OEGlobal 2026: Full Schedule

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

11:50am EDT

Creatón STEM+: A Methodological Model for Teacher-Led, Territory-Based OER Co-Creation in Latin America

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT

ID: 33734

Across open education initiatives, a persistent challenge remains: while access to Open Educational Resources (OER) has expanded, there is still a lack of contextualized, culturally relevant content, particularly in basic education contexts. At the same time, teachers are often positioned as users or adapters of resources rather than as authors of open knowledge.The Creatón STEM+ methodological model addresses this gap by providing a structured Open Educational Practice that enables teachers to collaboratively design, prototype and publish OER grounded in local realities. Developed and implemented across Colombia, Chile and Uruguay, the model responds to the need for cross-regional approaches to open education that are rooted in the Global South and in school-level educational contexts. Its implementation across these contexts enabled the model to be tested and analysed in diverse educational settings.The model integrates three key components: (1) a preparatory phase focused on principles of open education, inclusion, the STEM+ educational approach and the ethical use of technologies in OER creation; (2) an intensive co-creation Creatón based on a pedagogically adapted Design Thinking process; and (3) a post-Creatón phase that supports validation, refinement and publication of OER. Central to the model is the positioning of teachers as creators of situated pedagogical knowledge, working collaboratively on real socio-educational challenges from their territories.Findings from the analysis of the implementation process reveal key dimensions that shape the functioning of the model. The analysis highlights the centrality of collaborative work, pedagogical mediation and situated reflection in co-creation processes, as well as the need to structure learning beyond the intensive co-creation phase. At the same time, results show shifts in teachers’ understanding of STEM+, inclusion and open education, together with a significant increase in the perceived legitimacy of OER as a professional practice. Taken together, these findings suggest that the Creatón STEM+ methodological model not only has the potential to support the production of contextually relevant OER, but also contributes to repositioning open educational practices within teachers’ professional identity and everyday pedagogical work.This presentation will examine the methodological architecture of the Creatón STEM+ model, its core pedagogical principles and its implementation across diverse educational contexts in Latin America. It will also discuss how cross-regional collaboration can strengthen the development of contextualized open content and contribute to more equitable and sustainable open education ecosystems.The Creatón model offers a transferable framework for moving open education beyond access toward collective, teacher-led knowledge production in basic education, particularly in contexts where contextual relevance, inclusion and teacher agency are critical

Speakers

Nina Ibaceta Guerra

Researcher & Project Coordinator, CIDSTEM Institute at Pontifícia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Nina Ibaceta Guerra is a biologist and science educator with a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Chile. She is a researcher and project coordinator at the Center for Research in Science Education and STEM Education (CIDSTEM) at the Pontificia Universidad... Read More →

Anna Vater

Senior Project Manager, Siemens Stiftung

Anna Vater holds a B.A. in International Cultural and Business Studies from the University of Passau and an M.A. in Intercultural Cooperation and Communication from Munich University of Applied Sciences. She works as a Senior Project Manager at Siemens Stiftung, focusing on international... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm 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

11:50am EDT

Empowering People with Disabilities About Open Educational Resources- Bridging the Educational Gaps with Inclusive, Accessible and Innovative Practices

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 30909

An estimated 1.3 billion people in the world experience some form of disability (WHO 2023). People with disabilities in many parts of the world face considerable institutional and attitudinal barriers to access education, health care, and employment, which means they are at a higher risk of poverty, inequalities, and discrimination (Asian Development Bank 2022; Department for International Development 2000; 2022; United Nations 2018; 2024; WHO, 2022; 2023). Education is a fundamental right for everyone, but individuals with disabilities face significant challenges in accessing education. The crushing reality of higher expenses of learning resources, lack of availability of inclusive and accessible resources, financial barriers, educational inequality and discrimination, and above all, limited networking opportunities deters individuals with disabilities from becoming active contributors of knowledge. The development of Open Educational Resources (OER) accelerates innovation, but not necessarily for individuals with disabilities. The available open platforms and resources are scarce and do not meet the academic needs of individuals with diverse disabilities. Furthermore, it is assumed that individuals with disabilities lack participation in developing academic and non-academic open resources due to a lack of OER awareness and limited collaborative opportunities with individuals without disabilities. Previous studies are unavailable that highlight the academic and technological challenges faced by individuals with and without disabilities and how OER can support and enhance their creativity. As a neurodivergent open education expert, I hold that unless we create opportunities for individuals with and without disabilities to collaborate, true inclusion, innovation, and equitable knowledge creation will remain unattainable.This case study on empowerment and collaboration among people with and without disabilities aims to highlight their educational and technological challenges, provide them with online training on OER, and, as an outcome, develop a collective book on OER. A total of 10 individuals with neurodivergent, sensory, and physical disabilities, mainly from Asia and Europe, were selected. These participants were either working or studying at the university level. Another group of participants included 10 professors and academics. All participants were selected via the Global Forum for Teacher Educators—a virtual forum of teachers, educators, and individuals from over 75 countries. Initially, a form was circulated and individuals who showed interest were contacted. The project started in February 2025 and ended in January 2026. In the first phase, online panel discussions were organized to identify the educational and technological challenges faced by individuals with and without disabilities. In the next phase, eight hours of accessible synchronous and asynchronous training on OER were offered, incorporating hands-on collaborative activities. As a final output, interested participants wrote chapters on diverse topics, which were then published as OER in accessible formats. Collaboration in the project was ensured through inclusive team formation, joint writing activities, peer feedback, shared online platforms, and continuous dialogue between participants with and without disabilities, enabling meaningful co-creation of knowledge. At the end of the project, a focus group discussion was organized, during which participants highlighted that OER had enhanced their creativity and enabled them to share their ideas and viewpoints with a global audience. It helped develop understanding, empathy, creativity, and awareness of each other's learning needs. It also encouraged them to continue their creative work beyond the book project by using and producing OER on topics of their interest with others. This project highlights the significance of empowering people with and without disabilities about OER and promoting inclusive knowledge creation through collaboration and shared learning. By catalyzing human connection and creativity, it demonstrates how accessible open education initiatives can bring diverse voices together to co-create knowledge and inspire innovative ideas that benefit global learning communities.

Speakers

Munir Moosa Sewani

Assistant Professor of Education and Open Education Trainer, Department of Education, Sindh Madressatul Islam University

Dr. Munir is a neurodivergent teacher, independent researcher, open education expert, disability advocate, and educational theorist. He holds a PhD in Education and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Education. He is also the volunteer Founder and Director of the Global... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
2 Room M 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

Un-Grading Open: What Happens When Students Own the Outcome

Wednesday October 7, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33553

What happens when students are no longer working toward a grade, but toward creating something meaningful, public, and lasting? This session explores the transformative potential of “ungrading” within open education, where students are invited to create, adapt, and contribute to Open Educational Resources (OER) without the constraints of traditional grading systems.Drawing on my experience supervising student-led OER projects in an Open Education Lab, this session examines what shifts when students are given ownership over both the learning process and the final product. Ungrading challenges conventional assumptions about motivation, accountability, and quality. While grades often serve as external motivators, removing them can create space for intrinsic motivation, creativity, and deeper engagement. But, it also introduces uncertainty for both students and instructors.Through real examples, I will share what this approach looks like in practice: projects that thrived under ungrading, as well as those that struggled. These experiences surface how students navigate autonomy, how collaboration evolves without competitive grading structures, and how instructors can support quality and rigor without relying on numeric evaluation. The session will highlight both the possibilities and the complexities of this approach, offering an honest reflection on what worked, what didn’t, and why.Participants will be invited to reflect on their own experiences with assessment and consider how autonomy influences engagement and learning. A short interactive activity will encourage attendees to think about how ungrading principles could be applied in their own teaching or institutional contexts, whether through small-scale experimentation or broader redesign.This session will also provide practical strategies for implementing ungrading in open education contexts. Key takeaways include how to design structured flexibility through milestones and feedback loops, how to support students in navigating ambiguity, and how to balance freedom with accountability. Attendees will also explore how OER creation can shift the focus from disposable assignments to authentic, impactful work that extends beyond the classroom.By centering student ownership and redefining success beyond grades, ungrading invites educators to rethink the purpose of assessment in open education. This approach not only supports creativity and curiosity but also positions students as active contributors to knowledge, rather than passive recipients.Participants will leave with a deeper understanding of the pedagogical implications of ungrading, as well as actionable ideas for integrating student-driven, open practices into their own work.

Speakers

Pranjal Saloni

Open Education Lab Supervisor, Ontario Tech University

I manage the Open Education Lab at Ontario Tech University, where I oversee student-driven projects that advance open educational practices and the creation of open resources. With a Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering and Management, I bring an interdisciplinary perspective... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 12:25pm - 12:55pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

1:40pm EDT

The Leading Edge of Open Education: Meet the 2026 Awardees of the OE Awards for Excellence

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 33277

By the start of this conference, Open Education Global will have announced the winners of the 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence, the fifteenth year of this community driven program to recognize the people, projects, and practices that exemplify open education in action. We bring together representatives of this years awardees from both ones present at the conference and others who will join is online. Each will share conversational style an overview of the work for which they were recognized, but also to share what motivates them. This is an opportunity for those attending the conference to extend congratulations, for the awardees to express appreciation, and most importantly to build stronger interconnections within the open education community.Since 2011, the OEAwards have recognized over 300 individuals, projects, and practices. Over the past few years, we have been sifting the awards from a "competition" like focus on the "winners" to a celebration and making visible all-- the details of hundreds of nominees are shared. Furthermore, the program is extending itself into an ongoing encouragement all year long of "micro-recognition" as expressions of gratitude for the often invisible work that makes open education possible.Join us for a conversation with the people identified through the program who are modeling in action what Open Education does around the world.

Speakers

Marcela Morales

Executive Co-Director, Open Education Global

Marcela is an avid promotor of access to knowledge and a true believer in the power of education to transform lives and societies all around the world. She believes that education is an essential, shared, and collaborative social good for which we are all responsible.As Co-Executive... Read More →

Alan Levine

Director of Community Engagement, Open Education Global

Alan Levine explores the potential of new technologies for education. In 1993 he set up a web server on a Mac SE/30 at the Maricopa Community Colleges and has not left since. His current role is Director of Community Engagement at Open Education Global. Before that he provided consulting... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
7 DR5 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

2:15pm EDT

Who Owns Learning? Sovereignty, Solidarity, and Open Education Across Divided Worlds

Wednesday October 7, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33604

In a time shaped by geopolitical conflict, displacement, and widening inequalities in access to education, some basic questions feel newly urgent: Who owns learning? Who gets to participate in it?Who gets to shape it?Who gets to carry it across borders? This session takes up these questions through open education, transnational didactics, and trauma-informed teaching, drawing on a 13-week open, blended course developed at the University of Stuttgart.The course brings together student teachers from Germany, Ukraine, Lebanon, and more than ten other countries into a shared online learning space that deliberately foregrounds human connection, creativity, and curiosity. Working in transnational teams, participants design project-based learning (PBL) experiences. 17 projects including toolkits, lesson plans, videos and websites were developed.The session involved chat prompts, polls and pointed reflection questions for participants to actively engage with during the 30 minutes. Conference attendees will learn how the course moves beyond delivering content to become a space where open, educational sovereignty can be practiced—where learners and educators co-create meaningful, context-sensitive learning across cultural and political boundaries.This course is situated within global conversations, including UNESCO’s vision of inclusive and equitable education and the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) focus on access and innovation in digital learning. At the same time, it does not avoid the realities many participants are living through. War, instability, and uncertainty are present in the space. For that reason, the course draws on trauma-informed principles, intentionally creating conditions of psychological safety, flexibility, and trust—conditions that make open, genuine collaboration possible.A central idea guiding the course is anti-fragility. Rather than simply trying to withstand disruption, the design invites uncertainty and diversity to become sources of learning. Students take on the role of designers, negotiating perspectives, constraints, and opportunities as they work. In doing so, curiosity and creativity are not added extras—they emerge naturally through the process, removing barriers, alongside growing intercultural awareness and resilience.In this session, participants will see how open, transnational learning spaces can function as sites of both solidarity and agency. The session will share concrete design strategies for structuring international collaboration, integrating trauma-informed approaches, and connecting practice to global frameworks. Examples from student projects will show how shared challenges can lead to inventive, locally meaningful solutions.

Speakers

Richard Powers

Professor, University of Stuttgart, Department of Education

Richard J. Powers is a professor, instructional designer, and international educator at the University of Stuttgart and City Colleges of Chicago. His work focuses on open education, international collaboration, and project-based learning in global, online environments, alongside Universal... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 2:15pm - 2:45pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:00pm EDT

Slowing Down to Lead: Design Lessons from the Rebus Luminary Fellowship

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

6 DR4

ID: 33914

Postsecondary leaders are exhausted. They are navigating defunded institutions, a shifting political landscape, rapid AI expansion, and the quiet accumulation of uncompensated labor that education has always asked of its practitioners. The Rebus Luminary Fellowship for Education Leaders was our response to that reality.This presentation shares our experience co-designing and facilitating the Luminary Fellowship – a three-month program for fifteen postsecondary leaders across Canada and the United States, developed in partnership with the Leadership Learning Community (LLC), a nonprofit with deep roots in liberatory leadership practice. We'll speak honestly about what it meant to build a space where connection, creativity, and curiosity weren't just aspirations on a slide but conditions we had to actively create.There is a meaningful difference between valuing something and designing for it. We valued slowness, so we built long check-ins and resisted the urge to pack every session with content. We valued trust, so we thought carefully about what a participant should receive before ever showing up to a session, like a welcome care package in the mail. We valued an honest community, so we gave sessions enough breathing room for discomfort to surface and built in 1:1 check-ins between sessions to tend to what the group couldn't. The Liberatory Leadership Framework, developed by LLC, became our recurring lens: a shared vocabulary that participants could carry across sessions and bring back to their own institutions.This presentation will walk through the program's arc – three virtual sessions and a culminating in-person summit in Vancouver – with particular attention to the design choices behind each phase and how we adapted in real time. We'll reflect on the genuine collaboration between Rebus and LLC: what it looked like to co-design across organizations, how we distributed facilitation, and what we learned when things didn't go as planned. We'll also share what we heard from participants themselves – that the strategies mattered, but what stayed with them was simpler and harder to name: the feeling of not being alone in this work.Our hope is that this session sparks an honest conversation about what it actually takes to make space for human connection in open education programming – the choices behind the design, what we learned along the way, and what we'd do differently. For anyone building fellowships, communities of practice, or professional development experiences, we think the Luminary Fellowship offers a useful, honest case study in what intentional community building can look like.

Speakers

Apurva Ashok

Executive Director, The Rebus Foundation

Apurva Ashok is the Executive Director of The Rebus Foundation, a global non-profit and Canadian charity advancing liberatory futures through education. Apurva is an accomplished leader in Open Education, and is recognized for her ability to inspire systemic change and build institutional... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
6 DR4 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

3:00pm EDT

The Work at the Hinge: Mini Structures and Human-Centered Open Education

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 31087

Open education often assumes a shared threshold, as if practitioners are all standing before the same door with the same key, the same confidence, and the same amount of time to turn the handle. They are not. For some, the door opens easily into spacious possibility. For others, it sticks, locked by uncertainty, time scarcity, inaccessible information, perfectionism, policy confusion, or the quiet fear of getting it wrong in public.This session argues that if Open Education is serious about access, it cannot reserve its gentleness for students alone. It must meet practitioners at the threshold too, attending to the tiny details where entry is either made possible or made impossible. Drawing from two semesters of program design and implementation at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, I share a practical model of “mini structures” as threshold design: an inquiry-based OER exploration mini-grant that pays faculty for rigorous search and decision-ready documentation (rather than requiring premature adoption), paired with a scaffolded sequence of mini-lessons that translate complex Open Educational Practices into bounded steps with clear outcomes, examples, and time expectations.The core claim is simple: a door is only open if someone can actually get through it. In many institutional contexts, the primary barriers are not ideological resistance. They are practical and quietly determinative: not knowing where to start, and starting alone. I highlight the hinge details that repeatedly change follow-through without lowering rigor: bounded time containers (30–45 minute work sessions with a concrete deliverable), “what counts” guidance that reduces ambiguity, risk reduction through private drafts and optional publicness, and documentation-as-scaffolding (trackers, evaluation lenses, landscape briefs) that makes decisions visible, retrievable, and shareable.Grounded in care ethics, I frame these choices as infrastructure rather than tone: care operationalized through systems that assume human variance as normal. Participants will leave with a replicable set of design patterns and a lightweight blueprint for building mini infrastructure in their own programs.

Speakers

Megan Brittany-Fruia Zara

Open Education Librarian, The University of Texas at Arlington

Megan Zara is an Open Education librarian and program designer at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries. Her work sits at the intersection of Open Education, access, and care ethics, with a focus on building scaffolded systems (mini-grants, mini-lessons, and decision-ready... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
2 Room M 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

3:35pm EDT

GO-GN Canada Hub - Rediscovering the Land as Open Educators

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

7 DR5

ID: 34731

In the summer of 2025, the GO-GN Canada Hub was formed as an extension of the global GO-GN network based in the Open University, United Kingdom. Because community building and in-person convenings are so important to the GO-GN network of PhD students and GO-GN alumni, the GO-GN Canada Hub spent a 2-day Indigenous land-based learning experience at the Cultural Use Area in Jasper National Park, guided by Darrion Letendre and Ni’tokisiks (Blackfoot elder) Lance Scout. This land-based learning extended and deepened conversations about the compatibility/incompatibility of open education and Indigenous knowledge that began through Darrion’s keynote address at the Open Education Global 2023 keynote in Edmonton (i.e., OEGlobal23 Keynote: Embracing 2-Eyed Seeing to Revitalize Sustainable Relations). During the grant period and beyond, regular online meetings support GO-GN student updates, progress on meeting the Hub’s deliverables, and other educational activities including a community of practice book study of Wahi Wah Indigenous Pedagogies: An Act of Reconciliation and Anti-racist Education (Chrona, 2022). The members of the Canada Hub co-authored a multi-modal collection of their land-based learning. In these reflections, the tensions and intersections of the history of colonization are revealed alongside open education, research perspectives, and Indigenous ways of knowing(Canadian Commission for UNESCO, 2021). The pressbook (released Spring 2026) will be part of the panel presentation. Several blog posts and growing the GO-GN awareness and membership were also key deliverables from the Hub. The community of practice online meetings continues with the taking up of open access articles, reports, and practitioner concerns. The GO-GN Canada Hub supports and expands GO-GN’s strategic direction to “inspire alternative ways of being and understanding the world” (Farrow et al., 2024, p. 42). As a collaborative community, the Canada Hub is part of the maturation of open education and the challenges that individuals and the community face as this hub continues to be an imperfect act of conciliation and reconciliation for its Canadian members. The online panel discussion will highlight the Hub’s activities and its ongoing efforts of walking alongside, learning from and with our Indigenous and more than human relatives.

Speakers

Connie Blomgren

Professor, Athabasca University

Dr. Constance Blomgren is a Professor in the Open, Digital and Distance Education Master of Education programs at Athabasca University and the Masters of Education Program Director. She teaches and researches about openness in education. She is an associate editor for the International... Read More →

Darrion Letendre

InSTEM and Land Based Learning Specialist, Norquest College

Darrion is a dedicated and passionate Nehiyaw-Métis educator with over 10 years of experience of land-based learning for Indigenous youth. He is an advocate for Indigenous education and revitalizing cultural knowledge through Western education systems. He has been a member of the... Read More →

Agnieszka (Aga) Palalas

Professor, Athabasca University

Dr. Palals is a Professor in Open, Digital, and Distance Education, and Program Director in the Doctor of Distance Education Program at Athabasca University. She is an experienced practitioner and researcher of technology-assisted learning and teaching with a focus on innovative pedagogy... Read More →

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

Panel

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

3:35pm EDT

Open Knowledge Content Curation: From Scientific Information Watch to Self and Active Learning

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33736

In the context of infobesity, managing knowledge and mastering scientific and societal information actuality is more and more a challenge for teachers, researchers and students. Content curation tools developped some years ago, help finding, selecting, commenting, elevating and sharing relevant open web information from diverse sources. One of those tools called Scoop.it appears well suited for so-called serious information and has been used by ourselves, other scientists and teachers individually or in groups of interest. Teachers can indeed build content hubs on their discipline, for instance geography, history or biology. Researchers in basic, medical and also social sciences can establish their personal databases, document their research topics and share specific contents according to their competencies. Learners and curious laypeople can benefit from knowledge selected and accumulated and from information follow-up by recognized specialists We are reporting on our experience of using Content Curation for Research, Teaching and Learning in basic, medical and health immunology for more than 10 years. We are agregating scientific information such as selected published papers but also grey literature, press releases and web posting on blogs and websites. Societally relevant information from social netwotks can also be collected and archived. Commenting and elevating information individually and/or through analysis of subtopics is adding value to such material. Sharing on social networks is an opportunity, while archiving and retrieving later is an asset. Two projects were posted on Open Education Resources Surfing the Wave of Immunology Knowledge and more (SWIK+). becoming later Self and Active Learning in Immunology and more (SALIM+), after applying and evaluating the tool in real learning context. Content Hubs aggregating curated OPEN medical immunology resources, from systemic and mucosal immunity to clinical and applied immunology (allergy, rheumatology, neurology, biotherapies) and societal health concerns (vaccine hesitancy) actualized regularly, are offering students, teachers and researchers selected relevant information, helping them stay abreast of information wave. We used it for distance learning during Covid pandemy with chinese students and developped innovative self and active learning with french and chinese medical students for initiation in clinical research in a master module. Learners can use the selected material offered by their teachers or other researchers. Themselves are asked to select, collect, read and comment medical and scientific information related to a chosen topic of interest. They discover not only scientific published literature, but also web material posted by press or media available to laypeople, as well as discussions on social networks. Such self and active learning different from top down courses they receive in medical training is much appreciated, making them curious and even coined by students as fun. Content curation, compared to artificial intelligence, adds human flair to search practices and stimulates users to develop interest and taste for information watch, mandatory for research activities during training and for life long learning in their profession. Other advantages of content curation tool are sharing which remains a challenge, allowing to retrieve information later, also offering networking opportunities but hindrance reported is time consuming like any information watch.

Speakers

Gilbert Faure

Professeur, Université Lorraine, CREM

Professor Emeritus in Immunology at Université Lorraine, Faculté de Médecine, I have been pursuing teaching activities in the context of the Sino-French Training programs between Nancy, Wuhan and Kunming for more than 20 years, after a career in Medical Immunology. I had responsibilities... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
5 DR3 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

4:20pm EDT

Can K-12 Teachers and Students Build Open Source AI Tools for Education?

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 33728

There is growing consensus that creation of AI tools built specifically responsive to educational needs and pedagogically grounded are more pertinent, relevant and efficient than generative AI general-purpose tools, like ChatGPT. Even more, AI general-purpose tools also augment the possibility for AI risks to flourish in educational settings.For the creation of AI for Education tools, its also highly recommended to co-design and co-develop those tools with the end-users, teachers and students. This participatory approach looks to open the “black box” of AI and let end-users develop a critical oversight and public scrutiny on these tools, measuring expectations and recognizing the different trade-offs in place.In that context, Open Source AI is better suited for education-specific tailored tools because it enables alignment, control, and sustainability at the system level, not just performance at the model level. Open AI models can be “fine-tuned” on local curriculum and national standards, adapted to specific pedagogical frameworks or enforce desired teaching practices, integrated to existing school systems (grading, reports, LMS), it can be inspected, tested and audited due to its transparency.Opting for Open Source AI comes along with difficult challenges: to exploit its opportunities and unleash participatory “open practices” (fine tuning, distilling, RAG) to build AI for education tools requires demanding technical expertise, for example in K-12 teachers and students.This session looks to discuss about what should be the readiness standard for K-12 teachers and students to participate in the co-design, co-development and testing of Open Source AI tools for K-12 schools. So how can you offer a simplistic, easy to learn framework and a guided-through pipeline for K-12 teachers and students.Alongside end-users, how to protect student privacy with an Open Data schema, in full compliance with data protection laws and without dependency on external APIs, its to be discussed. Lastly, sustainability challenges are also to be discussed as key infrastructure is needed, because custom-built systems are harder to sustain, they can fail without permanent investment due to hidden costs (hardware like GPUs or servers, technical teams, ongoing maintenance).In sum, the session looks to identify the key aspects to consider and catch a glimpse of the context of end user readiness and technical-legal infrastructure to hold the promise that Open Source AI is the option for local educational relevance.

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 →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 4:50pm EDT
4 Room T MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Round Table

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

4:20pm EDT

Practicing Rebellion: Strategies to Sustain Open Education Leadership

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33975

The Rebus Luminary Fellowship for Education Leaders brought together fifteen postsecondary leaders across Canada and the United States for a three-month program dedicated to collective learning and renewal. Together in the winter and spring of 2026, we witnessed transformation in one another and ourselves through three online synchronous sessions and a three-day in-person summit. Our inquiry focused on individual and collective liberation. We developed an honest assessment of disparity in higher education, drawing on real-time pressures in our workplaces to track and examine the distribution of power at the systems-level. Rebus Luminary Fellows serve in multiple leadership roles within education institutions and organizations, ranging from directors to program leads to design specialists. Our community offers valuable perspectives rooted in our own leadership needs and educational contexts. We also dedicated time for inner work, personal reflection, and discussion, fueling visions of possible futures.In this hybrid panel, Rebus Luminary Fellows speak candidly about the challenges of leading open education initiatives, including isolation, burnout, and overwork. We also detail the newly acquired liberatory strategies that continue to make a difference for us in our daily work. In particular, the panel invites participants to consider the miracle of shifting perspective, deep values alignment, and moving from extractive to generative practices. Panelists will examine how these new practices, which started out as suggestions and flashes of curiosity, contribute to restorative, playful, and inventive leadership. Panelists will also discuss realistic methods for sustaining a cross-regional community of practice following the formal completion of a program. Fellows remain committed to nurturing our relationships and continued shared growth, but navigate active schedules and lead multiple projects. To this end, we share innovative ways to nourish and protect meaningful connection across the distance. We invite participants to replicate and experiment with examples of our asynchronous and synchronous engagement for ongoing interaction in your own communities. This session offers both solidarity and strategy. Methods for inclusive hybrid interaction include: open-ended Menti questions and polls to gauge participant priorities and special interests in leadership and collective transformation; a shared online document for real-time note-taking to ensure participation is open and equitable for online participants; and voicing the Meeting Chat comments aloud at regular intervals to ensure multiple means of access to the contributions of online participants. Come away with concrete practices for sustaining yourself and your communities, as well as affirmation that we are not alone in this work.

Speakers

Christina Hendricks

Professor of Teaching and Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology., University of British Columbia Vancouver

Christina Hendricks is a Professor of Teaching in philosophy at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where she also serves as the Academic Director of the Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology. She has been an open education practitioner, advocate, and researchers... Read More →

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 →

Joan Giovannini

Manager of Faculty Development with Instructional Design, Engagement, and Support (IDEAS), University of Massachusetts Amherst

Joan Giovannini is Manager of Faculty Development with Instructional Design, Engagement, and Support (IDEAS) at University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she leads institution‑wide initiatives that support evidence‑based, and technology-enhanced teaching and learning. Joan designs... Read More →

Allison Buckley

Program Specialist, Southern Regional Education Board

Allison Buckley manages and supports the work of open educational resources and the Education Technology Cooperative, where she aids in increasing open educational resources awareness at the local and national levels. She joined SREB’s postsecondary education team in 2024 as a... Read More →

Ginelle Baskin

Assistant Professor and Open Education Librarian, Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU)

Ginelle Baskin is the Open Education Librarian at Middle Tennessee State University, where she leads campus initiatives to advance textbook affordability and the adoption of open educational resources (OER). She works closely with faculty, departments, and campus partners to support... 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 →

Brandon Carson

Sessional Instructor and Research Associate, Ontario Tech University

Brandon Carson is an open education scholar-practitioner whose work sits at the intersection of teaching and learning, educational technology, and higher education change. With more than 17 years of experience in the post-secondary sector, Brandon has supported initiatives related... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

4:20pm EDT

Sparking Connection, Creativity, and Curiosity with the Open Education Network

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 31480

Engage in creative conversation with other open practitioners as you experience unique open spaces and centers around the MIT campus and nearby Cambridge. A chance to unwind, interact, and pursue ideas while stepping outside of the confines of the traditional conference setting. Convened by the staff of the Open Education Network, who are also always happy to chat about their work and offering of support resources!

Speakers

Open Education Network

Staff, Open Education Network

The OEN is a global collective of more than 1,700 higher education institutions and consortia that partner together to make higher education more affordable and equitable through engagement with open education. We are not a vendor, a business, or even a non-profit; we are part of... Read More →

Wednesday October 7, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Special Activity

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

10:30am EDT

Open Education Fresk, a Collaborative Workshop to Explore Benefits of Open Sharing and Best Practices

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

3 Room I

ID: 33868

During this collaborative workshop, using maps, quizzes, and guided discussions, identify concrete situations where Open Education and Open Educational Resources (OER) come into play. Connect best practices to these use cases so you too can take action in your environment.During the workshop:- Understand the growing importance of open sharing and digital learning; open education, beyond OER platforms, is a human, collective adventure full of choices to enrich learning success.- Identify the potential benefits of open education for different users: teachers, instructional designers, and students, as well as the obstacles and how to solve them.- Explore best practices to adopt, according to your aspirations.The Open Education Fresk is conceived as a mediating tool that fosters exchange, discussion of perspectives, and the collective emergence of disciplinary or transdisciplinary use cases, while also examining its capacity to facilitate participants' appropriation of the principles and practices of open education. The "Open Education Fresk" workshop lasts 1.5 hours and is designed for up to 30 participants (teachers, instructional designers, doctoral students, support staff), divided into subgroups of 4 to 5 people. It is designed as a collaborative, experiential, and reflective process, fostering the gradual appropriation of open education concepts and open educational resources (OER).The workshop combines short theoretical presentations, professional role-playing exercises, the use of interactive materials (cards, game board), and peer discussions, all within an active learning framework. The workshop is structured in six successive stages: 1. Icebreaker, aimed at building rapport and introducing the benefits of information sharing; 2. Workshop Framework, presentation of objectives, operating rules, and the facilitator's role; 3. Professional role-playing exercises based on concrete teaching or learning situations; each participant will identify a situation that is relevant for himself-herself. 4. Structured input on open education and OER, in the form of a collaborative quiz and a debate with spatial movement, focusing on Creative Commons licenses; 5. Argumentation exercises, where participants adopt the role of ambassadors for open education and connect benefits with concrete practices; 6. Action-oriented conclusion, allowing each group to identify various best practices and a first "small step" for implementation in their individual context. “The fresk” pedagogical model, applied to numerous topics (climate fresk, biodiversity fresk, etc.), accelerates the understanding of major societal issues. The effectiveness of this educational tool and the collaborative experience allow for the rapid and widespread dissemination of an understanding of the subject and encourage action within one's own environment.

Speakers

Anne-Catherine Baseilhac

Open Education COO (Chief Operating Officer) at Nantes University, Nantes University - France

Anne-Catherine Baseilhac, Open Education Chief Operating Officer at Nantes University, France. Graduated from the Lyon School of Management, Anne-Catherine has held several project management positions, both nationally and internationally in companies, where she gained expertise in... Read More →

Arnaud Guével

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Open Education at Nantes Université, Nantes University - France

Arnaud Guével has been Vice President for Academic Affairs and Open Education at Nantes Université since 2020. A professor in sports science specializing in neuromuscular function, he served as Dean of the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Director of the "Motricity, Interactions, Performance... Read More →

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

Workshop

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

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 DR6

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 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

11:50am EDT

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

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

4 Room T

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 Room T 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 Room M

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 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

1:40pm EDT

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

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

8 DR6

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, SPARC

Nicole Allen is the Director of Open Education for SPARC, leading efforts to advance openness and equity in education. She oversees a state and federal policy program, a librarian community of practice, and a leadership program for open education professionals. Nicole has dedicated... Read More →

Joy Shoemate

Director of Online Education, College of Canyons

Joy Shoemate is the Director of Online Education at College of the Canyons where she supports instructors’ successful integration of technology into teaching and learning to promote student success, persistence and completion in distance education courses. She also oversees the... Read More →

Aishah Abdullah

Open Education Project Manager, SPARC

Aishah Abdullah works for SPARC as the Open Education Project Manager. In this role, she helps support SPARC's open education work and provides support to the Open Education Association. She began her journey in open education as a student advocate at her community college and continued... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
8 DR6 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

What Would You Do with $100? Student-Centered OER Advocacy in the Library

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

4 Room T

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 Room T 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

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

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

2 Room M

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

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 →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
2 Room M 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 DR6

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 NagoskiOpen 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 and Liaison to African American Studies, Anthropology, Education, Global Studies, & Psychology, 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

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
8 DR6 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

Fostering Creativity in Creative Commons: Empowering Communities to Remix Educational Resources

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

4 Room T

ID: 33989

How do you know whether people use your creative-commons-licensed educational resources? Library professionals often do the work of translating complex information into educational resources and engaging learning experiences for their communities to connect with each other, but do not always make time to document and share their resources broadly. Through human-centered approaches that invite playing together, elevating the creativity of library professionals and educators, and joyfully trying out others' ideas in different communities, the inspiration powered by the excitement to share resources can become an unstoppable force. To address the gap of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for a wider audience, MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX, plix.mit.edu) develops creative creative-commons-licensed STEAM ("A" adds the arts to STEM) learning resources and experiences based on MIT research and co-designed for the public library setting. With a reach of over 1,400 public library professionals across all 50 United States, and connections across 40 countries, PLIX programs support learners as 1) designers, rather than consumers, of technology, 2) creators, rather than recipients, of knowledge, and 3) scientists and artists, rather than one or the other. PLIX connects library professionals and MIT researchers to co-design learning experiences and develop and share facilitation practices to inspire engaging STEAM programming in public libraries. Drawing from a repository of 13 thoughtfully designed STEM activities, and over 70 adaptations created by the community for localized contexts, learners create, play, experiement with paper circuits, the sound of food, wearable data trackers, urban ecology, an arcade of offline games to learn AI FUNdamentals, and more. To encourage library professionals' confidence to offer high quality STEM learning experiences, PLIX offers 1) easy-entry free online STEAM workshops that provide space for hands-on practice, 2) multi-session facilitation training on creative STEAM pedagogy available in-person, online, and in a hybrid format, and 3) an annual ambassador program to bring together a cohort of library professionals to connect, collaborate, and inspire each other. (Across 4 iterations of the PLIX ambassador program, over 67 librarians continue to use and promote PLIX resources to their library peers.)In this round table, we joyfully share a showcase of PLIX CC-BY-NC-SA printable zines, the different pathways we use to promote their adaptation and use, and encourage attendees to collaboratively edit, cut, paste, and create their own adaptations about knowledge they are excited to share with the world.

Speakers

Ada Ren-Mitchell

Learning Programs Designer, MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange

Ada Ren-Mitchell is a Learning Programs Designer at the MIT Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX), where she designs cozy communities and creative STEAM learning experiences. Since 2014, her experiences encompass innovative education pedagogy, STEM research, community facilitation... Read More →

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

Round Table

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

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 DR6

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 CollaborationFrom 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 PlaybookAcademics 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 a practical background in developing Open Educational Resources (OER), her work includes co-authoring Research Right and editing the QUT Faculty of Science VRES 2024... Read More →

Thursday October 8, 2026 3:35pm - 4:05pm EDT
8 DR6 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

Design Discomfort: The Friction Open Education Requires

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

4 Room T

ID: 33999

Open education has made extraordinary progress dismantling structural barriers to access. But access is not connection, and presence is not participation. As scholars like Audrey Watters have argued, the promises of open education have often defaulted toward scale and efficiency, optimizing for reach while leaving questions of depth, belonging, and relational learning underexplored. This roundtable asks participants to sit with a new provocation: what if the next step isn't more content, but more friction, the slow, relational work of learning together.Design Discomfort is a circulating research series operating across creative and innovative spaces: design studios, schools, and organizations. The research began as a direct response to AI: where AI aggregates anonymous, patterned, average, "scraped" knowledge at scale, Design Discomfort aggregates named, vulnerable, situated, face-to-face knowledge, asking what remains distinctly human about learning together. Participants gather to have both joyful conversations and the harder ones they tend to avoid, about job security, the role of technology, what education actually prepares you for, and what society needs now. No presentations. No panels. Just people in a room, making something together. Drawing on the facilitation traditions of Freire and bell hooks, the methodology is simple: discomfort invites vulnerability, vulnerability builds community, and community is what education urgently needs.This round table puts that methodology into practice. Rather than presenting findings, the facilitator will open the room with provocations adapted for the open education community, creating the conditions for the same kind of dialogue Design Discomfort generates elsewhere. The format embodies the argument: culture is produced between people, not stored inside them, and education's role isn't to decorate culture but to actively participate in producing it.Participants will engage with questions including: What does genuine community feel like inside open education and how do we build more of it? In a landscape defined increasingly by automation and scale, what do we risk losing if we don't design for vulnerability and human contact? Attendees will leave having experienced relational learning in practice, a transferable methodology for facilitating generative dialogue in their own institutions, and the reminder that education, at its best, has always been about what happens between people — not what gets delivered to them. The friction is the point.

Speakers

Cameron King

Vice President, Creative (and Grad Student), CASE Agency (and Vermont College of Fine Arts)

Cameron King is a designer, educator, and advocate for collaborative creative communities.His practice sits at the intersection of visual communication, design leadership, and creative culture. As VP of Creative at CASE, he partners with global brands, including e.l.f. Beauty, Disney... Read More →

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

Round Table

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

4:20pm EDT

Make a Zine and Make Community

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

4 Room T

ID: 34010

During this round table session, participants will discuss reasons that we need support right now, and will learn how to make zines as one way to create community. Making things together (crafts, OER) can help us develop relationships, have fun, and feel a sense of accomplishment. We will discuss the ways that we might be able to find connection and hope through the values of open education. Working in higher education in the United States is especially difficult at this moment in history. Beyond the headline-grabbing threats and cancelled research funding, educators are still feeling effects from the pandemic lockdowns and altered teaching practices that began in 2020--2021. Many students today feel anxious and isolated, and have minimal coping skills to handle those feelings. Many have difficulty reading and comprehending written instructions, and some are so overwhelmed by the demands of what used to be a typical college semester that they just shut down or give up. I find this heartbreaking, frustrating, and exhausting. On top of that, I am part of a minority of faculty in my department who use open resources, which can cause a feeling of isolation. Using OER over time has led me to develop and articulate my values around education--especially public higher education--that go beyond “free is good for students” to include “education is a human right” and “my institution exists to serve the people who live in the region, whoever they are.” Sometimes I remix or create new open content, but in recent years the amount of extra work to take the materials from “class handouts” to “open resources that are proofread, formatted, licensed, posted, and publicized” has been beyond my capacity. That said, I have been able to find sources of resilience! I have found like-minded individuals within my institution. We have made changes to our classes that encourage hope and play and just talking to each other more. I attribute the latter to my decade-plus use of OER, which allowed me to decouple my teaching from the rigid structure of a commercial textbook. It has become a habit, now, to check my assumptions, figure out what my students’ needs are now, and then to find or make something that will meet those needs. Zines (from the word magazines) are 8-page booklets folded from a single sheet of letter-sized paper. The zine maker writes, draws, makes collages for each page. The zine can then be photocopied, folded, and distributed.I have used zines in classes as a way for students to engage with the course material in cognitive, affective, creative, and tactile ways that are different from what they usually do. Students summarize and create and imagine something new using what they have learned in class, and they enjoy it so much. Materials and examples will be provided.

Speakers

Elizabeth Siler

Professor, Worcester State University

Elizabeth Siler is a professor at Worcester State University in the Business Administration and Economics Department. She teaches management classes to undergraduate students and almost exclusively uses open education resources, and is an advisor for the Fiber Arts Circle student... Read More →

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

Round Table

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

4:20pm EDT

Inventing Open Together: A Massachusetts Snapshot of Statewide Collaboration

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT

3 Room I

ID: 33778

Open Education (OE) doesn’t scale through tools or policies alone, but through relationships, and Massachusetts offers a vivid example of that work in progress. What becomes possible when OE is approached not just as an institutional effort, but as a statewide, collaborative ecosystem? The Open & Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (OLERAC) advances statewide efforts to reduce educational costs, promote equity, and support the creation and recognition of open knowledge.This panel offers an evolving snapshot of Open Education in Massachusetts, with a focus on community colleges and the work of OLERAC. Through faculty and administrative perspectives, panelists will explore how cross-institutional collaboration, shared infrastructure, and community-driven approaches are shaping more sustainable and equitable open practices.Rather than presenting a single model, this session highlights work in progress: efforts to scale course marking, support faculty engagement, and navigate emerging questions around sustainability, accessibility, and artificial intelligence. Panelists will reflect on both successes and ongoing challenges, including the realities of coordinating across systems, roles, and capacity constraints.Grounded in the conference theme, this session invites participants into the conversation. After a brief panel discussion, attendees will engage in a full-room dialogue to share how similar (or different) efforts are unfolding in their own states, regions, or countries. Together, we will surface ideas, tensions, and possibilities for “inventing” more connected and resilient open ecosystems.

Speakers

Chris Laney

Professor of History & Coordinator, Honors Scholar Program, Berkshire Community College

Chris Laney teaches history and serves as the Honors Program Coordinator at Berkshire Community College. He has used OER since 2019 and is a member of the BCC OER Committee and the Massachusetts OLERAC. He lives on a homestead in Western Massachusetts with his family and an assortment... Read More →

Gina Foley

Associate Professor of Biology, Berkshire Community College

Gina Foley is an Associate Professor of Biology at Berkshire Community College, where she has spent the past two decades teaching and supporting STEM students. During a recent sabbatical, she developed Storytelling in Biology, an OER resource that uses powerful real-world stories... Read More →

Bernadette Sibuma

Director, Online Learning, Massachusetts Bay Community College

Bernadette Sibuma, Ed.D., is the Director of Online Learning at Massachusetts Bay Community College. She serves as a current member of the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Open and Low-Cost Educational Resources Advisory Council (MA OLERAC) and the OLERAC Assessment... Read More →

Ceit De Vitto

Sr. Special Programs Coordinator/Open Education, Bunker Hill Community College

Ceit De Vitto holds an M.E.d. in Instructional Design, from UMass Boston. Since 2018 she has worked for Bunker Hill Community College as the Open Education Cooridinator. She also chairs the Course Flagging Committee for Massachusetts Department of Higher Education’s Open and Low-Cost... Read More →

Heather Blicher

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

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

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 5:25pm EDT
3 Room I MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Panel

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

4:20pm EDT

Sparking Connection, Creativity, and Curiosity with the Open Education Network

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT

2 Room M

Speakers

Open Education Network

Staff, Open Education Network

Thursday October 8, 2026 4:20pm - 6:00pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Special Activity

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

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 DR4

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

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

Head of the Research and Development Project Department (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 DR4 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 DR6

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 DR6 MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

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

10:30am EDT

Feminist Pedagogy as Liberatory Practice

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

3 Room I

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

Filmbuilding: A Framework for Connection, Creativity, and Collective Learning

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT

5 DR3

ID: 33723

At a time when access to knowledge and the ability to meaningfully engage with it is increasingly fragmented, educators are being called not just to share information, but to cultivate connection, creativity, and collective agency. This session introduces Filmbuilding as an open, adaptable framework that transforms learners from passive recipients of knowledge into active co-creators of meaning, relationships, and real-world solutions.Filmbuilding is a collaborative, project-based approach in which participants co-create short films through an emergent, iterative process that prioritizes curiosity, lived experience, and shared authorship. Unlike traditional media education models that emphasize technical skill acquisition or predefined outcomes, Filmbuilding operates as an open educational practice that is inherently flexible, culturally responsive, and transferable across contexts.Drawing from implementations in various settings — including city-wide initiatives like Filmbuilding Malden, school-based programs at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, and partnerships with organizations such as METCO and international sister city programs — this presentation demonstrates how Filmbuilding functions as a connective infrastructure. It creates spaces where diverse participants collaboratively explore identity, community, and complex social challenges through visual storytelling.Aligned with the OE Global 2026 theme of “inventing together to uphold knowledge as a public good,” this session highlights how Filmbuilding expands access not just to content, but to the processes of knowledge creation itself. Participants engage in real-time collaboration, navigating ambiguity, negotiating perspectives, and building shared understanding; skills essential for both open education practitioners and global citizens.The session will illustrate how Filmbuilding fosters:Human connection through structured yet open-ended collaboration across cultural and institutional boundariesCreativity and curiosity by centering exploration over correctness and process over productCollective resilience by enabling participants to engage with real-world issues in ways that are experiential, relational, and solution-orientedShared ownership of knowledge by positioning participants as co-creators who shape, interpret, and contribute meaningfully to the learning processImportantly, Filmbuilding is not presented as a fixed program, but as a scalable and adaptable framework that can be integrated into diverse educational ecosystems, including K-12 classrooms, higher education, community organizations, and cross-cultural exchanges. Its alignment with open education principles lies in its emphasis on co-creation, accessibility, and the democratization of storytelling as a tool for knowledge production.Attendees will leave with a clear understanding of how Filmbuilding can be applied within their own contexts to foster deeper engagement, strengthen community ties, and empower learners to collaboratively address complex challenges. The session will conclude with a Q&A inviting participants to explore potential adaptations, partnerships, and future applications within the global open education movement.

Speakers

Tom Flint

Founder & Director of Filmbuilding, Filmbuilding

Tom Flint is a moving image educator and filmmaker whose work sits at the intersection of film and cultural exchange. He is the founder and director of Filmbuilding, an educational initiative in which communities co-create films to explore and engage with real-world challenges. At... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
5 DR3 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

Compensating the Creator: Four Grant Models of Tiered OER Support

Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT

4 Room T

ID: 33369 While OER provides immediate cost savings for students, the creation of those materials still requires labor. To more fairly compensate the authors of OER textbooks, ancillary materials, and open pedagogy assignments, many institutions have created grant initiatives to subsidize faculty work encouraging the creation of OER (Finlay, 2024). This presentation will examine four programs at U.S. institutions that take a tiered approach to faculty incentives. This will allow others to learn from existing initiatives and potentially design or update their own.
After reviewing the programs, we will analyze program design, student outcomes, and propose best practices for tiered OER grant programs. Programs analyzed include Boise State University; Texas Tech University; Open Oregon Educational Resources, a state-level organization; and the Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI), a library consortium. Each of these grant initiatives offers instruction to faculty on OER and open pedagogy, as well as having at least three tiers of available funding for adopting, revising, remixing, and creating materials. While they differ in the specific types of activities at each tier, all four programs include options for adopting OER as is, creating your own, and adapting a course to be no- or low-cost to students. To support this, all of the programs require some form of professional learning opportunity for participants, though they vary in terms of the types and degree required. This is a necessary element for faculty who may be unaware of the complex nuances of copyright, licensing, and sharing OER (Elder & Gallant, 2022). By reviewing two university programs and two organizations that serve multiple universities, we create a roadmap of scaffolded OER incentive programs relevant to the whole of the OER community.
By examining the existing landscape of these programs, including what types of activities they fund, how they prioritize adoption versus creation, how long they have been in place, and what metrics they report on, we will be able to identify trends and best practices that will inform an ideal OER faculty incentive program. One key element we will examine in each program is the extent to which the institution encourages collaboration among participants. Is there an opportunity to collaborate with other practitioners and support one another in the OER adoption and creation process, potentially beyond the duration of the grants?
Each OER initiative faces successes and challenges, but educators are more successful in OER practices when exposed to community groups and support from the OER community (Boyle, 2023). Having the opportunity to collaborate allows for human connection, fostering creativity and curiosity. Just as we can use the cost-saving nature of OER to open conversations around student engagement, agency, and voice in the classroom through open pedagogy, by funding faculty work around OER in an environment that fosters collaboration outside of traditional academic silos, we can spark new connections and ideas.

Speakers

Amy Hofer

Statewide Open Education Program Director, Open Oregon Educational Resources

Amy Hofer, Statewide Open Education Program Director, is the OER librarian for Oregon's colleges and universities; visit the Open Oregon Educational Resources website at openoregon.org to learn more.

Sabrina Davis

Assistant Librarian, Texas Tech University

Sabrina Davis is the Access & User Services Librarian at Texas Tech University. As the Access & User Services Librarian, she oversees the Access Services Department and ensures patrons have safe, reliable access to library resources and spaces. The Online Learning and Open Educational... Read More →

Hans Aagard

Research and Innovation Consultant - OER Focus, eCampus Center, Boise State University

Hans Aagard, PhD, is an OER specialist for Boise State University, supporting online faculty in the eCampus Center as they find, remix, or create open educational materials. Before working on OER he did instructional design and multimedia development. He lives in Salt Lake City... Read More →

Emily Helton

Affordable Learning Program Manager, Private Academic Library Network of Indiana (PALNI)

With a background in K-12 education and STEM professional development, Emily became interested in OER for the opportunities it affords to invite students into the knowledge creation process. After completing a PhD at West Virginia University examining how professional learning can... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:10pm EDT
4 Room T 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

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

2:15pm EDT

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

3:00pm EDT

The Future of Openness Is Shared: Co-Creating Communication Strategies

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

5 DR3

ID: 34026

This session explores an open education collaborative’s approach to developing a shared communication strategy for open education grounded in collective invention, practical tools, and adaptable frameworks. As open education initiatives expand across institutions and systems, the challenge is not only demonstrating impact, but communicating that impact in ways that resonate across diverse contexts, roles, and disciplines. This session positions communication as a core infrastructure for the future of openness that must be intentionally designed.This open education collaborative has engaged in an iterative process to co-create communication strategies that support open education advocacy, publishing, and program development. Rather than developing top-down messaging, participants have worked together to build communication practices. As a group they have tested language and built shared resources that can be contextualized for individual projects while also contributing to a broader, collective voice.This session highlights the process of inventing communication strategies together. Presenters will share how members of the collaborative identified common communication challenges such as translating open education work into disciplinary language, aligning with subject-matter conversations, and articulating impact beyond cost savings, and responded by co-developing practical tools. These include reusable templates for project workflows, social media campaigns, project descriptions, and stakeholder engagement, all designed to be adapted for each project. A central focus of the session is how these communication strategies function as living artifacts of collaborative practice. Presenters will demonstrate how quarterly communications, social media interactions and project templates were developed through cycles of contribution, feedback, and revision. Each communication strategy serves as an entry point for participation, creating space for new contributors to engage in open education communication work without starting from scratch. Examples will include communication plans with structured cadences, messaging frameworks aligned with student success language, and modular content that can be tailored to different audiences and platforms.Aligned with the conference theme, Catalyzing Human Connection, Creativity, and Curiosity to Thrive, this session emphasizes the future of openness as a participatory, co-constructed endeavor. It highlights how shared communication infrastructures built through open collaboration can support both consistency and flexibility, enabling open education work to be visible, credible, and connected across contexts.Attendees will leave with adaptable templates, strategies for collaborative message development, and a deeper understanding of how communication itself can be an open practice. The session will conclude with a facilitated discussion inviting participants to consider how they might engage in or initiate similar processes within their own networks, contributing to a more connected and communicative open education ecosystem.

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 →

Jojo Karlin

Scholarly Communications Manager, CUNY Office of Library Services

Dr. Jojo Karlin is the Scholarly Communications Manager at the CUNY Central Office of Library Services. As the manager of CUNY Academic Works, the system’s open access institutional repository, Jojo facilitates the development and legacy of student, faculty, and staff research... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 3:00pm - 3:30pm EDT
5 DR3 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

3:35pm 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

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

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

3:35pm EDT

Coding a Drawing Tool Together: Learning How to Contribute to Open Source Software

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

4 Room T

ID: 33970

The Processing Foundation’s mission is to promote software learning within the arts, artistic learning within technology-related fields, and to celebrate the diverse communities that make these fields vibrant, liberatory, and innovative. We work toward our goals by developing and distributing open source software (OSS) projects, Processing (Java) and p5.js (JavaScript). OSS has become one of the major cultural and technical achievements of the past half-century. Unlike commercial software, this work is a shared commons, built through collective knowledge, community practice, and sustained human effort. Unfortunately, there is often a significant gap between learning about OSS and developing the confidence to meaningfully contribute to it. Within communities that support Processing and p5.js, this gap is increasingly visible as we confront what Cabunoc Mayes and others have described as the “graying of open source,” a trend in which long-standing contributors are not being replaced by a new, diverse generation of participants (2025). As we celebrate 25 years of Processing, this moment calls for new approaches to access, participation, and recruitment through education. We developed a curriculum called Art + Code, which pairs with a professional development (PD) learning experience for K-12 educators with little or no prior coding background. The goals are to democratize access to computer science education and to reframe OSS contribution as a creative and collaborative practice. Throughout the PD, educators learn pedagogical practices for teaching creative coding while engaging as learners of the Art + Code curriculum. They explore foundational programming concepts through visually driven projects in p5.js. The culminating experience shifts from individual creation to collective contributions in the final project: the drawing tool. Here, participants develop custom “brushes” for a shared drawing tool, contributing code to a communal software project. Using OpenProcessing’s Live Collaboration feature, participants work together in a shared coding environment. This experience mirrors authentic OSS workflows while making visible the social dimensions of software development like attribution, remixing, negotiation, and collective ownership. For many educators, this is their first experience contributing to a shared codebase, reframing their understanding of what it means to “belong” in technical spaces.This session will share findings from pilot implementations of Art + Code across diverse educator cohorts. We will present qualitative insights and classroom observations that highlight how learners engage with core coding concepts through creative expression, as well as how participation in collaborative coding environments shifts their confidence and identity as potential contributors to OSS. We will also share educator feedback, including evidence of increased willingness to experiment, debug, and build on others’ work. This session is designed for educators, curriculum designers, and open education advocates by offering both a conceptual framework and practical strategies for bridging the gap between learning and contributing to OSS. Participants will leave with concrete approaches to integrating collaborative, open-source practices into their own teaching, as well as access to the freely available Art + Code curriculum. In an effort to invite a broader and more diverse community into open source, this project centers creativity, collaboration, and meaning-making.

Speakers

Roxana Hadad

Co-Executive Director, Processing Foundation

For the last 25 years, Roxana Hadad, PhD has led research and programming aimed at making STEM and computer science education experiences equitable and relevant to students from historically excluded communities. As a Co-Executive Director at Processing Foundation, she oversees initiatives... Read More →

Amy B. Woodman

Director, Fellowship Program, Processing Foundation

Amy B. Woodman is the Director of Fellowship Programs at Processing Foundation, where she supports artists and creative technologists developing open-source tools. She brings over a decade of experience designing programs across education, technology, and the arts, with a focus on... Read More →

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

Strategic Alignment: Leveraging OER to Foster Transformative Faculty Partnerships

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

2 Room M

ID: 33984

ProblemFor academic libraries, building meaningful, sustained connections with teaching faculty is essential, yet this work is often constrained by transactional liaison engagement practices. To disrupt this pattern, Eastern Kentucky University librarians develop structured Library Program Plans that align information literacy instruction, collections, and outreach with student learning outcomes across program curricula. Moving beyond ad hoc instruction requests or one-off interactions such as collection requests, Program Plans create a shared framework that encourages ongoing dialogue between librarians and teaching faculty. Further, when Open Educational Resources (OER) are woven into program plans, faculty can more clearly see how OER support their academic freedom, pedagogical growth, and course-level student learning goals. In this context, Open Educational Resources (OER) - often framed simply as cost-saving initiatives - invite creative, program-level collaboration and offer a clear framework in which to develop meaningful, sustained faculty engagement, grounded in mutual goals for student success.InterventionThis session explores the ways that Program Plans can be developed to intentionally include Open Educational Resources (OER) and affordable course material strategies as a core component of faculty engagement. By embedding OER considerations directly into curriculum mapping — such as identifying high-enrollment courses, gateway sequences, and points of high student cost burden — librarians can facilitate more meaningful, context-aware conversations with faculty. By identifying specific learning outcomes first, and offering faculty quality, open alternatives to their existing course materials, OER emerge as solutions to instructional design challenges, positioning faculty as active instructional architects rather than consumers of static commercial content.ExamplesDrawing on practitioner experience, the session will highlight examples of OER-integrated Program Plan templates that include fields for documenting course material types, cost considerations, and opportunities for OER adoption, adaptation, or creation. These tools make visible where alignment already exists and where new opportunities for collaboration can be developed. Attendees will see how structured, curriculum-aligned approaches can support faculty decision-making while maintaining respect for disciplinary context and instructional autonomy.OutcomesParticipants will leave with practical strategies for using curriculum alignment to build resilient, relationship-centered partnerships with teaching faculty; integrating OER into program-level planning tools; and framing conversations around student outcomes, access, and instructional goals. By situating OER within a broader ecosystem of connection, creativity, and shared inquiry, this approach offers a replicable model for fostering collective thriving through sustained, program-level engagement.SignificanceBy centering OER in program planning, librarians can move beyond a narrow affordability narrative toward one focused on quality, agency, and student success. This shift strengthens faculty partnerships by aligning with core motivations — supporting student learning, preserving academic autonomy, and enabling the adaptation of course materials to meet the needs of students.

Speakers

Kelly Smith

Director of Strategic Initiatives, Eastern Kentucky University

Kelly Smith is the Director of Strategic Initiatives at Eastern Kentucky University Libraries where she directs library assessment, reporting activities, and policy development, and co-leads the Libraries’ open education program with Bailey Lake. She is currently working on an EdD... Read More →

Bailey Lake

Open Strategies Librarian, Eastern Kentucky University

Bailey Lake is the Open Strategies Librarian at Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, where she advocates for open education and facilitates OER creation in partnership with university OER champions. Bailey is especially passionate about open pedagogy projects and the impact of renewable... Read More →

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

4:15pm EDT

Don’t I Know You?: Re-Designing Open Programming for Inventive Collaboration

Friday October 9, 2026 4:15pm - 4:30pm EDT

Video

ID: 33460

Open Education programming often favors the familiar, but curiosity and connection can take us somewhere meaningful and new. This talk explores what happens when we treat programming not as event planning, but as relationship-building. Grounded in this approach, it highlights how curiosity, informal conversations, and community feedback can lead to more inclusive, responsive, and collaborative programming that upholds knowledge as a public good.I’ll briefly share two experimental formats shaped by this philosophy: 1) From the Field, and 2) Open Exchange – both designed to create space for dialogue, not just delivery. In Open Exchange, for example, sessions aren’t recorded by design, encouraging participants to speak freely, reflect openly, and engage in richer, more candid conversations, reinforcing collective knowledge-building.Working in “inventive spaces” means making room for new perspectives, unexpected connections, and the kinds of conversations that don’t always fit neatly into a traditional webinar, but matter just the same. In a field that values openness, this is an invitation to consider not just what we share, but who we make space for, how we design it, and who we might become as a result of the shared reinvention of knowledge.

Speakers

Heather Blicher

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

Friday October 9, 2026 4:15pm - 4:30pm EDT
Video

Lightning Talk (View Anytime)

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

OEGlobal 2026

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