OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

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10:30am EDT

Feminist Pedagogy as Liberatory Practice

Friday October 9, 2026 10:30am - 11:35am EDT

ID: 34013

Equity and inclusion have recently become contentious topics on college campuses, but in the classroom, the expectation for student-centered learning remains constant. As educators navigate the tension between increased scrutiny of their teaching practices and eroding higher education institutions, pedagogy is at an inflection point. Institutional incentives to perpetuate the status quo abound; now more than ever, the educational is political.This panel calls for an analysis of power in and outside the classroom, and a confrontation of the patriarchal and oppressive underpinnings of traditional pedagogy. Despite a renewed focus on inclusion in the classroom, many teaching practices still center the professor-as-expert; promote a canon of white, Western-centric ways of knowing; and perpetuate a violent culture of individualism. Mainstream discourse around student-centered learning tends to reinforce hegemonic power structures and place the burden of change on educators rather than on institutions. To foster learning environments that are marked by belonging, agency, and connection, and to prepare students for an increasingly complex society, inclusive teaching practices must be accompanied by an analysis of power, both in the classroom and in the world around them.Feminist pedagogy is a framework that places questions of power, inequality, and justice at the center of teaching. Feminist scholar and educator bell hooks, informed by Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, defined feminist pedagogy as a liberatory practice that fosters critical thinking and provides students with the tools to question inequality and social structures. hooks framed the pursuit of learning as intertwined with the pursuit of liberation, and elevates educators as as catalysts for transformation who should foster love and justice. There is no precise formula for practicing feminist pedagogy; it comprises a set of unifying themes such as reducing the classroom power gap, viewing students as active participants in their education, addressing systems of oppression, and challenging those systems through a democratized classroom.This panel aims to highlight ways in which feminist pedagogical practices are currently shaping education, and explore ethical and practical challenges that educators face in their teaching. Emerging from the collaborative book project Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design (MIT Press, 2023), which illuminates design as a feminist practice, we propose a moderated dialogue featuring five educators working at the intersections of art, design, and technology, each from diverse backgrounds and institutions in and outside the U.S. Each panelist arrives at this conversation through the unique lens of their own identities and experiences as educators, administrators, practicing designers, mothers, social workers, queer folx, and people of color. Topics to be addressed include power relations in the classroom; care as a pedagogical method; culturally responsive mentorship; curricula and projects that center social justice; where feminist and decolonial perspectives merge; and enacting change within institutions. Panelists will share a plurality of approaches to implementing feminist ways of knowing and doing in the classroom that could be applicable to any discipline. With an emphasis on collaboration and community, we aim to generate an open dialogue about education as a liberatory practice for both students and educators.

Speakers

Heather Snyder Quinn

Associate Professor, DePaul University

Heather Snyder Quinn, MFA is an Associate Professor of Design and Civics Institute Teacher-Scholar. She was named a 2024 “Researcher to Know” by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and serves on the board of directors for DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional... Read More →

Ayako Takase

Associate Professor, Rhode Island School of Design

Ayako Takase is a designer and educator who centers their practice on creating experiences and objects that foster meaningful, emotive connections with people, culture, and audiences. Her life is a mixture of east and west—her early upbringing in Japan fostered an appreciation of... Read More →

Jeff Kasper

Associate Professor, UMass Amherst

Jeff Kasper is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and educator, specializing in public art, design, community education, and social engagement. He creates text-based projects, experimental publications, games, audio storytelling, open editions, exhibitions, and workshops, often... Read More →

Alison Place

Assistant Professor Educator, University of Cincinnati

Alison Place is a designer, educator, and writer whose work explores the intersection of design and feminist theory as a space for critical making and radical speculation. She is the author of Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design (MIT Press 2023), which illuminates... Read More →

Sarah Rutherford

Associate Professor, Cleveland State University

Sarah Rutherford is an Associate Professor of Design and the Undergraduate Director of Design at Cleveland State University and a former President of AIGA Cleveland. She researches, writes, and speaks about pedagogy and learning in higher education. She holds a Master of Fine Arts... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 10:30am - 11:35am EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

11:50am EDT

Future of Openness: A Human-in-the-Loop Framework for Agentic OER

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 34020

As generative AI reshapes the educational landscape, the open education community faces a critical crossroads: Will technology automate the student experience, or can we "invent" new practices that safeguard the human element of learning? This panel discussion invites participants to explore a transformative "Human-in-the-Loop" (HITL) framework for assessment. Rooted in AI engineering but reimagined for the classroom, the HITL model ensures that technology acts as a supportive tool for student growth rather than a "black box" replacement for intellectual effort.By innovating open practices that prioritize the learning process over the final output, we uphold knowledge as a public good and ensure that student agency remains the heartbeat of open education. This discussion introduces a dual-tool pedagogical framework designed to foster a resilient learning process. We will discuss our experiences on how two specific tools—The Forge and Discuss-It—work in tandem to transition OER from passive content delivery to an Agentic OER model. In this model, the "loop" of learning is anchored by the student rather than the algorithm. Rather than deploying writing analytics as a tool for surveillance, The Forge reinvents them as a transparency engine, shifting the power back to the student to document and own their creative writing process. It allows students to visualize the evolution of their work, documenting the iterative steps of their thought process. We will discuss how this shift to Agentic AI principles empowers students to treat their intellectual labor as a valuable public contribution. By making the "messy" stages of drafting visible, we make the use of "black box" automation less appealing and highlight the intrinsic value of human effort. Complementing The Forge, Discuss-It is a multimodal interaction platform that fosters authentic communication by integrating audio and video threaded dialogues directly into the learning path. This tool breaks down the text-heavy barriers that often isolate online learners, transforming assessment into an active, humanized exchange of ideas. Together, these tools form a HITL framework where the student remains the primary author and navigator of their progress, supported—but not supplanted—by emergent technology.Participants will engage with the "Come Invent With Us!" call to action by examining how these tools prevent the commodification of student data and protect the privacy of the learning journey. By centering assessment on the authentic human process, we offer a provocation to the field: to invent a future where Agentic OER does not hide the student behind a prompt, but instead illuminates the brilliance of their individual progress.

Speakers

Sarah Harmon

OER/ZTC Program Manager and Adjunct Professor of Linguistics, Cañada College

Dr. Sarah Harmon is the OER/ZTC Program Manager and Adjunct Professor of Linguistics at Cañada College in Redwood City, California. She brings experience in AI, OER, and faculty development across multiple college contexts. Her work focuses on practical, scalable approaches that... Read More →

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 →

Michelle Pilati

Professor and Open Education Resource Initiative Director, Rio Hondo College

Michelle Pilati is a Professor of Psychology at Rio Hondo College and a recognized leader in open education and online learning within the California Community Colleges system. She has served as faculty at Rio Hondo since 1999 and has extensive experience teaching in online and hybrid... Read More →

Shagun Kaur

Faculty and ZTC Grants Coordinator, De Anza College

Shagun Kaur is a Communication Studies faculty member at De Anza College and a statewide leader in open educational resources (OER) and zero-textbook-cost (ZTC) initiatives through the ASCCC OERI. Her work focuses on building sustainable, faculty-driven pathways that expand access... Read More →

Cristina Moon

Professor, Chabot College

Cristina Moon, Ph.D. is a Professor of Spanish at Chabot College, where she has been a full-time faculty member since 2006. She earned her B.A. in Spanish Literature from University of California, Berkeley and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from University... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

11:50am EDT

Who Maintains the Commons? A Hybrid Panel on Hacking OER for Shared Stewardship

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33906

If open educational resources are to serve the public good in fields where knowledge shifts from semester to semester, we must stop treating them like books and start treating them as commons that require ongoing care. This hybrid panel brings together OER authors, administrators, and platform developers to hash out what it would actually take to build infrastructures for shared maintenance and governance—economically, technologically, and culturally. Our starting provocation comes from recently published work on OER as dynamic digital commons (Daly, Ahmad, & Schneider, 2026). The panel uses that work as a shared reference point, but panelists will bring their own experiences to bear from authoring, administering, and building the tools that hold OER together.Three clusters of questions will structure the conversation. First, on economic flows: why does funding still stop at creation and one-way adoption, and what would it look like for grants, consortial dues, or platforms like Open Collective to sustain maintenance labor over years rather than weeks? Second, on technology: current OER platforms are designed for publication and adaptation rather than collaboration, lacking the version control, upstream contribution, and contributor identification features that open source communities rely on. What would it take for platforms to integrate these affordances without losing the accessibility that has made tools like Pressbooks successful? Third, on culture: how do we shift adopter expectations from passive reading to active participation, and what role should governance documents inside OER themselves play in signaling that shift?Audience engagement is central to the session design. After brief opening positions from each panelist (roughly fifteen minutes total), the moderator will open the floor using a hybrid-friendly format that blends live microphone questions with a shared online document and chat channel, so that in-person and remote attendees contribute on equal footing. We will pose two or three targeted prompts to the audience, for example, asking participants to name one maintenance obstacle they have encountered in their own work, and feed responses back into the panel discussion live.By the end of the session, attendees will have heard multiple grounded perspectives on challenges to OER maintenance, a working vocabulary for discussing OER as dynamic digital commons, and a short list of concrete next steps they can bring back to their own institutions, platforms, and funding bodies.

Speakers

Nathan Schneider

Associate Professor, Department of Media Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

Nathan Schneider is an associate professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he leads the Media Economies Design Lab and the MA program in Media and Public Engagement. He is the author of four books, most recently Governable Spaces: Democratic Design for... Read More →

Cheryl Casey

Open Education Librarian, University of Arizona

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

Diana Daly

Associate Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, College of Information Science, University of Arizona

Dr. Diana Daly has authored open educational resources including Humans R Social Media and Decoding Deception, and a scholar in information science focused on literacies in new media technologies including artificial intelligence, and on information trust, misinformation, and information... 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 →

Nancy A. Henke

Open Education Librarian, University of Colorado Denver

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

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:55pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

1:40pm EDT

From Collections to Classrooms: Unlocking Cultural Heritage for Open Education

Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 35081

Millions of cultural heritage objects from museums, archives, and community collections have been digitized and made openly available. This growing body of open access material has already enabled new forms of research and discovery. For example, scientists have used digitized butterfly collections to track the impacts of climate change over time.Yet these collections are rarely designed with educators in mind. Educators, in turn, often lack the tools, context, and pathways needed to meaningfully incorporate these materials into teaching and learning. The result is a paradox: a vast and valuable body of open knowledge remains underused, even as demand for adaptable, culturally grounded learning resources continues to grow.This session invites participants to explore a central question:What would it take for open cultural heritage to become active building blocks for teaching and learning?Drawing on Curationist’s work at the intersection of museums, open knowledge, and digital access, this session will examine the structural, technical, and pedagogical barriers that limit reuse. These include challenges related to metadata quality, rights clarity, platform design, discoverability, and the lack of educator-centered pathways for engagement.Through a combination of framing, case examples, and facilitated discussion, participants will explore how educators, cultural institutions, and open education practitioners can work together to bridge these gaps. The session will surface practical insights and shared challenges across sectors, with a focus on moving from access to meaningful use.Participants will be invited to reflect on their own experiences and contribute ideas for tools, practices, and collaborations that could better connect open collections with open education ecosystems. The goal is not only to identify barriers, but to begin outlining a more integrated and participatory approach to open knowledge—one where cultural heritage materials are not just available, but actively used, adapted, and brought into learning environments.

Speakers

Jennryn Wetzler

Director of Learning and Training, Creative Commons

Jennryn Wetzler leads global learning and training initiatives at Creative Commons, with a focus on open education, copyright, and equitable access to knowledge. She works with educators, institutions, and governments to support the adoption and effective use of open educational resources... Read More →

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 →

Christian Dawson

Executive Director, Curationist Foundation

Christian Dawson is Executive Director of the Curationist Foundation and a leader in advancing open access to cultural heritage. His work focuses on connecting museum collections with broader digital knowledge ecosystems to support more inclusive and meaningful public engagement... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

Speaker Modality Hybrid
Track Innovating Open Content to Democratize Knowledge

2:15pm EDT

Generative AI for Mathematics Open Educational Resources: Developer and Educator Perspectives

Friday October 9, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33183

This panel will report about an ongoing project about generative AI in OER use and creation in mathematics. Each speaker will share about their specific areas of responsibility and findings from the project. Cristina Heffernan will present about the ASSISTments platform. ASSISTments is a Standards-aligned math practice and assessment solution that provides timely feedback to students and data to teachers. This data is used by teachers to inform their formative assessment practices. We feel that formative assessment should be integrated into tier one (whole-class, grade-level) instruction. The introduction of a highly rated and used open educational resource, Illustrative Mathematics, has enabled us to do just that. This presentation will share our story from a research project to a competitive product in the K-12 market, supporting the implementation of Illustrative Mathematics in schools that want a proven tech solution.Candace Walkington will present on ideas for using generative AI in OER creation. Generative AI introduces new possibilities for creating open educational resources that are tailored to learners’ interests, experiences, and learning needs. I will discuss how our team is implementing systems for AI-powered context personalization of math problems into OER, as well as systems for integrating AI-generated visuals into OER. Such approaches can improve the quality and relevance of OER materials, both in K-12 and in higher education. They can allow students to better be engaged by and understand difficult mathematical tasks.Jiabao Wen will present on interviews with educators on using generative AI for visuals in OER. Both K-12 mathematics teachers and college mathematics instructors often use problems in their courses that involve visuals – images that show math properties or relationships, or that illustrate real-world contexts. AI offers new opportunities for educators to generate new visuals for mathematics learning on-the-fly, to support their students’ needs. I will discuss a series of 30 interviews we conducted with mathematics instructors who use OER where they described their needs related to AI image generation to accompany OER materials, and tested and reacted to current AI image generation approaches.Virginia Clinton-Lisell will present on interviews with OER developers in this project. Ten mathematics OER developers were interviewed about their use of generative AI and tried AI tools for visual creation. Based on analyses of the interviews, there was varied adoption of AI tools by OER developers for their workflow process, with some enthusiastic about AI and others reporting little to no use. Common complaints about the generative AI tools demonstrated were the lack of accuracy and concerns that the images would not be accessible across functional diversity.

Speakers

Candace Walkington

Annette and Harold Simmons Centennial Chair and Professor, Southern Methodist University

Dr. Candace Walkington is an Annette and Harold Simmons Centennial Chair, Professor, in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University, specializing in mathematics education. Dr. Walkington conducts research on technology-enhanced approaches to mathematics... Read More →

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 →

Cristina Heffernan

Co-Executive Director and Co-Founder, ASSISTments

Cristina began her teaching career as a Peace Corps volunteer in Gabon, Africa. Since then she has felt at home working with and for educators with a special passion for middle school math. In 2003, Cristina was the go-to advisor for the work her husband Neil was starting at WPI... Read More →

Jiabao Wen

PhD student, Southern Methodist University

Jiabao Wen is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Southern Methodist University. His research focuses on generative AI in K–12 mathematics education, with particular attention to multimodal AI, visual representations, and the design of AI-supported learning... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

3:00pm EDT

Leading Openly, Reaching Widely: MOLLI Beyond Maryland

Friday October 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33061

Leading Openly, Reaching Widely: MOLLI Beyond MarylandWhat happens when a regional professional development institute opens its doors to the world? The Maryland Online Leadership Institute (MOLLI) is finding out.MOLLI is a project of MarylandOnline (MOL), a consortium of Maryland colleges and universities dedicated to advancing online learning through training and collaboration. Designed for online learning professionals at all career stages — from instructional designers and librarians to IT managers, faculty, and administrators — MOLLI develops leadership skills through an immersive, project-based curriculum grounded in inspiration, reflection, and real-world practice.At its core, MOLLI operates on a simple but powerful belief: leadership skills are learnable, and they are valuable at every level of an organization. Each cohort, which runs on a two-year cycle, brings together higher education professionals to build community, sharpen competencies, and tackle the evolving challenges facing online and technology-mediated learning.Now, MOLLI is evolving too.Originally focused on Maryland institutions, MOLLI has expanded its reach to serve professionals across the United States — and is actively working to grow its community even further, welcoming participants from beyond U.S. borders. This expansion reflects MOLLI's commitment to building a truly global community of practice for online learning leaders.Alongside this geographic growth, MOLLI has deepened the scope of its signature high-impact group projects — year-long collaborative endeavors where cohort participants apply their learning to real challenges in online education. This session highlights one such evolution: the intentional integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into project work, with a focus on creative outputs designed to increase student engagement.Whether you are an online learning professional looking to grow your leadership skills, an administrator seeking to replicate or partner with models like MOLLI, or an open education advocate curious about how OER and UDL intersect with professional development, this session offers practical insights and an open invitation to join a growing community.MOLLI started in Maryland. Its future is wide open.

Speakers

Shinta Hernandez

Dean of MC Online and Academic Support, Montgomery College

Shinta Hernandez, Ph.D. is the Dean of MC Online and Academic Support at Montgomery College (MC), providing leadership in online education, open education, learning centers, academic success coaching, and assessment centers. From the time she started at MC in January 2007, she has... Read More →

Gracie McDonough

Reference/Instruction/OER Librarian, College of Southern Nevada

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

Debbie Baker

OER Coordinator, Instructional designer, Maricopa Community College District

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

Friday October 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

3:00pm EDT

UHCOOL: A Sustainable Governance Model Bridging University OER and K-12 Blended Learning

Friday October 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33508

While the expansion of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has democratized access to higher education, their integration into K-12 environments remains challenging. Literature consistently indicates that K-12 learners require structured teacher support and blended classroom integration rather than independent, isolated online study. Furthermore, the true challenge of OER initiatives lies not merely in facilitating "open sharing," but in establishing "sustainable management" through institutional governance, platform support, and localized pedagogical adaptation. Existing collaborative models primarily focus on higher-education-to-higher-education partnerships, leaving a critical research gap regarding cross-level governance frameworks for University-High School-Platform collaborations.To address this gap, this presentation introduces the UHCOOL initiative, an innovative, research-backed governance model developed by Taiwan’s HERO Center and the "ewant" MOOC platform. UHCOOL transforms university-level intellectual capital into adaptable, open-access learning modules specifically designed for integration into formal high school curricula. Rather than treating this initiative as a simple course promotion, our research positions UHCOOL as a systematic, cross-educational blended learning model. In this ecosystem, the "ewant" platform serves as a central hub, while high school Open Learning Environments (OLE) and localized teacher communities function as the core governance mechanisms supporting student engagement.Our research utilizes a proposed Multi-level Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) framework to empirically validate the effectiveness of this integration. Drawing on a dataset of 661 participants (596 students and 65 teachers) across diverse subjects, including Introduction to Medicine and Semiconductor Principles, we examine the critical pathway from classroom-level interventions to individual student outcomes. Specifically, the study investigates how different modalities of teacher support—such as progress monitoring, worksheet adaptation, and classroom discussion—directly influence students' log-based MOOC learning behaviors, including video completion rates and supplementary study time. We hypothesize that these learning behaviors subsequently impact learning outcomes, course evaluations, and ultimately, students' long-term intention to utilize OER platforms. By moving beyond the simple question of whether blended learning is effective, this presentation explores the specific structural and pedagogical conditions under which it succeeds in a cross-institutional context. Attendees will gain valuable insights into designing sustainable governance models that bridge the gap between higher education resources and K-12 practical applications, transforming fragmented OER use into a cohesive and impactful digital learning ecosystem.

Speakers

Ken-Zen Chen

Associate Professor and Associate Director of HERO Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Ken-Zen Chen serves as an Associate Professor at the Institute of Education, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan. His scholarly work focuses on digital learning ecosystems, institutional collaboration, and the practical application of Open Educational Resources... Read More →

Haoyi Chen

Postdoc Research Fellow, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Dr. Haoyi Chan is a postdoc research fellow at HERO Center of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University. She specializes in learning analytics and quantitative research methods for management research.

Yun-Chia Jasmine Chang

Professor and Director of HERO Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Professor Yung-Chia Chang is a faculty member in the Department of Industrial Engineering and Management at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and a key contributor to the HERO Center’s work on open higher education resources. She received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial... Read More →

Wei-I Lee

Research Fellow of HERO Center, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University

Wei-I Lee is a professor in the Department of Electrophysics at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University and has served as the director of the Research Center of Higher Educational Resources for Openness (HERO Center). He obtained his B.S. in Electrophysics from National Chiao Tung... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

3:35pm EDT

From Evidence to Understanding: Aligning OER Research with Disciplinary Practice

Friday October 9, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33953

This panel brings together contributing authors from OER Research Case Studies: A DOERS Project to explore how the future of openness is being shaped through research that is grounded in disciplinary context and expressed through shared, field-specific language. As open education continues to mature, one of the central challenges is not simply generating evidence of impact, but communicating that impact in ways that resonate across academic and professional communities. The DOERS Collaborative includes state-, system-, and province-level open education leaders across North America who are committed to advancing student success through scalable, evidence-informed open education initiatives. This case study volume reflects that mission by documenting how contributors from a range of disciplines and institutional roles design and implement research on open educational resources (OER). The panel presentation will bring together authors whose work spans multiple fields and methodological traditions, each offering insight into how openness is interpreted, studied, and applied within their respective contexts. Aligned with the conference theme, Exploring Emergent Technologies and the Future of Openness, this session focuses on the future of openness as a communicative and translational challenge. Panelists will share how they frame research questions, select methodologies, and interpret findings in ways that align with the established research languages of their disciplines, including learning science, nursing, social science, chemistry, psychology, and other professional fields. By doing so, these scholars position open education not as a parallel or niche movement, but as integral to broader scholarly conversations about student success, access, and institutional effectiveness. A central thread of the discussion will be the role of shared vocabulary in advancing open education research. Panelists will reflect on how aligning OER research with ongoing subject-matter conversations and established disciplinary frameworks can bridge gaps between open education advocates and other scholars in the field. They will also share strategies for translating open practices into the language of disciplinary research, enabling broader recognition, uptake, and sustainability. Each author/panelist will offer practical insights from their chapter, including how they developed research questions within their disciplinary context, navigated methodological choices, and collaborated across roles to ensure their work was both rigorous and relevant. Rather than focusing solely on outcomes, the panel emphasizes process: how researchers adapt, localize, and communicate their work to ensure it contributes meaningfully to the scholarship of both their field and the evolving landscape of open education. Attendees will leave with concrete strategies for situating open education research within their own disciplinary and institutional contexts, using shared language to foster understanding, collaboration, and impact. The session will conclude with a moderated discussion, inviting participants to consider how the future of openness depends not only on what we study, but also on how and with whom we communicate that work.

Speakers

Kathy Essmiller

Coordinator, OpenOKState, Oklahoma State University

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

Jennifer Pate

Director of OpenEd, Texas A&M University

Jennifer supports student success by leading textbook affordability initiatives for her campus and supporting broader OER efforts across the A&M system. She is a Founding Fellow with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's OER Fellowship program, a member of the Open Education... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

3:35pm EDT

Open as Resilience: Collaborations, Storytelling, and Solidarity in Contexts of Crisis

Friday October 9, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33503

In challenging political climates, Open Education is more than a public good - it is an act of resilience and in some cases, resistance. By amplifying voices from disrupted and conflict-affected contexts, open practitioners can foster connection, reciprocal learning, and meaningful global support.This session explores the Open as Resilience webinar series, co-created by the Community College Consortium for OER (CCCOER), the North American node of Open Education Global, and SPARC Europe’s European Network of Open Education Librarians (ENOEL), which centers educators working within conditions of conflict and instability. Through collaborations with colleagues in Ukraine,Palestine, and beyond, this work has made local experiences more visible while building pathways for sustained, cross-organizational support.Emerging from partnerships within ENOEL, and evolving in response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, this initiative demonstrates how distributed collaboration can adapt to changing needs. Open practitioners have leveraged existing resources, formed new partnerships, and responded to locally identified priorities through small but impactful actions.Bringing together voices from ENOEL, CCCOER, as well as a new voice, who will bring the perspective from a different generation researching Open practices in emergencies, this session highlights the role of storytelling as a tool for resilience, advocacy, and connection. Building on this work, we will also share insights from our Stories as Resistance workshops, which invite participants to engage in storytelling as a reflective and collective practice. We will explore how storytelling has shaped collaborations, including MIT Open Learning’s work with Ukrainian librarians to translate open textbooks from MIT OpenCourseWare into local language.We invite attendees to commit to discussion and engagement on topics around the opportunities and challenges of storytelling in open practice, including, but not limited to, the nuances of addressing sensitive topics and approaches that respect contextual needs, risks, and cultures.

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 →

Heather Blicher

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

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

Adriana D’Amico

Education Policy Student - Intern Researcher @ Monash Virtual School, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Adriana D’Amico is a postgraduate student currently enrolled in an Erasmus Mundus Master program on education policies from global development. During her bachelor in Economics and social sciences she took part in both advocacy activities, working with a team to promote pluralism... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel