Name: Open for All: Implementing UNESCO’s Capacity Building Practices to Support a Thriving, Resilient OER Community
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.

Open for All: Implementing UNESCO’s Capacity Building Practices to Support a Thriving, Resilient OER Community

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

6 DR4

ID: 34009

We support open education as a public good for all stakeholders within our postsecondary institutions. In this session, faculty and staff from the Alamo Colleges District in San Antonio, Texas, will describe how five independently accredited, minority-serving community colleges have collaborated to implement UNESCO’s (2022) key action item on OER capacity building to support open education for all!This session will present collaboratively developed open educational resources from five colleges, aimed at supporting educators new to or uncertain about using OER. The presenters will showcase the steps they have taken to develop faculty resilience and encourage curiosity in OER projects by overcoming barriers, such as limited time and working within silos (Luo, et al., 2019). The session will explore recommendations to assist faculty with selecting appropriate materials to support course outcomes, understanding license complexities, and exploring time-saving options for remixing. Attendees will learn about the Alamo Colleges OER Badge Course, developed at San Antonio College, which supports students, faculty, and staff in exploring the best practices in open licensing and OER. The presenters will describe how the badge course promotes community building by inviting Alamo Colleges stakeholders to develop foundational skills in OER while encouraging learners to consider the contributions they can make to the OER movement. Attendees will learn how to plan, develop, and implement an OER badge course. The session will also explore Palo Alto College’s Career and Experiential Learning Center OER Project. The presenters will describe how the project has invited students to become active contributors in the development of an open textbook through student-created examples, practice questions, study guides, and multimedia that reflect authentic student voices and perspectives. Attendees will learn how to create student-generated OER projects, supporting research that has found enhanced motivation, deepened learning, and development of transferable skills when students are positioned as creators contributing to the public good (Fatayer & Tualaulelei, 2023; Trust, Maloy, & Edwards, 2022). Attendees will learn how to develop their own student-informed processes to improve the quality and accessibility of OER while also giving students valuable experience in instructional design, peer review, and reflective learning. The presenters will share how these three projects have been guided by UNESCO’s six recommendations focused on capacity building:Building awareness among relevant stakeholder communities;Providing systematic and continuous capacity building (in-service and pre-service) on how to create, access, make available, re-use, adapt, and redistribute OER; Raising awareness of exceptions and limitations for the use of copyrighted works for educational and research purposes; Leveraging open licensed tools, platforms with interoperation of metadata, and standards to ensure OER can be found;Making available easily accessible resources that provide information and assistance to all OER stakeholders on OER-related topics, andPromoting digital literacy skills to encourage the development and use of OER (UNESCO, 2022, p. 11). Attendees will explore how they can take the lessons and recommendations gained through these three projects back to their institutions to build opportunities for their communities to explore OER for all!

Speakers

Suzel Molina

Professor, Palo Alto College

Professor Suzel Molina has taught Education, Kinesiology, Student Development, and Psychology courses at Palo Alto College for over 37 years. Recipient of the 2020 Canvas Educator of the Year, Professor Molina endeavors to inspire students to trust themselves while giving them the... Read More →

Beatrice Canales

Academic Unit Assistant/Grant Open Licensing Expert, San Antonio College

Ms. Beatrice Canales currently serves as the Open Licensing Expert and former grant project director of the Alamo Colleges OER Consortium Project, funded by a $1.96 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Open Textbook Pilot Program. She has served as an academic staff... Read More →

Anne Best

English Instructor, St. Philip’s College

Anne Best is an English instructor of 20 years at St. Philip’s College in San Antonio, Texas, with a commitment to multicultural and global perspectives in education. She holds a master’s degree in English from Texas A&M University, San Antonio. Best advocates for open educational... Read More →

Rosalie Wallace

Academic Program Coordinator/Adjunct Faculty Member, St. Philip’s College

Rosalie Wallace has taught General Biology courses and Environmental Biology courses for St. Philip’s College for six years. She has a Bachelor’s in Science from the University of the Incarnate Word and a Master of Arts from the University of Texas at San Antonio. In her roles... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
6 DR4 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

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Suzel Molina

Beatrice Canales

Anne Best

Rosalie Wallace

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Suzel Molina

Beatrice Canales

Anne Best

Rosalie Wallace

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