2026 Open Education Conference

This study presents a Global South perspective on open education by examining how Open Educational Resources (OER) are perceived, accessed, and used by undergraduates in Nigerian federal universities, an underrepresented context in dominant discourse. The population comprised 3,574 200-, 300-, and 400-level Library and Information Science (LIS) students across accredited federal universities, using a descriptive correlational survey design. A stratified proportionate random sampling technique (60%) yielded 2,145 participants from 12 universities. Data were collected באמצעות a structured questionnaire (sections A–E) with strong reliability (α = 0.86). Descriptive statistics were used for analysis; Pearson correlation tested hypotheses 1–6, while multiple regression tested hypothesis 7. Findings challenge Global North–centric assumptions and highlight contextual factors such as ICT self-efficacy, infrastructure constraints, and awareness gaps shaping OER use.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• By the end of this session, participants will be able to:.
• Explain the role of OER in promoting equitable access, cost reduction, and improved academic outcomes in higher education contexts beyond North America.
• Analyze the relationships among ICT self-efficacy, student perceptions of OER, patterns of OER use, and academic performance using evidence from Nigerian federal universities.
• Identify the most commonly used types of OER among Library and Information Science undergraduates and the academic purposes they serve.
• Evaluate how contextual factors such as infrastructure limitations, awareness levels, and internet access shape OER adoption and effectiveness in low-resource environments.
• Discuss the implications of student-centered evidence from Nigeria for advancing global, inclusive, and context-responsive open education strategies.
• Understand policy development for sustaining OER initiatives beyond the Global North.

Across disciplines and institutions, instructors face growing challenges regarding student engagement and academic integrity. These challenges are compounded by the emergence of AI and shifting workforce needs. Our workforce requires students to develop an ever-increasing set of skills to obtain entry-level jobs. Traditional print textbooks can't keep pace with these shifts, but OER can!

Drawing on data from the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, this session highlights the skills and competencies increasingly valued by employers worldwide. We’ll share practical strategies for customizing OER to support skill development, respond to emerging technologies, and meet local and industry-specific needs, all while maintaining academic rigor and relevance. Participants will leave with an AI prompt template to create five ready-to-implement, skills-based assignments that align with emerging workforce needs, meet course objectives, and incorporate OER content.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Identify key challenges facing college educators, including maintaining student engagement, managing the impact of AI, and equipping students with ever-changing, in-demand career skills.
• Analyze emerging workforce skills from the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 and their relevance in specific academic disciplines.
• Explain how OER can be customized to support skill development while maintaining academic rigor.
• Apply a structured AI prompt template to generate 1) skills-based learning activities aligned with course objectives, open content, and industry needs, and 2) aligned instructional support materials (e.g., grading rubrics, scaffolding for struggling students).
• Refine AI-generated activities to ensure they support individual course contexts, follow accessibility best practices, and meet activity design preferences.

From “equitable access” models to anti-DEI mandates and limited infrastructure funding, navigating policy barriers to Open Education Practices (OEP) while working to sustain engagement and increase adoption is challenging work.

Drawing on a statewide student textbook survey, an institutional faculty survey, and practitioner experiences, this session highlights tensions between affordability, access, academic freedom, and student choice.

A case study examines how the implementation of a campus-funded “equitable access” program dampened advocacy for, adoption of, and engagement with OEP. While often framed as affordability solutions, these programs can create structural and political barriers for OER advocacy, particularly when institutions constrain messaging tied to bookstore partnerships.

Participants will reflect on how context shapes OER work and engage in discussion about navigating different types of policy constraints.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Interpret a case study on student and faculty perspectives on cost, access, and course materials.
• Reflect on the ways institutional context shapes OER work.
• Consider potential approaches for navigating barriers to OER engagement.
• Engage in discussion with peers about these issues.

Public debate continues to rage over AI policy - the economic, technical, and legal regulation of AI tool creation and use. These debates, however, reduce the interests down to a balancing of the interest and demands of the content industry with the interests and demands of the technology industry. Neither of those interests align particularly closely with the interests of users, and of public interest institutions including libraries, educational institutions, and the populations they serve.

The members of the panel will discuss what issues define the public interest as distinct from both of these corporate interests - working from the experience of the open education community as both committed to the public interest and engaged with new technologies. We will cover interests including accessibility, transparency, due process, interoperability, and surveillance - focusing on implementation choices made by institutions and educators with an open pedagogy framework.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Better understand the way specific choices in AI implementation will affect open pedagogy goals, including student centeredness and student agency.
• Advocate for the interests of public institutions in the AI policy debate.
• Contribute to the exploration of emerging interests as AI policy is made at institutional and legal levels.

Normalizing usage data through coefficient of variation analysis makes meaningful comparison actionable, revealing whether reach is genuinely broad or concentrated, and whether engagement is sustained or episodic. Understanding variability is fundamental to improvement science in education, providing critical insights into the health of the systems we create. Drawing on data from a library-led OER initiative at MD Anderson Cancer Center, the presenter will demonstrate how CV analysis reveals patterns that aggregate counts obscure, including whether usage concentrates in a handful of countries, whether a small number of resources dominate downloads, and whether engagement is sustained or episodic over time.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Explain why coefficient of variation analysis provides diagnostic value for evaluating OER program health.
• Distinguish between geographic, content, and temporal dimensions of OER variability and what each reveals about program reach and engagement.