Name: Intentional Design for Open Authorship: Building Infrastructure, Community, and Time to Write
Start: 2026-10-09T14:15:00-0400
End: 2026-10-09T14:45:00-0400

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

Intentional Design for Open Authorship: Building Infrastructure, Community, and Time to Write

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

2 Room M

ID: 33833

In this session, we invite Open Education program managers to rethink how to support OER creation and authors to re-envision their creation process. Open educational practices (OEP) are more than “putting an OER online” or putting an open license on your original in-copyright work. Ideally, OEP should permeate an entire project through thoughtful design of methods for selecting, supporting, and empowering learners — including authors. To ease the authorship process and center these OEP, VIVA developed the VIVA Rapid Publishing Program. This program identifies a gap in available OER in an area of high need for Virginia higher education, then assembles a team of subject-matter experts from around the state, provides infrastructure and synchronous in-person and online support for writing, and oversees the peer-review and publishing processes. The program includes preparatory meetings which precede a week-long in-person writing sprint, followed by peer review and iterative meetings to discuss potential revisions.In this presentation, we showcase open practices used in the program, such as intentional inclusive selection of project participants, support for authors-as-learners, and consensus-building on what to create and how. Our work addresses issues common to collaborative authoring of an open textbook in an attempt to reduce the sense of “overwhelm” when writing a lengthy work. Authors are guided along a highly structured yet responsive development process. This support streamlines processes of building an author team and scheduling time with your team; identifying and writing to your audience; setting tone, style, and tense; and deciding what content, pedagogical devices, and figures to include. The writing process is also collaborative–asking authors to create together and review each other’s work, rather than working in silos. By providing this time, space, and structure, we hope to provide an environment in which authors 1) form connections with other authors whom they previously may not have known, 2) can focus solely on writing–a rare occurrence in today’s busy society, 3) and experience freedoms and feedback needed to unlock both creativity, critical thinking, and productivity. In realizing these three goals, the program catalyzes what we believe are necessary conditions for the development of an OER with broad applicability and impact. This presentation provides an overview of the program, including the motivations behind the development and how we developed the structure. It will then showcase the inaugural cycle of the program, in which a team of ten developed a Leadership Studies textbook during 2025 and 2026. Members of the team will share their experiences and how this process benefited (or didn’t) their writing process. While we focus on our experience, we hope to provide a framework for anyone interested in running their own writing sprint, and we will share a toolkit for those wishing to replicate the program in their own contexts.

Speakers

Anita Walz

Associate Professor, Assistant Director of Open Education and Scholarly Communication Librarian, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Anita Walz is Associate Professor, Assistant Director of Open Education, and Scholarly Communication Librarian in the University Libraries at Virginia Tech. She received her MS in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has worked in... Read More →

Jessica Kirschner

Digital Publishing Coordinator, VIVA (Virginia’s Academic Library Consortium)

Jessica Kirschner is the Digital Publishing Coordinator at VIVA, Virginia’s academic library consortium. In this role, supports the publication efforts of VIVA's Open and Affordable Course Content program. Jessica began her career working in the acquisitions department at SUNY Press... Read More →

Joshua Marsh

Research and Instructional Librarian, Liberty University

Dr. Joshua Marsh is currently an Associate Professor at Liberty University, where he also serves as an Applied Research Chair in the School of Education. Dr. Marsh holds a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Kentucky, a Master’s Degree in Education from Western... Read More →

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

Presentation

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

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OEGlobal 2026

Anita Walz

Jessica Kirschner

Joshua Marsh

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Anita Walz

Jessica Kirschner

Joshua Marsh

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