The open education field has no shortage of dedicated researchers but it lacks a shared map. Studies are siloed, datasets go untapped, many groups pursue parallel efforts that rarely connect. The result: duplicated work and missed opportunities for the kind of cumulative, policy-relevant evidence the field urgently needs.
This session presents the NCOER National Research Agenda, a practitioner-informed, field-wide framework developed through 126 survey responses and 15 in-depth interviews with researchers, faculty, librarians, and system leaders. Grounded in what the field itself is saying, the agenda offers a bird's-eye view of where open education research stands today, where the critical gaps are, and what to prioritize next.
We will highlight six national research priorities and invite attendees to reflect on where their own work fits, and what meaningful collaboration might look like from here.
Attendees of this session will be able to:- Describe the six national research priorities identified through the NCOER research agenda and explain the evidence gaps each one addresses;.
- Situate their own open education research or practice within the broader landscape of what the field is calling for;.
- Identify at least one area of potential collaboration or research alignment with existing groups such as DOERS, the Open Education Association, or regional consortia;.
- Articulate why a coordinated, field-wide research infrastructure matters for advancing policy-relevant evidence in open education; and.
- Explain how the agenda was developed to be representative of diverse roles, institutional types, and regions across the U.S.
