2024 Open Education Conference

This session is designed to identify an agenda for action and research for the open education community which, we argue, is at a crossroads – building on a critical conversation begun at OER24 in March: “The future isn’t what it used to be: open education at a crossroads” (Cronin & Czerniewicz, 2024). The purpose of the session is to enable globally diverse conversations about the future of open education. In the context of the current global polycrisis, it is clear that the assumptions and foundations of open education are under threat. This moment –a crossroads– requires all parts of the open education movement to work together. In alliance with those who believe that open education is central to fighting for human rights, democracy, justice and sustainability, we (i) propose a framework of ideas for moving closer to realising those ideas, a “manifesto for open education for good”, and (ii) facilitate groupwork so that participants can collaborate to identify specific next steps.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Recognise at least some of the ways that wider global crises emerge within, impact on, and intersect with open education.
• Articulate the five tenets of the Manifesto for Open Education for Good.
• Take first steps in developing an agenda to take forward after the session, to work towards creating better open education and social futures.

While many academics express a desire to create open educational resources (OERs), few do. A key barrier academics report preventing them from engaging in OER creation is a lack of in-depth understanding of the development process at an individual level. This presentation outlines individual level lessons learned about OER development from a case study of one early career academic’s experience creating OER for the first time. Analysis of the academic’s journals, critical friend meetings, and stakeholder evaluation of the OER she created, reveal barriers and facilitators encountered. Examples include: (mis)understandings about OER and how to learn about them; technology options, costs, and decisions; institutional supports; and tensions with other academic priorities. While some generic ‘how-to’ guides and macro-level analyses of OER issues exist, these contextualized first-hand lessons offer novel individual-level support for educators navigating OER creation for the first-time.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Understand the barriers and facilitators they may likely encounter as individuals developing OER for the first time.
• Develop a detailed and realistic plan for the development of their first OER.

This lightning talk will share the experience of an open online course which fostered an open online community, which begat an AI-powered audio chatbot, Dr. Oblivion, who was drafted as a teaching assistant. A community member built the bot as a project for an outside course. The instructors were able to put it to use in a digital storytelling where the class could experiment with and learn about generative AI applications as tools for creating narratives on the web. This serves as an example of how open educational practices can enable creativity and connection within a community. Dr. Oblivion may contribute snide commentary to the presentation.

Attendees of this session will be able to:

• Discuss broad benefits of open educational practices
• Discuss potential benefits of incorporating generative AI applications into a course