2026 Open Education Conference

How do we move OER from "free to use" to "trusted by all"? Join project leads from the U.S. federally funded Open 4 Peer Review initiative for a first look at a new framework designed to promote OER excellence. We’ve developed six rigorous rubrics covering the essentials: Accessibility, Copyright, Copyediting, Disciplinary Appropriateness, Instructional Design, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

This isn't just a presentation—it’s a lab. In this interactive session, you will gain access to the rubrics, "live-test" a rubric on an OER excerpt, and compare your findings with colleagues from around the world. Your feedback will directly shape the final version of these tools before they are published globally. Come help us build the infrastructure for high-quality, high-trust open education.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Apply specialized OER quality rubrics to evaluate academic content for specific criteria such as accessibility, copyright compliance, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
• Integrate a peer review framework into your local institutional OER workflows to increase faculty trust and streamline adoption, adaptation and/or creation of OER.

Despite its potential to democratize science, strengthen public trust, and address urgent global challenges, Open Science has not yet become the default practice in research. Undergraduate science education could play a pivotal role in shaping this cultural shift. We argue that preparing students to practice Open Science requires more than technical training in open tools and data-sharing: it must include critical engagement with ethical aspects of pursuing Open Science. The OCTOPUS project supports educators to utilize Open Pedagogy as a powerful strategy to embed critical engagement with Open Science into undergraduate education, positioning students as co-creators of knowledge and fostering democratic, collaborative, and justice-oriented approaches to science. We highlight examples for integrating Open Science and Open Pedagogy into courses and programs that can prepare both future scientists and citizens to engage in science as a collective, open, and socially responsible endeavor.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Learn about the goals of the OCTOPUS project.
• Find out how to access and use the OCTOPUS resources.
• Understand the connections between Open Science and Open Pedagogy.
• Learn how to engage in the OCTOPUS community.
• Understand the necessity of bringing a broader scope of the Open Ecosystem to our Open Education movement.

In 2026, librarians from University of the Pacific and Middle Tennessee State University each marked $3 million in student savings with campus celebrations designed to spotlight the impact of their OER programs. This lighthearted session explores how “throwing a party” can serve serious strategic goals—advancing advocacy, building administrative support, attracting faculty, and deepening campus understanding of OER’s pedagogical value. Presenters will share candid stories about planning challenges (from competing campus events to unpredictable attendance) alongside unexpected successes, such as leadership amplification through social media. Drawing on experiences from two very different institutions (in enrollment, dedicated staffing, location, and program longevity), this session offers practical, adaptable strategies for designing celebrations that elevate program visibility, strengthen long‑term sustainability, and support librarians seeking fresh ways to grow their OER initiatives.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identify the essential elements of planning an OER milestone celebration that increases campus awareness and supports long-term program sustainability.
• Recognize common event-planning challenges—and learn practical, adaptable strategies for navigating timing conflicts, attendance issues, and campus dynamics.
• Generate creative, purpose-driven celebration ideas that effectively engage administrators, faculty, and students in understanding and supporting OER.

While Open Educational Resources (OER) are essential for creating an accessible and equitable learning landscape, a critical gap exists in the movement: the consistent inclusion of student voices. Exploring the theme of "The Space Between," this session addresses the disconnect between OER efforts in higher education institutions and the student leaders needed to sustain it.

Learn from experienced student leaders who will share proven organizing practices developed through the Student PIRGs’ 50-year history of running effective campus campaigns. Participants will learn practical strategies for recruiting, training, and maintaining student leadership.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identify student spokespeople who can deliver personal stories about their experiences with college affordability and open educational resource solutions.
• Develop and mentor students as effective messengers to advocate for OER policies at the institutional, state, and national levels.
• Build lasting organizations and leadership infrastructure to maintain a consistent student spokesperson presence at your institution.

Presenters and attendees in this session examine the benefits/impact of OERs in continuing professional development for professions that require continuing education. This mixed-methods pre-post OER intervention study with 77 registered nurses investigates nurses' perceptions of OERs before and after participating in a continuing educational activity using an OER. Pre-to-post RN perceptions of OERs improved, with participants noting their quality, economic benefits, increased equitable access, and convenience for professional development. Educators should incorporate OERs into professional development offerings. RNs affirmed the benefits of including OERs in continuing nursing education and professional development. Their feedback stressed the vital role these resources play in promoting access, equity, and persistent learning within the profession.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Describe the role of open educational resources (OERs) in continuing professional development.
• Examine key findings from a mixed-methods pre–post study evaluating the impact of OER use in professional education.
• Identify perceived benefits of OERs, including quality, cost-effectiveness, accessibility, and convenience for continuing education.

This session builds on the presenters’ OpenEd 2024, OEGlobal24, and OpenEd 2025 presentations exploring meaningful communication of the impact of open educational practices on student success. Shared vocabulary emerges as a space often overlooked which can bridge gaps between “where we are and where we aspire to be”. The presentation series has built out strategies for navigating difficult conversations about the impact of open educational practices using the language of access and community impact, learning science, and instructional design.

This session will discuss localizing conversations about open practices in alignment with institutional language and frameworks focused on student success. The presenters will demonstrate how they have operationalized student success frameworks, dashboards, and data dictionaries published by institutional research and analytics departments and student affairs programs to communicate the impact of open educational practices on student success.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identify localized institutional data dashboards, data dictionaries, and student success frameworks; [Bloom’s 1, Knowledge].
• Recognize ways in which these resources communicate student success; [Bloom’s 2, Comprehension].
• Explore localized vocabulary used to describe student success goals, strategies, and metrics alongside vocabulary used to describe the impact of open practices on student success [Bloom’s 3, Application].
• Differentiate the language they use to describe their open educational practice to align with localized student success frameworks [Bloom’s 4, Analysis].
• Evaluate the compatibility of this approach with their own educational mission and vision [Bloom’s 5, Evaluate].

Educators new to open education are often already stretched. Approaching them with new practices to adopt risks positioning open education as one more demand rather than a useful strategy.

This session introduces a different approach to open education professional development: folio thinking, a reflective practice framework that centres personal meaning-making. Rather than beginning with skills, the Open Education Workbook (KPU) invites educators to connect open education principles to their own values and teaching context throughout. The result: open education becomes a practical strategy for acting on values educators already hold, rather than a new set of demands.

The workbook is available on PebblePad (with optional ATLAS facilitator support) and as an openly licensed Pressbooks resource for adaptation.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Describe how a values-first, folio thinking approach to open education development works — and how anchoring learning in the principles of accessible, effective, and equitable teaching can lower barriers for educators new to open education.
• Determine whether and how a values-first approach to open education development might apply in their own institutional context.
• Focus on topics that align with their own open education journey, applying open educational concepts directly to their teaching context.

As post-secondary institutions increasingly emphasize impact and open scholarship/science initiatives, OER publishing programs can consider strategic alignment across collective, local, and institutional spaces. This presentation examines the evolution of an OER publishing program’s support resources developed to support a grassroots consortium of representatives with their own local institutional programs, while also coordinating shared provincial practices and workflows. With organizational changes and new opportunities for creators, we explore how OER workflows and resources have aligned with research and institutional priorities through an Open Education Alberta Institutional Representative Toolkit for launching or reframing OER publishing aligned with centralized workflows while enabling flexible local implementation. It offers practical insights for OER publishing services navigating evolving priorities, and connections to research and education for OER creators.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Consider, adopt, or adapt components of the Open Education Alberta Institutional Representative Toolkit to support or evolve their own local OER publishing services.
• Understand the service model and shared workflows of Open Education Alberta’s Pressbooks-hosted OER publishing program, including how centralized infrastructure supports locally implemented services.
• Reflect on navigating these interconnected spaces between and within education, research, and institutional priorities for OER publishing as service support staff and as creators.