 56 undergraduate courses related to research training, including methodology, epistemology, statistics, information science, and digital technologies.

Using qualitative content analysis supported by AI-assisted tools, the study explores whether open education and open science principles—such as open educational resources, open access, open data, open peer review, and collaborative research—are explicitly or implicitly present in course programs. The results reveal a significant gap between the institutional promotion of open science and the educational preparation of future researchers. Explicit references to open science are largely absent from the analyzed curricula. While some courses address elements related to the public nature of science, data management, or research transparency, the systematic teaching of open science practices remains limited.

Drawing on sociological perspectives on academic habitus (Bourdieu, 1990) and theories of technological appropriation, the session argues that the adoption of open science depends not only on policies and infrastructures but also on how openness becomes embedded in teaching and learning the professional grounds and practices of open research. From an open education perspective, integrating open science into research training curricula may represent a crucial step in enabling universities to move from policy adoption toward the meaningful practice of openness in knowledge production.

The session invites participants to reflect on how global open science agendas encounter local academic traditions, institutional constraints, and epistemic inequalities (Fricker, 2007) in research training. It aims at answering how higher education institutions can bridge the gap and connect open science policies with open education strategies that support the development of new generations capable of working within open knowledge ecosystems.

Speakers

Mariana Porta Galván

Universidad de la República

Mariana Porta is a sociologist and holds a PhD in Informatics in Education from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Universidad de la República (UFRGS–Udelar). She is a faculty member and researcher at Universidad de la República, Uruguay, where she works at the intersection... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

12:25pm EDT

Wikipedia and Open Education

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

4 - Salon T - 7th Floor

ID: 34909

This presentation explores how might we transform a university’s course catalog, expert faculty, and multimedia archives into a global public good through the Wikimedia ecosystem. We explore formal, institutional-scale collaborations that move beyond traditional classroom or departmental-level projects in higher education.

A focus of the effort we have underway at MIT is the shift toward a "multimedia-first" strategy. By integrating video lectures and course materials into Wikimedia Commons, partnerships can go beyond text to bridge critical knowledge gaps in, for example, climate science, technology history, and women's history.

The session will address critical issues of this type of collaboration:

Navigating the social and technical challenges of high-volume, automated contributions across multilingual projects.

Transitioning a text-centric culture to effectively host, curate, and search complex digital assets like video and structured metadata.

Moving from isolated, project-based "edit-a-thons" to permanent models that align with a university’s core mission of knowledge dissemination.

Historically, university engagement with Wikipedia has been siloed within departments or library collections. This interactive session invites the GLAM, education, and multimedia communities to help shape a new model of engagement that respects the volunteer-led spirit of the movement while amplifying the reach of specialized academic knowledge to billions.

Speakers

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 →

Andrew Lih

Wikimedian in Residence, MIT Open Learning, MIT Open Learning

Andrew Lih has a long history in the Wikimedia movement and was the 2022 Wikimedia Laureate. He was among the first to use Wikipedia in the classroom at the university level, at the University of Hong Kong in 2003. Since then, he has been a champion of partnerships with universities... Read More →

Peter B. Kaufman

Associate Director, Resource Development, MIT Open Learning, MIT Open Learning

Peter B. Kaufman is Associate Director of Development at MIT Open Learning. Educated at Cornell and Columbia, he is the author of The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge (Seven Stories Press, 2021) and The Moving Image: A User’s Manual (The MIT Press, 2025). An educator... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
4 - Salon T - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

1:40pm EDT

After the Origin Story: Inheriting, Reframing, and Growing a Library-Led OER Program

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33691

What if an OER program isn't a program at all — it's an ecosystem? Not a single initiative, not one flagship, but an interconnected web of relationships and program lines that meet faculty where they are, with different levels of support, funding, and librarian involvement at each entry point. That's not how most OER programs are designed from the start. It's often how they end up; and this session is an honest account of what it takes to get there deliberately.

When the presenter joined a mid-sized regional R1 university library as Open Education Librarian in 2023, she stepped into exactly that kind of inherited complexity. A program existed, small, functional, and built on the work of a predecessor, but it lacked differentiation, clear pathways, and a coherent story that faculty could easily understand or act on. The programs that did exist had grown organically, which meant they were also quietly accumulating complexity: overlapping eligibility criteria, administratively burdensome payment structures, and no formal mechanism for maintaining the OER that had already been created.

The work of the past two-plus years has been threefold: nurture and honor what already existed, redesign what wasn't working, and build new pathways where gaps were clear. The result is a six-line program ecosystem that covers the full range of faculty OER engagement: from high-investment original creation and course-level remixes to no-cost embedded partnerships with programs and departments, to high-impact online course rebuilds, to new editions of aging existing OER.

Some program lines carry direct department-level funding; others are supported entirely through librarian time, graduate assistant partnerships, and strategic collaboration with instructional designers and program directors. Together, they provide a clear, campus-facing answer to a question many institutions struggle to answer simply: here are all the ways you can work with Open Education at this institution, and here is who is eligible for what.

This session will walk through the arc of that ecosystem's development: what was inherited, what was reframed, what was built new, and what is currently being formalized as the program prepares for a deliberate public relaunch. It will address the administrative lessons learned, including why individual faculty payment structures became untenable and how shifting to department-level payments dramatically reduced complexity, as well as the ongoing challenge of sustaining a multi-line program with a small team and no external grant funding.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for thinking about OER programs as ecosystems of relationships and initiatives rather than single projects; concrete, low- and no-cost program models tested in a library-led, resource-constrained context; and a realistic picture of what it looks like to inherit, reframe, and grow an open education program over time.

This session is especially relevant for OER practitioners, academic librarians, and program coordinators navigating program development without the benefit of a clean slate or a large grant — which is to say, most of us.

Speakers

Christine Rickabaugh

Open Education Librarian, University of Arkansas Libraries

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

1:40pm EDT

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

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

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 / Executive Director, SPARC / Open Education Association

Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC and Executive Director of the Open Education Association. Nicole has dedicated her career to ensuring global access to knowledge and is an internationally recognized advocate for open education. She has been widely cited in... Read More →

Joy Shoemate

Director of Online Education, College of Canyons

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor 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

Reimagining Open Practices at Scale: How Massachusetts Is Using Strategic Planning and Privacy-Conscious AI to Advance and Deepen the Utilization of OER

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33812

The Massachusetts Department of Higher Education's Open & Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC) Strategic Planning Committee embarked on a comprehensive, year-long initiative to determine national best practices in OER implementation, identify systemic barriers facing the open education community, and explore OLERAC's potential role in expanding educational access. This presentation shares our complete methodological approach, evidence-based findings, and actionable recommendations developed for the Commissioner and the Board of Higher Education. Our multi-phase research methodology combined rigorous desk analysis of published policy and operational content from OER programs nationwide, semi-structured interviews with OER program leads across North America representing diverse institutional types (community colleges, four-year institutions, and state systems), and systematic review of internal operational, policy, and budgeting documentation from existing OER programs. Critically, we pioneered the use of closed large language models for rapid qualitative analysis while developing novel methodological frameworks and engagement documents to maintain participant privacy and data security - a pressing consideration for public institutions navigating emergent AI technologies while upholding ethical research standards. Attendees will gain practical insights into how our work directly addresses the conference theme of reimagining open practices, policies, and pedagogy to solve real-world problems at scale. We will share concrete, transferable strategies for scaling OER adoption across institutional boundaries, overcoming common implementation barriers including faculty engagement, sustainable funding, and technical infrastructure – while noting sustained faculty engagement remains an ongoing challenge. We also explored Early College and Dual Enrollment students, an emergent population that stands to benefit disproportionately from reduced material costs and improved access to high-quality learning materials before matriculating to college, though this warrants further investigation.The implications of this work extend far beyond Massachusetts. With Massachusetts public higher education students saving $21.5 million in FY24 alone, a remarkable 33% increase over FY23, and experiencing 20% lower DFW (Drop/Fail/Withdraw) rates when using no-cost textbooks compared to traditional materials, our findings offer compelling, evidence-based pathways for other states and institutions pursuing similar large-scale OER initiatives. We will present specific data on student outcomes, institutional adoption rates, and the relationship between OER implementation and equity metrics. We will also address critical questions about the intersection of openness and emergent technology: How can institutions responsibly leverage AI tools while maintaining privacy and ethical standards? What role should advisory councils play in shaping state-level OER policy?How might open practices be extended to reach students earlier in their educational journeys, particularly those from underrepresented and low-income backgrounds? Our presentation offers replicable components for strategic planning that balances innovation with accountability, demonstrating how open education can serve learners through cost savings and improved success, faculty through increased teaching & learning choices and the opportunity to use open pedagogy, and communities through expanded access to higher education.By transparently sharing our methodology, findings, challenges, and recommendations, we invite the open education community to learn from our successes, adapt our approaches to their local contexts, and collaborate on solving shared challenges, embodying the very spirit of openness, equity, and practical problem-solving this conference track celebrates.

Speakers

Robert Awkward

Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Carey Zigouras

Access Services Manager, Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Carey Zigouras has managed the Massachusetts Maritime Academy Library in Buzzards Bay, Ma. since 2022. A former high school English teacher, she is interested in first year college students’ information literacy skills and their previous experiences with libraries. She joined... Read More →

Sarah C. Hutton

Education and Clinical Services Librarian, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School

Dr. Sarah C. Hutton (she/her/ella) is an academic research librarian, educator, and data analyst whose work spans open education, governance frameworks, organizational theory, and strategic planning. At the Lamar Soutter Library at UMass Chan Medical School, she supports multi-institution... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

1:40pm EDT

The Keys to Opening Open Pedagogy: Unlocking Student-Created Digital Escape Rooms Through Renewable Assignments

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 31985

Use the clues to find the keyTo opening open pedagogy.Escape rooms set the learning toneWhere students can create and own.In an introductory Library course, students are tasked with creating digital escape rooms for their peers to pilot test, learn from, and rise to the challenge of finding the key to escape based on a series of clues. Students have the option to license their digital escape rooms using Creative Commons licensing and have an understanding that they are creating an Open Educational Resource (OER) to teach future students. Marketed as content created by students for students, these digital escape rooms are renewable assignments. Renewable assignments are grounded in (OER) open pedagogy research (Wiley & Hilton, 2018) and theoretical frameworks such as self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and redistributive, recognitive, and representational principles of social justice (Lambert, 2018). In an effort to empower students and include diverse voices in the creation of learning materials, the digital escape rooms are creatively designed by students for future students as they teach and learn the value of libraries, information literacy concepts, or what they want students to know about the syllabus.Participants will gain insight into how this assignment integrates multiple technologies such as PowerPoint for interactive slide challenges, Canvas quizzes with embedded video content (and closed captioning), Canva for designing, and Springshare tools such as LibWizard and LibGuides for structured clues with multiple landing pages that deliver research-based adventures. These multiple levels of digital escape rooms from basic to more advanced provide scaffolding opportunities in online classes for learners to develop skills using information literacy frames such as Research as Inquiry, Searching as Strategic Exploration, Information Creation as a Process, and Information Has Value (ACRL, 2016).The session will outline the open pedagogical framework that was a key takeaway from completing the Open For Anti-Racism (OFAR) training. Open pedagogy transforms students from passive consumers of information to active creators using online learning as the modality for escape rooms, which are popular entertainment for students. Peer to peer instruction increases confidence (Tullis & Goldstone, 2020), aligning this assignment with research that demonstrates increased engagement, motivation, and deeper learning when students proudly publish their work. Wiley and Hilton (2018) highlight renewable assignments as improving student agency and achievement of learning outcomes with work that has lasting value. DeRosa and Jhangiani (2017) emphasize that open educational practices foster inclusivity by amplifying diverse voices in the creation of knowledge in student-authored OER.Attendees will leave with ideas and strategies for implementing digital escape rooms as renewable assignments in their courses, examples of student-created escape rooms for syllabus content,library orientations, and a framework for assessing creativity and information literacy outcomes. The session will also address scalability, sustainability, and alignment with institutional goals such as Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) initiatives, equity-minded teaching practices, and OER creation.This approach democratizes knowledge as student content creators share their lived experiences, embed their cultural knowledge and how they understand the course by creating these digital escape rooms.

Speakers

Natalie Lopez

Librarian, Department Chair, Academic Senate President, Crafton Hills College

With twenty years of professional experience in libraries from: Private Research (The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens), Academic (California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; Palomar College, Crafton Hills College), and Public (Rancho Mirage Library and Conservatory... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

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 - Salon T - 7th Floor

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 - Salon T - 7th Floor 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

2:15pm EDT

Building Bridges Between Higher Education and K-12 Through Open Lifelong Learning

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 30484

This session presents a transformative multi-sectoral partnership model between Erciyes University and the Murat Kantarcı Science and Art Center (BİLSEM), a collaboration recently distinguished in the European-wide SAMUELE Compendium: “University Lifelong Learning Applied Cases that Inspire.” As one of the premier cases selected from 17 European countries, this initiative serves as a strategic roadmap for integrating University Lifelong Learning (ULLL) into institutional governance, research, and societal impact through open and inclusive ecosystems.The core of this session addresses a persistent challenge in global education: the structural and pedagogical "space between" academic research in higher education and its practical enactment in K-12 classrooms. Led by Prof. Dr. Fatma Bozkurt and Çelebi Kalkan, this partnership redefines lifelong learning not merely as an isolated continuing education activity, but as a holistic, integrated domain for institutional transformation. We demonstrate how Erciyes University’s strategic vision for sustainability and social responsibility is actualized through a formal partnership with BİLSEM, a specialized institution for gifted and talented students.The session will explore three primary dimensions of "Connecting the Dots":Institutional Synergy and Governance: We will detail how the governance structures of a major university can be aligned with K-12 centers to create a seamless, open learning pathway. This includes the integration of lifelong learning into the university’s broader mission of "social contribution."Pedagogical Innovation (The Think-Feel-Act Model): Participants will be introduced to the UNESCO-recognized "Think-Feel-Act" pedagogical framework. We will showcase how this model is utilized to train prospective teachers, allowing them to engage in real-world sustainability workshops and "green entrepreneurship" activities as part of their lifelong learning journey.European Alignment and Scaling: Drawing from the SAMUELE Compendium findings, we will discuss how this case contributes to the "European Higher Education Area" by fostering resilience, inclusivity, and responsiveness to societal crises like climate change.Key Takeaways for Attendees: Attendees will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to build and sustain "Open Learning Ecosystems" that leverage cross-institutional resources. We will share specific strategies for bridging the gap between higher education faculty and K-12 practitioners, ensuring that open education resources and methodologies are not just developed, but effectively implemented and scaled. By the end of the session, participants will be equipped with a proven framework for institutionalizing multi-sectoral partnerships that empower both educators and learners as active agents of change in their communities.This session is particularly relevant for policymakers, university administrators, and K-12 educators seeking to "reinvent our shared global vision" by breaking down institutional silos and fostering a truly open, lifelong learning culture.

Speakers

Fatma Bozkurt

Professor Doctor, Erciyes University

Prof. Dr. Fatma Bozkurt, Erciyes Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi Uygulamalı Matematik Bölümü'nde seçkin bir profesördür ve Almanya, BAE, Kuveyt ve Türkiye'de 18 yılı aşkın uluslararası öğretim ve araştırma deneyimine sahiptir. Akademik liderliği, özellikle Z kuşa... Read More →

Çelebi Kalkan

Expert Teacher, Murat Kantarcı Science and Arts Center

Çelebi Kalkan, Türkiye'deki Murat Kantarcı Bilim ve Sanat Merkezi'nde (BİLSEM) STEM+A eğitimi, sürdürülebilir kalkınma ve iklim değişikliği pedagojisi alanlarında uzmanlaşmış bir öğretmendir. UNESCO Yeşil Eğitim Ortaklığı üyesi ve Scientix STEM Elçisi olarak... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

2:15pm EDT

Learning in the Wild: A Large-Scale Analysis of GenAI as a Dialogic Open Educational Resource

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

ID: 33533

The rapid adoption of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has transformed how self-directed learners interact with knowledge. While GenAI tools like ChatGPT are used globally as de facto Open Educational Resources (OER), empirical evidence regarding authentic learning through these human-AI dialogues - outside of formal institutional settings - remains limited. This presentation shares the results of a large-scale, mixed-methods study that analyzes learning as it happens "in the wild."

Grounded in the Dialogic OER Framework (Author, 2026), this research extends traditional OER models (like Wiley’s 5Rs) by introducing three process-oriented dimensions: Responsiveness, Reciprocity, and Reflexivity. We operationalize this framework through a computational and statistical analysis of 50,000 naturalistic conversations from the WildChat dataset - a corpus of over one million real-world ChatGPT interactions.

Our methodology utilized keyword-based filtering and rule-based classification to identify 6,693 learning-oriented conversations (13.4% of the sample). These were then analyzed using natural language processing (NLP), lexical complexity metrics, and metacognitive marker detection.

Key findings include:

Distinct Discourse Patterns: Learning conversations exhibit significantly higher reciprocity compared to non-learning tasks, characterized by longer interaction chains (M=3.19 vs 2.41 turns) and a higher density of follow-up questions (d = 0.36, p < .001).

Knowledge Co-Construction: Over 28% of learning interactions showed explicit markers of knowledge co-construction, such as critical evaluation of AI responses and iterative refinement of queries. This suggests that GenAI is not merely a static content source but a partner in emerging Open Educational Practices (OEP).

The Evolution of Scaffolding: Within multi-turn learning episodes, we observed a significant increase in lexical diversity (Type-Token Ratio) alongside a decrease in verbosity (d = -0.23, p < .001). This indicates that as learners engage with the AI, their prompts become more precise and sophisticated - a sign of self-directed scaffolding and internalization.

Global Equity and Access: Cross-cultural analysis revealed that regions with limited access to formal higher education, such as the Middle East and North Africa, showed the highest proportions of learning-oriented AI use (29.4%). This highlights GenAI's potential to serve as a truly open and accessible resource in underserved contexts.

By presenting these findings, we aim to bridge the gap between "Openness as Content" and "Openness as Interaction." We will discuss the practical and ethical implications of these emergent technologies for the future of the open education movement, specifically how we can support learners in developing the "Reflexivity" needed to navigate AI-driven learning landscapes.

Speakers

Eyal Rabin

Lecturer, Holon Institute of Technology

Dr. Eyal Rabin is a leading researcher in artificial intelligence and education at the Institute for Applied AI Research in Education, Israel’s Ministry of Education, and a lecturer at the Holon Institute of Technology (HIT). His work focuses on the integration of artificial... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

2:15pm EDT

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

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 33338

South Africa has 12 official languages and a multilingual population, with IsiZulu (24.4%) and isiXhosa (16.3%) being the largest languages, and English (8.7%) being one of the least spoken languages in the country [1]. Nevertheless, English dominates the academic learning and teaching across all public universities, with some South African Higher Education Institutions also offering courses in Afrikaans [2].

Academic achievements are influenced by numerous factors and linguistic barriers have been extensively documented as significant obstacles to student success [3]. The Bachelor of Pharmacy student cohort at Nelson Mandela University is demographically and culturally diverse. English does not represent the primary language of communication among the students therefore overcoming the language barrier requires deliberate and targeted pedagogical intervention to ensure equitable academic outcomes.

Pharmacology modules in the Bachelor of Pharmacy, are presented in English, posing a significant linguistic challenge for students with poor command of this language. The disparity between the language of instruction and students’ primary language can create a comprehension and learning gap, which can be seen as a form of social injustice. A thorough understanding of pharmacological terms is key for pharmacy students to engage more easily with the material and achieve better academic results. This understanding increases confidence in the topic and helps graduates improve collaboration with other healthcare professionals in the workplace, ultimately optimising patient therapeutic outcomes and quality of life.

The multilingual glossary was compiled through a comprehensive review of nearly fifty pharmacology reference books, journals, and publications. Upon reviewing the definitions, the researchers focused on simple, understandable English terminology, thereby facilitating translation into South African indigenous languages, which lack specialised medical terminology.

This glossary will be a tool that students can easily engage with and will incorporate the referenced English definitions of some of the most commonly used pharmacology terms and their translation into isiZulu, isiXhosa and Afrikaans.

The glossary project rollout and growth is being constructed in similar ways as Together, an openly licensed, free and collaborative picture book project funded via the Global Open Education Graduate Network. As an Open Educational Resource (OER), Together has been used to create international learning communities and foster engagement in learning [4] [5].

Our multilingual glossary of pharmacological terminology is being developed to address the linguistic challenge experienced by pharmacy and health science students in South Africa, whilst simultaneously establishing a foundation for both local and global collaboration to enhance learning among healthcare professionals requiring pharmacological knowledge.

The multilingual glossary is envisioned to not only be a reference tool but also an Open, dynamic, contributory platform through which users may add terminology and translations across multiple languages, including all the other indigenous South African languages. Current outputs do not reflect the wealth of languages and diversity the landscape engages with [6].

If the medium allows, an audio pronunciation of each term will be considered. The use of the glossary as a mobile application could facilitate convenient content accessibility. Besides being a study resource, the tool could be used in game-based learning pedagogies or the gamification of learning.

Speakers

Doina Naude

Nelson Mandela University

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

Gino Fransman

Project Leader: OpenEdInfluencers, Nelson Mandela University

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

Janet Barry

Nelson Mandela University

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

2:15pm EDT

The Open EdTech Advantage: Winning Support (and Funding) in a Proprietary World

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 34005

The evolving landscape of technology demands a fundamental shift in how we approach the procurement of EdTech tools. Higher Ed institutions need access to and control over technology that is inherently transparent, and tools they can not only inspect for ethical use and data privacy but also confidently modify and trust for long-term sustainability. In an era where every vendor claims to have “AI inside,” the real competitive advantage is not a license key but a community: the students, faculty, and staff who can shape, sustain, and continuously improve the tools they use every day.

Over the past two decades we have seen how open source technologies and open approaches to EdTech can offer benefits for the institution as well as educators and most importantly, students. Yet one of the recurring challenges with open source software in education is advocating for open source not only as a solution for testing out innovations, but as an enterprise service.

For open educators and learning technologists this presents an ongoing issue, balancing the requirements of institutional IT and purchasing policies with the needs of educators and students. With cyber security, responsible use of AI and accessibility all increasingly important, is there any room left for open solutions and services alongside an institution's core digital estate?

This session reframes Open EdTech Advocacy from a plea for cheaper software into a strategic investment in human capacity. We will show how choosing open source is less a procurement decision and more a strategy that lowers total cost of ownership, reduces vendor lock-in, grows institutional expertise, and can deliver solutions that truly evolve to fit the needs of a community.

We will explore strategies for making the case for open-source tools and open edtech platforms at multiple levels of an institution, from Leadership and Budget Holders, IT Teams and Central Services, to Faculty and Academic Units, as well as Students and Future Professionals.

This presentation will also showcase several new Open EdTech case studies (based on interviews conducted with teams of instructional designers over the past 2 years) that show who and how institutions who are at the forefront of Open EdTech adoption develop, scale and deploy open source educational services, including Stanford University, Princeton University and SUNY Oneonta.

At a time when openness in education and on the web is more contested than ever before, these case studies offer practical advice for learning designers and learning technologists, as well as strategic insights for anyone navigating funding and procurement processes for open source technologies and looking for practical know-how and resources to help you advocate for similar initiatives in your own institution.

Speakers

Taylor Jadin

Systems Administrator and Director of Operations, Reclaim Hosting

Taylor is Reclaim Hosting’s Systems Administrator and Director of Operations, as well as a proud husband and father, teacher, musician, avid camper, and unashamed nerd. He is passionate about educating and empowering people who want to make cool stuff on the web! Before joining... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

2:15pm EDT

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

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

4 - Salon T - 7th Floor

ID: 33663

As emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) reshape the educational landscape, what is their impact on core open educational practices? This session explores the development and outcomes of the Open Pedagogy Pit Stop program at NC State University, a cohort initiative that builds upon a successful incubator model to integrate interactive technologies with open pedagogy. The program is designed for instructors who have identified a specific teaching problem they want to address through the application of emerging technologies in an open pedagogy framework.

Rather than viewing emergent tools in isolation, our program examines their practical and ethical implications within the framework of open education. We will share key curriculum decisions, successes, and challenges encountered while cultivating a supportive, cross-campus community of practice. This community-centric approach demonstrates how, when purposefully aligned with open principles, interactive technologies such as AI and VR can deepen human connections among faculty and staff while supporting student creativity and curiosity.

At the heart of the Pit Stop program is a collaborative cohort model designed to break down institutional silos. By bringing together an interdisciplinary group of faculty and staff for a shared incubator experience, the program transforms isolated experimentation with AI and VR into a robust community of practice. This peer-to-peer environment provides a safe space to grapple with the ethical and practical implications of emerging tools, ensuring participants feel supported as they co-create, troubleshoot, and redesign their courses around open pedagogy principles.

By the end of Pit Stop, participants will have developed a tangible, technology-enhanced teaching solution rooted in open pedagogical principles. They will leave the program with both a practical deliverable and the confidence to apply emerging tools in support of student-centered learning.

The team of facilitators includes representatives from the NC State University Libraries, the Office for Faculty Excellence, and DELTA (Digital Education and Learning Technologies Applications). Pit Stop is free of charge to NC State faculty, thanks to grant support from the NC State Foundation & the Betsy Etheridge Brown Open Education Resource and Pedagogy Endowment.

Session attendees will receive a practical roadmap for developing similar programs at their own institutions. We will cover strategies for combining new technologies with open education principles to achieve community-driven, impactful outcomes, alongside methods for documenting resulting innovations for scholarly dissemination.

Pit Stop’s results to date will highlight the program’s positive impact on both faculty development and student engagement, offering a strong, reproducible model for advancing a culture of openness through the ethical and intentional application of emergent technologies.

Speakers

Maria Gallardo-Williams

Director of Faculty Development, North Carolina State University

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

David Tully

Principal Librarian for Student Affordability, North Carolina State University Libraries

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

Katya Mueller

Libraries Fellow, North Carolina State University Libraries

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

Tyler Kroon

Research Librarian for Engineering, North Carolina State University Libraries

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

Campbell Barnes

Graduate Research Assistant, North Carolina State University Libraries

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
4 - Salon T - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:00pm EDT

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

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
2 - Salon M - 7th Floor 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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

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 Nagoski

Open 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, 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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor 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

Designing AI to Support Learning, Not Bypass It: A CLT-Grounded MOOC Case from NTHU

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33853

The rapid integration of generative AI (GenAI) into higher education has produced a complex and often contradictory evidence base. A three-level meta-analysis found that GenAI significantly promotes higher-order thinking (g = 0.851) but shows no significant effect on creativity or reflective capacity (Wang & Fan, 2025). A broader synthesis of 68 experimental studies found a moderate positive effect on learning outcomes (SMD = 0.45), yet with extremely high heterogeneity (I² = 95%), indicating that AI's impact varies enormously depending on how, when, and for whom it is deployed (Han et al., 2025).

These findings compel open education practitioners to move beyond the question of whetherto adopt AI, toward the more consequential question of how to design AI tools that reliably produce learning gains rather than cognitive by-pass.

This session reflects on the experience of National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan, in integrating five GenAI-powered features into its open MOOC platform through the principled application of Cognitive Load Theory (CLT). We contend that CLT, with its precise account of working memory constraints, element interactivity, and the distinction between intrinsic and extraneous cognitive load, offers the most rigorous and actionable theoretical foundation available for AI tool design in large-scale open education. This contention is itself a reflective one: having experimented with broader, multi-theoretical frameworks, we found that CLT's specificity is precisely what makes it generative for design practice.

Two empirically grounded risks frame this design challenge and inform our reflections throughout. The first is cognitive offloading (Skulmowski, 2023): when learners over-delegate memory and reasoning to external tools, they tend to retain only gist-level representations rather than the richly organized long-term memory schemas that support transfer and genuine expertise development.

The second is the AI placebo effect (Skulmowski, 2024): learners systematically overestimate their own contributions when using AI, producing an illusion of competence that circumvents the productive cognitive struggle necessary for schema formation. Taken together, these risks reveal that AI tools designed without explicit attention to cognitive architecture may perform well on surface-level engagement metrics while undermining the deeper learning they are meant to support.

Against this backdrop, the session presents five AI features developed on the platform, each designed to address specific CLT mechanisms. The AI Panda chatbot applies Load Reduction Instruction (Martin & Collie, 2025) through Socratic dialogic scaffolding. AI Integrative Questions maintain productive intrinsic load for schema construction at the close of each course chapter. AI Mind Maps address the split-attention and transient information effects characteristic of video-based MOOC delivery. AI Notes operationalize the worked example effect by reducing the extraneous burden of concurrent note-taking. AI Practice and Open-Ended Questions dynamically calibrate task demands in response to the expertise reversal effect, while leveraging retrieval practice to consolidate long-term retention.

We close by reflecting critically on the institutional, administrative, and instructional design tensions encountered during implementation, and by sharing early outcomes from the deployment of these features in NTHU's Pre-AP program. We invite attendees to interrogate whether CLT offers a transferable design language for open education institutions navigating the pressures of AI adoption without sacrificing pedagogical integrity.

Speakers

Tonny Menglun Kuo

Division Director, Division of Learning Support and Research Planning, Center for Teaching and Learning Development, National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan

Tonny Menglun Kuo, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor in the Interdisciplinary Program of Management and Technology (IPMT) at the College of Management and Technology, National Tsing Hua University (NTHU), Taiwan. He concurrently serves as Division Director of Learning Support and Research... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:00pm EDT

OERs for Kids, Edited by Kids – Online Engagement to Maximise Accessibility and Learning Outcomes

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

7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor

ID: 32792

Young people overwhelmingly use online sources for extra-curricular learning, particularly now that many carry a smartphone everywhere. In this new era, resource providers (such as publishers) have an obligation to ensure that our young audience have highest-quality OERs to refer to freely. We must meet young learners in their preferred sphere, and provide trusted sources of information to combat the misinformation which is so prevalent online, causing negative mental health outcomes for young people.

Beyond this, for STEMM learning, we should inspire and actively engage with young learners, to ensure we are using a shared language, shaped by our young audience themselves. If we do this successfully, we will maximise learning outcomes and boost STEMM participation throughout the key stages of education. This enables new generations to not just suffer through their formal education but to fall in love with science, and remain science-literate throughout their lives. This is the mission of Frontiers for Young Minds.

Discover how our non-profit OER project works with top scientists globally, to re-write their peer-reviewed publications into short kid-friendly articles, published as open access OERs, across all fields of STEMM, free to read for anyone with an internet connection. We offer a case study on how to go beyond high-quality OER publishing by offering an online platform for direct engagement: in our unique peer-review process, every manuscript submitted is reviewed with our global network of kids aged 8-15. By taking in their feedback, we create a shared language of understanding directly between young people and active scientists, ensuring that everything we publish is accessible AND fun-to-read for the young peers of our reviewers.

Our Young Reviewers gain critical thinking skills, and by having direct contact with both a Science Mentor (PhD-holding adults vetted by the FYM team and working with the kid reviewers locally) and our Authors (who are leading researchers and whose peer-reviewed research we have likewise already validated), they gain the revelation that science really IS for everyone, helping them engage with STEMM. By raising their “science capital”, we increase the likelihood of them remaining engaged, science-literate citizens, thus boosting public trust in science, and even creating the active scientists of the next generation in future.

And interestingly, we can show that the learning goes two ways: our Young Reviewers, by giving their direct and unfiltered feedback to the scientist Authors, empower researchers with that new, shared language they can use to communicate their research to anyone.

Speakers

Laura Henderson

Head of Program – Frontiers for Young Minds, Frontiers Research Foundation (Frontiers Media SA)

Laura Henderson is an academic publishing professional with 20 years’ experience across respected international presses. Now part of the Frontiers Research Foundation, she strategically directs the unique science-engagement project, Frontiers for Young Minds (FYM). Passionate... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Online
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

3:00pm EDT

Re-Designing an International, Student-Led, Co-Curricular, Community-Engaged, Experiential Learning Project for OA

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33695

This design case details the development of an international, student-led, co-curricular, community-engaged, experiential learning project during its first two years, during which staff and faculty guided and mentored undergraduate students as they developed a process for mentoring young writers in the US and East Africa and creating an anthology of their stories. This project was later converted to an open access approach for creating OER.

I discuss critical challenges and successes regarding the design of the project that were made during this period, following the organization of teams for mentoring young writers, editing the anthology, raising funds for printing, and implementing an evaluation plan. I will focus specifically on the challenges and benefits of a minimally-funded project that placed much of the decision-making in the hands of the students.

The project lasted for twelve years and resulted in twelves volumes of stories in English and Kinyarwanda, many of which are available for free online. It wasn't until after the first twelve years that the project members considered OA approaches.

I conclude with implications for developing and converting to OA a project of this complexity and discuss the successes and failures that the project encountered during the first two years of its implementation (2008-2010) and beyond. I discuss the current emphasis of the project on preparing educators to create OA juvenile titles that can be adapted and translated into underserved languages.

Speakers

Beth Lewis Samuelson

Associate Professor, Indiana University Bloomington

Beth Lewis Samuelson is Associate Professor in the Indiana University Bloomington School of Education, with distinguished contributions in service, teaching, and research and 20 years of experience in higher education. Her research specializations include language awareness and language... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:35pm EDT

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

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

2 - Salon M - 7th Floor

ID: 32593

As museums and archives increasingly release digital collections under open licenses, millions of cultural heritage objects are now freely accessible online. Yet their pedagogical potential remains largely untapped, and educators often face challenges discovering, contextualizing, and integrating these materials into teaching.

Since its launch in 2022, Curationist enables global users to search more than 5.4 million objects from the open-access collections of museums and archives worldwide, connecting curious minds to the histories, stories, and ideas these works inspire. Building on this foundation, Curationist is developing Open Educational Resources (OER) that activate museum collections for use in educational settings.

This work responds to persistent gaps in educational materials about cultural heritage in regions shaped by colonization and political conflict. Cultural heritage in these contexts is often vulnerable to loss, displacement, and contested interpretation. At the same time, curricula frequently simplify these histories or rely on archival records shaped by colonial frameworks. Accessible resources that foreground Indigenous knowledge systems and multi-language cultural heritage remain limited.

This session shares Curationist’s approach to developing open educational materials for undergraduate students that explore cultural heritage and at-risk histories in times of conflict. Using openly licensed museum objects and archival materials, these resources encourage critical engagement with how conflict, colonization, and cultural resilience shape the preservation and interpretation of heritage.

Grounded in a collaborative and decolonial model of knowledge production, this initiative brings together educators, scholars, and community contributors to develop educational content while redistributing resources. By activating open museum collections for teaching and learning, this approach offers a model for expanding access to cultural heritage and democratizing knowledge through open education.

Speakers

Amanda Figueroa

Platform Director, Curationist Foundation

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

Nicole Malli

Community Director, Curationist

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

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

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

3:35pm EDT

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

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

7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor

ID: 33737

The #RhodesMustFall student protests of 2015 highlighted the alienation that students in South Africa experience at universities whose colonial origins still dominate institutional culture, resulting in societal and institutional injustices that make it challenging for students to transition to university (Luckett and Shay, 2017). Ten years on, despite a variety of institutional responses to address the issues, transformation is still a work in progress. Open education is considered a global response to address social injustices in Higher education (HE) such as lack of access to quality, localized, relevant teaching and learning materials. Interviews with open textbook authors and student co-creators have shown the authoring process enabled pedagogical change, collaboration with multiple authors and students (Cox et al. 2024).

Student voice was amplified and acknowledged during the protests. The inclusion of student voice can continue to bring about transformation and is essential for shaping conversations about the future of HE considering students are embedded in their lived realities and are uniquely placed to understand the needs of their communities. This presentation will address the question: How do we partner with students in OER authoring and bring students into conversation about open education and the future of higher education?

There is a growing body of literature describing student partnership but previous work has not included student recognition for co-creating curricula and course materials and how to bring students into conversation with open education practitioners. This presentation will introduce students as partner models and specifically relate them to openness. Three examples of partnership will be introduced, a University of Cape Town pilot project: student fellowships in Digital Open Textbooks for Development. An exciting example of student authorship process in open textbook production “Science is tough but so are you” (Willmers et al. in press). The UNITWIN network of Open Education (UNOE) will be described, including its objectives. The important new and different approach of UNOE has been to begin its collaborative multi-national work with a project enabling student voice.

Interviews were carried out with academic authors and students. Students also wrote their own reflections on their experiences. The current UNOE student fellowships project will include outputs and documents collected during the process and reflections of the student co-ordinator responsible for growing the student network.

Student fellowships at UCT highlighted the strong student voice concerned with issues of social justice and building sharing resources into future HE systems. The findings from interviews revealed the power of open textbook initiatives to serve as vehicles for promote multilingualism, ‘localisation’ (including translation), epistemic representation and institutional change (Masuku et al. 2025).

This presentation highlights a pathway for Open Education sustainability, renewed focus on epistemic justice through open education and students as partners. This research and practice has implications for democratising knowledge, authoring content for specific contexts and circumstance.

The UNESCO student fellows project is designed to build an open community of academics and students who can support and guide new types of content, knowledge and networks for sustainable open education with the aim of addressing epistemic injustice.

Speakers

Glenda Cox

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

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

Nico Pampier

Student, University of Caoe Town

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Online
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

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 Collaboration

From 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 Playbook

Academics 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 extensive experience in Academic Librarianship across Health and Sciences Faculties.. With a practical background in developing Open Educational Resources (OER), her work... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor 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

Cross-Institutional Assessment of Student Outcomes Associated with Course Material Cost in Massachusetts Public Higher Education

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 34006

Beginning in the 2021-2022 academic year, the Massachusetts Open and Low-Cost Educational Resource Advisory Committee (MA OLERAC) implemented a statewide process to collect and standardize data on no- and low-cost course materials. OLERAC coordinated with institutional research offices at each of the twenty-eight undergraduate-serving public institutions of higher education in Massachusetts to collect data. Institutions included community colleges, state universities, and the University of Massachusetts System.

The first year was a slow roll out with traditional data collection like cost savings and the number of no- or low-cost course sections offered to students. In subsequent years, data collection was expanded to include a comparison of student academic outcomes in courses with materials cost greater than $50 ("traditional"), less than $50 ("low-cost"), and $0 ("no-cost," including open educational resources, library and other free resources).

Productive (ABC) and non-productive (DFW) grades were tracked for each student in every course system-wide, comparing academic outcomes among courses with traditional, low-cost, and no-cost materials. Data were further disaggregated by race, gender, and Pell Grant eligibility.

In this session, we describe the process and challenges of large-scale, cross-institutional data collection and present two years of academic outcome data. Among Massachusetts public institutions, courses with no-cost materials are associated with lower DFW rates than courses with either traditional or low-cost materials. When the data are disaggregated, the correlation of improved course outcomes and no-cost course materials is consistent across almost all gender, race, and economic groups.

Together with numbers of low-cost and no-cost sections and course materials cost estimates, the system-wide academic outcome data show that the use of no-cost teaching and learning materials represents a cost-savings for students, offers faculty additional tools that may be customized to engage students, and is positively linked with student academic performance. That means students who enroll in such sections are better able to persist, increase enrollment intensity, and ultimately complete their degree at a lower cost.

Key takeaways from this session are a description of the types of OER data collected by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, strategies for cross-institutional data collection, and assessment of the impact of no- and low-cost course materials on course grades for students from diverse demographic backgrounds. We will also discuss how to identify key partners needed to effectively implement data collection processes within a State’s Department of Higher Education and how to develop strategies to address the data collection challenges experienced when data submission is not mandatory.

Speakers

Connie Strittmatter

Strategic Projects Librarian, Fitchburg State University

Connie Strittmatter is the Strategic Projects Librarian at Fitchburg State University. In her current position, she supports Fitchburg State’s open and affordable education initiative by delivering workshops on OER topics, working individually with faculty to incorporate OER into... Read More →

Amanda Simons

Professor and Chair of Biology, Framingham State University

Amanda Simons is the Chair of Biology at Framingham State University. She is the author of Chromosomes, Genes, and Traits, an OER textbook written with the support from a ROTEL program grant. She is currently serving as a faculty fellow for the Massachusetts Department of Higher... 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 →

Emma Wood

Scholarly Communication Librarian, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Emma Wood is the Scholarly Communication Librarian at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth. She encourages the adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) among faculty and helps students understand and access OER materials. She serves as a member of the Massachusetts Department... Read More →

Robert Awkward

Assistant Commissioner for Academic Effectiveness, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Emily Alling

Associate Dean, Library Services, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts

Emily Alling is the Associate Dean for Library Services at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts and leads the open and affordable textbook in initiative at her institution. She is a member of the Massachusetts Open and Low Cost Educational Resources... Read More →

Suzanne Smith

Director of Research and Evaluation, Massachusetts Department of Higher Education

Suzanne Smith is the Director of Research and Evaluation at MA Department of Higher Education. She liaises with the Massachusetts Open and Low Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC) Assessment Committee to collect OER key performance indicator data from the 28 public... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:35pm EDT

The Content Mafia: How Publishers Weaponize Copyright to Control Educational Resources

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33913

This session examines eight common practices in educational publishing—edition cycling, access codes and DRM, regional pricing, bundling, inclusive access programs, copyright term extensions, orphan works, and author rights transfer—and explores how Open Educational Resources offer structural alternatives to each challenge. Rather than focusing on what's broken, we'll demonstrate what's possible when educational materials are designed for access from the start.

For each publishing practice, we'll show how OER provides concrete solutions: continuous community updates replace fixed edition cycles; open formats work offline and across devices; zero-cost access eliminates currency fluctuations and affordability barriers; modular design lets instructors select exactly what students need rather than buying predetermined bundles transparent licensing prevents orphan works while protecting student privacy; and open licenses let authors retain control while enabling global adaptation and sharing.

This session confirms the work OER advocates are already doing while providing practical language and evidence for advancing open alternatives. We'll explore how different business models serve different purposes, examine which practices create barriers to educational access, and equip participants with tools to advocate effectively for student-centered approaches in their own contexts.

Attendees will leave with actionable strategies, international examples, and a framework for discussing educational materials that centers learning outcomes and equitable access.

Speakers

Beth Chenette

Associate Librarian, Texas A&M University Libraries

Elizabeth Chenette is an Associate Librarian, member of the OpenEd team, and Reserve Services Coordinator at Texas A&M University Libraries in College Station, Texas. With an MLS from the University of North Texas, Elizabeth has worked in higher education for 13+ years. She has Creative... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:20pm EDT

Designed for Humans: Invitations and Boundaries for the Future of Open Courses

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 33860

Designed for Humans: Invitations and Boundaries for the Future of Open Courses explores strategies to move open education beyond static content delivery toward human-centered, equitable learning design that reinforces course integrity while navigating both the promise and pressure of generative AI. Framed through the lens of "invitations" and "boundaries," we highlight course design as an expansion of and integration with OER textbooks.

Grounded in research on learner engagement, equity, and Universal Design for Learning, this model was developed and refined in a diverse community college setting with 13,000 students, but the model is adaptable. We invite attendees to bring their institutional contexts, student populations, and constraints to the conversation, and choose what to reuse, revise, remix, or set aside.

Invitations and Boundaries Explained

"Invitations" encourage students to actively participate, identify content relevance, and build confidence. "Boundaries" preserve course integrity, protect learning outcomes, and keep students on track. When thoughtfully designed, they make open education more usable, supportive, and equitable.

The Course as OER

Building on our “Designed for Humans” work with faculty and institutions, we share a course-as-OER model, treating the course as an intentionally-curated learning experience that includes:

Curated, interactive engagement activities tied to OER content
Relevance to students' lived experiences
Focused videos and strategic OER textbook excerpts
Localized content that reflects and speaks to student populations
Low-stakes assessments to reinforce understanding
Authentic assessments that build resumes, college applications, and scholarship possibilities

These elements broaden access to knowledge while encouraging active participation rather than passive consumption or AI shortcuts.

A Repeatable Module Pattern

Each module follows a consistent, scaffolded structure:

Engagement activity - invites immediate connection, introduces concepts

2-minute journal - includes a quick knowledge check with questions drawn from the activity

Curated OER content - aligned to learning objectives

Lightning lecture - 3-5 minutes, targeted and specific

Anonymous poll - low-stakes engagement, formative feedback

Curated OER content - second touchpoint reinforcing the concept

Lightning lecture - 3-5 minutes

Quiz - question pools created from unique OER and video content

Discussion board video post - students apply initial learning
Following module - students revisit initial post and respond using newly-learned content and collaborative problem-solving

This module pattern creates a rhythm that helps students get into the flow. As one student noted, “Once I got started, I didn’t want to stop. I just had to see the next module’s (engagement activity), and before I knew it, I was halfway done with the next module.”

For Every Learner, Everywhere

OER gives educators the instructional material; intentional course design integrates that material with purpose. Both matter deeply as institutions worldwide serve learners with differing levels of preparation, confidence, time, access, and technological fluency.

Attendees will leave with a course framework, examples, and revision ideas they can apply, adapt, and share across disciplines, institutions, and borders. OER works best not as a textbook substitute, but as a foundation for a learning experience that meets students where they are. By reimagining what openness looks like in practice, this session offers a path toward open courses that are truly designed for humans.

Speakers

Claire Sparklin

Professional Faculty: Communication, Washtenaw Community College

Claire Sparklin is a Communication Faculty member at Washtenaw Community College in Michigan and a former instructional designer whose work centers on AI, instructional design, Open Educational Resources (OER), and authentic student engagement. In addition to her college teaching... Read More →

Michelle Westerdale

Learning Experience Designer, Washtenaw Community College

Michelle Westerdale is a Learning Experience Designer at Washtenaw Community College in Michigan. She partners with faculty to create online courses focused on authentic student experience, current pedagogy, and sustainable course design. She brings together her background as a teacher... Read More →

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

Presentation

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

4:20pm EDT

For the Benefit of All: Rethinking OER Access Through Discoverability and Student Navigation

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33697

Open Educational Resources (OER) and Zero Textbook Cost (ZTC) pathways are often presented as equity-minded solutions for reducing financial barriers in higher education. Across California Community Colleges, substantial institutional effort has gone into course conversion, pathway mapping, funding, and reporting. Yet an important practical question remains: even when OER or ZTC options exist, can students actually find them, understand them, and intentionally choose them within the systems they use to plan and register for classes? This session examines that gap between institutional availability and student-facing usability.

Drawing on findings from a mixed-methods ZTC Degree Feasibility Study involving 19 participating California community colleges, this presentation shares findings from an exploratory convergent design that integrates three sources of evidence: a multi-institutional student survey on awareness, preferences, and decision-making; student focus groups on navigation strategies and barriers; and semi-structured interviews with counselors, faculty, IT professionals, and administrators on operational feasibility. Together, these sources allow us to compare what institutions say is available with what students are realistically able to perceive and navigate.

Across the data, several patterns emerged. Many students do not recognize the terms “OER” or “ZTC,” even when they are enrolled in courses that meet those definitions. Students consistently express interest in lower-cost and no-cost options, but cost is only actionable when it is visible, trustworthy, and easy to interpret at the moment of decision-making. Students also report confusion when labels are unclear or inconsistent, and some describe enrolling in courses marked ZTC or OER that still required payment for course materials.

These findings suggest that access is not only a question of whether open options exist, but whether those options are embedded in student-facing systems in ways that support confidence, choice, and follow-through.

This session introduces the concept of ambient discoverability: the idea that students should be able to identify and pursue OER and ZTC options without needing prior insider knowledge or familiarity with specialized terminology. Framed this way, OER access becomes not just a content issue, but a system design issue involving registration interfaces, degree planning tools, advising workflows, scheduling practices, and reliable backend data.

Participants will leave with a practical framework for evaluating discoverability in their own settings and with concrete strategies for improving student-centered implementation.

By reframing access through discoverability, navigation, and trust, this session speaks directly to the conference theme of protecting knowledge as a public good and ensuring that open education functions in practice, not only in principle. Open education is not fully open if only students with insider knowledge can find their way to it.

Speakers

Cheryl Bailey

Instruction & Systems Librarian, Irvine Valley College

Cheryl Bailey, MLIS, MA, is an Instruction and Systems Librarian whose work centers on equitable access to higher education, particularly for neurodiverse students. She earned her MLIS from San José State University and her MA from California State University, Long Beach, and is... Read More →

Rachel Fleming

OER & Equity Librarian, Irvine Valley College

Rachel Fleming, MLIS, is the OER and Equity Librarian at Irvine Valley College. She earned her MLIS from San José State University and is currently completing her first year in the CSU Channel Islands Doctorate in Educational Leadership for Equity and Justice (DELEJ) program. Over... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:20pm EDT

The Structural Value of Openness: Open Infrastructure for Public Good

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

ID: 34004

Broadly conceived, open education is a collection of values and practices that seek to create, share, and expand access to knowledge for the public good. The work of open education happens in many ways across higher education. Faculty and students teach and learn with OER, librarians guide us through knowledge discovery and cataloging processes, and staff develop and support programming to cultivate communities of practice. Often these practices are disjointed across the institution and rarely connected to a university’s wider mission.

However, at the City University of New York, the development of the CUNY Academic Commons demonstrates the structural value of openness: how openness can serve as an infrastructural commitment and guiding principle for an institution and the knowledge that it produces.

Using the City University of New York as a case study, and in particular the open-source technological infrastructure of the CUNY Academic Commons, this presentation will explore how open infrastructure supports inclusive, student-centered pedagogical approaches, fosters faculty, staff, and student agency in knowledge creation, and connects the work within the university to its mission to serve the public good.

The City University of New York is the largest urban public institution of higher education in the United States, comprising 26 colleges spread across the five boroughs of New York City. Founded as the Free Academy 1847, CUNY has a history of openness and activism. The university’s foundational principle contends that higher education should be accessible to all the city’s residents, and despite persistent lack of funding and chronic austerity, CUNY continues to provide affordable access to higher education and serve as a transformative engine of social mobility for all New Yorkers.

In 2009, a group of CUNY faculty, staff, and graduate students used the open-source software frameworks WordPress and BuddyPress to launch the CUNY Academic Commons, a digital platform to “support faculty initiatives and build community through the use(s) of technology in teaching and learning.” Over the years, and more recently with OER funding from New York State, the CUNY Academic Commons has grown to over 50,000 users who have built 40,000+ websites and administer over 2,200 groups.

In addition to the Commons, other projects have emerged across CUNY, creating an open-source ecosystem and community of practice that develops alternatives to corporate, siloed tools for teaching and learning at CUNY.

As a community-developed and maintained platform, the CUNY Academic Commons evolves in response to users' needs and desires. Faculty teach and students take courses, some of which involve co-developing projects and public-facing resources. University staff create websites to publicize their departments and research centers. Graduate students create personalized portfolios to share their academic and non-academic work. Colleagues leverage groups to share research projects and connect across the city.

This presentation will detail how the openness and flexibility of the CUNY Academic Commons gives us a vision of what a university for the public good is and could be: diverse communities of practice facilitating and engaging in the creation of knowledge for all.

Speakers

Laurie Hurson

Assistant Director of Open Education, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY)

Laurie Hurson is the Assistant Director of Open Education at the CUNY Graduate Center's Teaching and Learning Center, where she focuses on faculty development and the implementation of open educational practices. She develops and leads initiatives including the Open Education Publishing... Read More →

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

Presentation

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

4:55pm EDT

Augmenting Open Educational Resources at Scale: AI-Driven Approaches to Adoption, Adaptation, and Distribution

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

6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

ID: 34028

Artificial intelligence (AI) is ushering in a significant shift in education, introducing systems capable of adapting to learners with unprecedented precision and immediacy. Rather than functioning as static tools, AI-driven platforms now provide context-aware guidance, personalized learning pathways, and real-time feedback that reshape how knowledge is acquired and applied. While these advances can enhance instructional effectiveness and deepen student engagement, they also raise critical concerns about access, as unequal availability risks widening existing gaps in educational opportunity.

This presentation examines a new initiative from LibreTexts, a widely adopted, not-for-profit platform, that advances the integration of AI into open educational resources to create a scalable, adaptive, and equitable learning ecosystem. The initiative develops and deploys a comprehensive suite of intelligent tools across the LibreVerse, including context-aware AI tutors embedded within digital textbooks, automated generation and evaluation of formative homework, AI-assisted writing and research support, AI-guided coding and data science tools within Jupyter environments, and AI-enabled social annotation to foster deeper collaboration and engagement.

The initiative is organized around five core development areas:
(I) AI tutor–enhanced textbooks providing contextualized, always-available guidance grounded in vetted OER;
(II) AI-supported homework systems enabling scalable question generation and automated evaluation;
(III) AI-assisted writing tools supporting both student learning and instructor content creation;
(IV) AI-integrated coding and data science environments enabling collaborative problem-solving; and
(V) AI-enhanced social annotation to strengthen interaction, comprehension, and critical thinking.

Complementing these advances are robust faculty development programs that support effective adoption and adaptation, alongside a rigorous assessment framework to evaluate learning outcomes, user experience, and system performance for continuous improvement. The anticipated result is a nationally scalable, openly accessible AI-powered ecosystem that improves student comprehension, engagement, and achievement while reducing equity gaps through free, personalized learning support. Instructors benefit from integrated tools for content creation, assessment, analytics, and pedagogy. Grounded in transparency and openness, the initiative establishes a trustworthy AI infrastructure enabling seamless interoperability across textbooks, assessment systems, coding environments, writing tools, and collaborative platforms.

This initiative it builds on the proven foundation of the LibreVerse, reaches a truly global audience, and operates under a mission-driven, nonprofit model that maximizes impact. LibreTexts has an established record of developing transformative educational technology and high-quality content for post-secondary learning, with current engagement levels reaching roughly 250 million student interactions per year. This scale enables new AI-driven capabilities to be deployed and adopted rapidly.

As a nonprofit dedicated to broad dissemination of OER and open-source tools, LibreTexts removes profit-driven barriers, ensuring innovations can be distributed widely, quickly, and at minimal cost.

The project is also innovative in both design and implementation. Its integration within the LibreVerse leverages one of the world’s largest OER repositories, creating a powerful feedback loop of rapid deployment, widespread adoption, and continuous refinement based on authentic learning behavior. Key technical innovations include context-aware AI systems trained on open educational content and aligned with pedagogical best practices, cross-platform interoperability across the entire ecosystem, and transparent development pipelines that allow educators and researchers to audit, extend, and adapt the tools.

Speakers

Delmar Larsen

Professor and CEO, University of California, Davis and LibreTexts

Delmar Larsen is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Davis, and a leading advocate for open education. He is the founder and CEO of the LibreTexts project, one of the world’s largest open educational resource (OER) platforms, providing freely accessible, customizable... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
6 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:55pm EDT

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

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33905

What if openness meant more than access?

Open education has made knowledge available to millions — but availability is not transformation. This interactive session introduces the CARE–KNOW–DO framework: a decade in the making, empirically validated across four continents, and built on a deceptively simple proposition: that responsible values, open knowledge, and sustainable action are not separate goals but a single, integrated process of meaningful learning.

Who this session is for

Researchers, project coordinators, and network leaders who design, study, or advocate for open education — and who want models that do more than describe openness, but actually operationalise it by catalysing its impact.

The problem we're addressing

Open education has a well-documented gap: it excels at content delivery but rarely connects affective-cognitive learning with social responsibility and real-world action. Curricula align with SDGs on paper; learners rarely feel it in practice. CARE–KNOW–DO was built specifically to close that gap.

What CARE–KNOW–DO is — and what it has done

Developed across four major international projects — EC-funded weSPOT (2013–15), ENGAGE (2015–17), CONNECT (2020–24), and the ongoing METEOR (2025–) — the framework has evolved from early inquiry-based learning designs to AI-enhanced, socially impactful open education ecosystems. Its reach is not theoretical:

Implemented in 80+ schools across Latin America, Europe, and Africa.

Engaged 55,000+ learners, educators, and community partners, with particular reach into underserved regions

Demonstrated measurable gains in engagement, participation, and progression.

Extended to education in emergencies through the CatchUp programme — evidence of its relevance where equitable learning recovery matters most.

Recognised with the 2025 Open Education Award for Excellence (Open Practices — Open Pedagogy).

What makes it original

Most frameworks treat engagement, knowledge, and action as a sequence. CARE–KNOW–DO demonstrates — through large-scale empirical work — that they are interconnected dimensions, not steps. Change one and you change all three. That insight has direct consequences for how we design curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment across open education and digital transformation, including emerging technologies such as AI.

In practice, it means: real-life challenges tied to the SDGs, genuine co-creation of knowledge with families and communities, and ethical, critical engagement with emerging technologies — including AI-Unplugged approaches and human-led AI-supported knowledge mapping.

What you'll do in this session

This is not a presentation with a Q&A bolted on. You will:

Encounter the framework through international. implementation examples — including crisis contexts and AI-enhanced designs.
Share your own practices advancing Agenda 2030 and SDG-aligned research or proposals.
Apply structured reflection to map CARE–KNOW–DO onto your own institutional, network, or project context — including future proposals.
Leave with a concrete starting point — not just inspiration.

The bigger picture

By bridging research, policy, and practice, this session contributes to a shared and urgent question: what does open education owe the world beyond open access? The answer CARE–KNOW–DO proposes is both ambitious and achievable — and this session is the place to pilot it.

Speakers

Alexandra Okada

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

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:55pm EDT

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

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

8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

ID: 33726

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

Speakers

Werner Westermann

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

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:55pm EDT

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

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

7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor

ID: 33897

Most educational content is often created assuming that learning primarily happens through vision. My work in graphic design has been shaped by a related question: how can communication go beyond just vision? This question arose because I experienced a vision problem caused by retinal detachment. While visual approaches work for many people, they can also create barriers for learners with visual impairments and for contexts where visual access is limited or unreliable. This session explores how graphic design can expand open content by engaging touch, material, and physical interaction.

Drawing from practice-based research in tactile and multisensory design, the presentation introduces methods for creating accessible learning materials that go beyond visual methods. Examples include 3D-printed tactile graphics, embossed typographic systems, and hands-on learning tools that can be produced using accessible fabrication techniques and shared as open resources. These approaches demonstrate how design can turn information into physical forms, enabling learners to access content through multiple sensory channels.

This session positions accessibility not only as a requirement, but as a generative strategy for innovating open content. Open education has made significant progress in improving access through open licensing and digital distribution. However, much of this content remains visually dependent. Expanding open content to include tactile and multisensory formats can better support diverse learners, including those with visual impairments, as well as those working in environments where screens, bandwidth, or visual attention are limited.

The presentation will address how these materials can be shared, adapted, and reproduced. By sharing design files, utilizing common tools like desktop 3D printers or embossing techniques, and encouraging local adaptation, educators and practitioners can create context-responsive learning materials. This method supports the larger goals of open education by supporting not only access, but also participation and co-creation.

Attendees will gain an understanding of how graphic design can help develop new types of open content that are inclusive, adaptable, and scalable. The session encourages participants to rethink the role of design in open education, not just as a tool for visual communication, but as a way to shape how knowledge is experienced, shared, and understood across different sensory and material conditions.

Speakers

Taekyeom Lee

Associate Professor of Graphic Design, Indiana University Bloomington

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:55pm - 5:25pm EDT
7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

5:30pm EDT

Beyond Epistemicide: The Polymath Protocol for Decentralized Knowledge Creation in the Global South

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

7 - Dining Room 5 - 6th Floor

ID: 33364

The global open education movement has successfully removed financial paywalls for millions of learners. However, by focusing primarily on access to content rather than the origin of content, we have inadvertently created a system of "epistemicide" in the Global South. When a student in Nigeria or India is taught to see the world predominantly through the lens of Western-centric case studies, educational materials, and academic canons, education transitions from a process of liberation to one of cultural assimilation. This creates a global monoculture of thought that devalues localized problem-solving frameworks, indigenous knowledge systems, and regional languages.

This session directly challenges the foundational premise of modern open education: that the mere distribution of Global North content is inherently an objective good. We will examine how hard metrics prove this disparity. With over 75% of research articles published in English and less than 5% of major open educational resources originating from authors based in the Global South, we are training the next generation of thinkers to solve the problems of the West rather than the urgent issues facing their own communities.

The primary goal of this session is to pivot the conversation from OER 1.0 (access to existing materials) to OER 2.0 (local agency and decentralized authorship). To achieve this, I will introduce "The Polymath Protocol"—a theoretical, decentralized epistemic infrastructure designed to invert the current flow of global knowledge.

We will explore how this protocol leverages non-proprietary, open-source networking to connect regional "Knowledge Hubs." Furthermore, we will dive into how emerging technologies, such as federated AI models, can be trained locally on indigenous data and regional dialects. This ensures that learners are not subject to the algorithmic bias and cultural homogenization inherent in monolithic, centralized tech giants.

By moving away from a top-down, one-way funnel of expertise, the Polymath Protocol offers a viable architectural alternative that prioritizes cognitive diversity and true epistemic justice.

Key Takeaways for Attendees:

A Critical Framework: Attendees will learn to critically evaluate the "open-washing" of research and recognize the hidden cultural tax imposed on non-Western learners by the current academic hierarchy.

Actionable Technical Alternatives: Participants will explore the mechanics of federated AI and decentralized storage as practical tools for preserving linguistic and intellectual diversity in digital education.

Policy and Advocacy Strategies: Educators and policymakers will gain insights into the structural shifts required to fund local knowledge creators, move toward credit interoperability, and foster a truly democratic, multi-centered global knowledge ecosystem.

This session is designed for educators, technologists, and advocates who believe that the future of human learning should not be a corporate monoculture, but a rich, resilient, and localized ecosystem of diverse ideas.

Speakers

Dhairya Chauhan

Computational Physics Researcher & AICTE Ideation Lab Contributor, Earth School

Dhairya Chauhan is an emerging researcher and AICTE Ideation Lab Fellow whose work sits at the intersection of computational physics, mathematical modeling, and the future of equitable education. Shared by the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) for his contributions... Read More →

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

Presentation

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

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 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor

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

Anabel de la Rosa

National Autonomous University of Mexico

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

Research & Development Project Department Manager (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 - Dining Room 4 - 6th Floor 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 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor

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

Jenna Makowski

Senior Product Manager, Open edX Platform, Open edX, Axim Collaborative

Jenna Makowski has led the product organization for the Open edX project since 2022.

Thursday October 8, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
8 - Dining Room 6 - 6th Floor 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

Open as a Strategic Imperative for Sustaining Public Systems

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

5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor

ID: 33427

When public institutions work together and pool resources to address common curriculum and educational technology needs, there are many benefits. These collaborative projects can leverage collective expertise, generate efficiencies, and distribute workload and costs.

This session looks at the findings from a two-year initiative in British Columbia, Canada, that investigated models and mechanisms for enabling this kind of institutional collaboration.

We will explore key things that foster and sustain collaborative ventures as well as the structural barriers, and make a case for investing in open approaches on a system level, including open communities, technologies, content, and infrastructure.

Speakers

Josie Gray

Interim Director, Open Education, BCcampus

Josie Gray (she/her) is the Interim Director of Open Education at BCcampus, where she leads a team that develops and implements initiatives that advance open education practices in the B.C. post-secondary system. She is passionate about accessibility, open, and thinking critically... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
5 - Dining Room 3 - 6th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

OEGlobal 2026

From $195.00

Success you have shared X tickets.

10:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

10:30am EDT

11:05am EDT

11:05am EDT

11:05am EDT

11:05am EDT

11:05am EDT

11:50am EDT

11:50am EDT

11:50am EDT

11:50am EDT

11:50am EDT

12:25pm EDT

12:25pm EDT

12:25pm EDT

12:25pm EDT

12:25pm EDT

1:40pm EDT

1:40pm EDT

1:40pm EDT

1:40pm EDT

1:40pm EDT

2:15pm EDT

2:15pm EDT

2:15pm EDT

2:15pm EDT

2:15pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:00pm EDT

3:35pm EDT

3:35pm EDT

3:35pm EDT

3:35pm EDT

3:35pm EDT

4:20pm EDT

4:20pm EDT

4:20pm EDT

4:55pm EDT

4:55pm EDT

4:55pm EDT

4:55pm EDT

5:30pm EDT

5:30pm EDT

5:30pm EDT

5:30pm EDT