2026 Open Education Conference

Open education is often framed in terms of access, sharing, and innovation. But what happens when openness creates risks for learners? This session explores open educational practices through a different lens, asking not only what we open, but what we protect. Drawing on experiences in carceral classrooms and work with marginalized communities, this presentation examines how openness is neither neutral nor inherently liberatory. Participants will consider how knowledge can be shared, appropriated, or weaponized, and how educators make intentional decisions about when to open knowledge and when to protect it. This session reframes open education as a relational and ethical practice rooted in care, responsibility, and lived experience. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how to approach openness with intentionality in their own contexts.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Describe how open educational practices can function as relational and ethical practices, not just access-based approaches.
• Identify risks associated with openness, particularly for marginalized communities.
• Analyze how decisions to share or protect knowledge shape learning environments.
• Apply intentional decision-making when implementing open practices in their own contexts.
• Reflect on how care, authorship, and responsibility influence their approach to openness.

Strong teams are the bedrock of successful OER projects. Across three federal grant initiatives LOUIS: The Louisiana Library Network has sustained long-term team participation using a cohort model to produce sixty OER textbooks and accompanying LMS courses. This panel will discuss how LOUIS uses project management techniques to build resilient teams to ensure project success through - building a culture and atmosphere of trust, empowerment, and engagement. Cohort Leaders from the most recent “Building a Competitive Workforce” project will address common challenges, such as change, conflict, and distributed teams, and solutions to maintain team morale and momentum. Tailored to new or aspiring leaders of amazing humans and project leaders, this discussion emphasizes lessons learned and actionable insights participants can apply immediately to strengthen team dynamics.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Explain project management strategies to build strong OER teams through a culture of trust, empowerment, engagement and resilience in OER project teams.
• Recognize common challenges and identify effective solutions for building resilient OER project teams.

This presentation shares preliminary findings from an ongoing research project on OER developers’ needs, preferences, and practices in generating mathematics visuals for curriculum materials using GenAI tools. Drawing on interviews from ten mathematics OER developers, the study explores how visual production workflows are evolving in response to emerging technologies. Early analysis suggests that developers increasingly adopt hybrid workflows that combine traditional design tools with AI support, using iterative processes to refine visual accuracy and pedagogical alignment. Findings highlight the advantages of AI in streamlining visual development while also identifying challenges related to the accuracy and accessibility of AI-generated content. Additional time is needed to present emerging findings, illustrate visual development workflows, and discuss practical recommendations from developers to support the responsible AI integration in mathematics OER development.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Describe key needs and preferences of OER developers regarding the generation of mathematics visuals in curriculum materials.
• Identify common practices and hybrid workflows used by developers when generating mathematics visuals using generative AI tools.
• Explain the advantages and challenges of using generative AI for mathematics visual development.
• Describe practical recommendations from developers regarding AI tool development and integration to support a sustainable content development environment for OER developers.

While the benefits of Open Educational Resources (OER) are often touted as universal, the practical reality of implementation is deeply shaped by disciplinary boundaries. This panel explores the messy, productive intersections of OER across diverse departments, moving beyond "one-size-fits-all" narratives to examine how field-specific needs dictate success.



The panelists will share how they developed and implemented OER in their specific disciplines (Library Science, French, Communication, and Sociology) and which insights they gained through interdisciplinary collaboration. Rather than just showcasing success stories, presenters will also highlight the tensions inherent in different assessment strategies, curriculum decisions, and student expectations.



Attendees will gain a look at the cross-departmental collaboration process, focusing on the "friction points" where OER meets specialized academic requirements.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identifyspecific disciplinary friction points that influence the adoption and adaptation of Open Educational Resources across diverse fields.
• Analyze how unique assessment strategies and curricular requirements in fields like French or Sociologynecessitatedifferent OER structures.
• Develop strategies for fostering interdisciplinary collaborations that respect the pedagogical nuances of different academic departments.
• Evaluate the impact of student expectations regarding "authoritative" versus "open" texts within their own specific academic context.
• Navigatecommon tensions in OER implementation by applying lessons learned from the cross-departmental development process.

What begins with a single conversation can transform an entire system. This session traces how the College of Southern Nevada sparked a statewide open education movement — one relationship at a time.

Early outreach to sister institutions across the Nevada System of Higher Education grew into monthly cross-campus collaborations, bringing together faculty, librarians, and administrators from Las Vegas to Reno. What once felt like vast distance began to shrink.

Those community-driven connections laid the groundwork for a statewide OER symposium, bringing Nevada's higher education community together for the first time — and that momentum carried forward into policy, culminating in NSHE's commitment to expanding access to zero-cost and low-cost course materials systemwide.

If you're working in isolation or looking to build bridges across your state system, Nevada's story offers a practical roadmap for turning grassroots energy into lasting impact.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identify strategies for initiating cross-institutional OER collaborations within a state higher education system.
• Describe how consistent community building and monthly convenings can advance a statewide open education agenda.
• Recognize the role of grassroots faculty and staff efforts in driving systemic policy change around course material affordability.
• Apply lessons from Nevada's statewide OER journey to develop or expand open education initiatives at their own institution.
• Articulate the connection between statewide OER coordination and improved student access to zero-cost and low-cost course materials.