Author: Maren Deepwell

In true OER-style the weather in Milton Keynes was super sunny. Walking across the campus of the Open University, with its green laws, shady trees and sun drenched buildings felt like joining a particularly educational summer holiday camp. Regular readers will know that the OER Conference holds a special place in my heart, and the beautiful weather and setting only added to a sense of joyful anticipation.

I am deeply sensible of the privilege to be here, which is thanks to my work with Jim Groom and Reclaim Hosting, and delighted to come along with stickers and two talks (one for Reclaim and one for my next book). It’s a strong week for Open Education in Europe with Jim, keynoting across the channel at the OERCamp’s Future University Conference.

Day 1

(In some ways OER26 started the day before the conference proper, with an invitation to visit Bletchley Park and a social get together for the GO-GN network, which I attended. Rarely has a rooftop terrace in Milton Keynes looked as Mediterranean as it did in nearly 30 degrees Celsius that evening, and many hugs were exchanged as we toasted freshly minted Dr Leo Havemann.)

Now, back to the actual conference day. After a warm welcome, the opening keynote was delivered by Prof. Eileen Scanlon, both deeply grounded in the subject and engagingly personal. It was amazing to hear someone with so many decades of experience speak on open and technology in education. We often bemoan the lack of historical context in current discourse, what we might term “predicting the future of education by press release” and the opening keynote provided an important counter narrative for just that.

During the coffee break a fellow delegate and I got talking about how inspiring we both found it to see many Open University colleagues stay put for decades, resulting in a remarkable level of institutional knowledge and collaboration. At a time when having a long term career in a single job or even a single institution feels like it’s becoming more and more rare, that feels inspiring. “If people are staying here for decades they must be doing something right.”

Speaking of people who seem to be doing more than something right, OER26 brought me a special moment of joy when meeting Robin DeRosa and her colleagues from the Open Education Network and also meeting colleagues from TRU. A packed room for my session on “From Experiment to Enterprise” was still blissfully cool, and I nearly ran out of Reclaim laptop stickers before the end 🙂

Other highlights from Day 1 for me were:

• Sustainability Words of Wisdom: Exploring the first year of a pan-university project curating effective sustainability practice examples at the Open University by Catriona Matthews, Paul Astles;
• Open Educational Practices as Digital Public Goods: Promoting Resilience, Equity and Innovation in Higher Education Ecosystems by Javiera Atenas, Leo Havemann, Fabio Nascimbeni;
• Celebrating 20 Years of OpenLearn with Andy Lane, Simon Ashby, Cathy Casserley and Glenda Cox.

To end the day, I was fortunate to chair two research papers, including Dr Leo Havemann’s doctoral research on Valuing OEP: Community, Care and Scholarship. It was lovely to be able to congratulate a newly minted GO-GN PhD in person.

Day 2

After a heavy downpour the night before the sun returned for the second day. The keynote on OER, Sustainability, and AI in Open, Distance, and Digital Education (ODDE) delivered by Prof. Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter was fascinating (and on a side note, that was the second keynote this month delivered by someone based at the University of Oldenburg, the first being Prof. Felicitas Macgilchrist whom I saw keynote in Dublin at the start of this month. I wonder whether in these complex and uncertain time the precision and clarity of a German approach to academic rigour has become more attractive to conference conveners).

Digital Sustainability was a big theme at the conference and the second keynote was very insightful on that topic. It was interesting to me how digital sustainability, in the widest sense, relates to the quality of OERs produced, both technically and pedagogically. Much of the research that informed the keynote originated at the OU, especially the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, or JIME. Which in turn celebrated a big milestone at OER26: Thirty Years of the Journal of Interactive Media in Education: Open Scholarship as Intellectual Practice.

I chaired a great session by Lorna Campbell (we missed you, my friend!) and Joe Wilson later that morning: Exploring Institutional Barriers to Open Practice – a Scottish Case Study. We had a critical discussion around degrees of open, the context of AI and wider change and the impact on open infrastructure that increased bot traffic has.

Other highlights for me were:

• Rebuilding the Case for Open Education: Rethinking Advocacy Foundations in the U.S. by Nicole Allen
• Developing an Undergraduate Certificate in Publishing and Editing by Kathy Essmiller, Aimee Parkison
• From Fragmentation to Federation: Building a National OER Platform in Sweden by Jörg Pareigis, Axel Klinger

I’ll blog more links to the resources in due course, and you can head to the OER website itself to explore more in the meantime.

As the heatwave continued and it got warmer and warmer throughout the event, the library’s informal and free deckchair lending scheme caught my eye. In the foyer were colourful deckchairs you could take outside to a shady spot. Ready to relax in the shade (the only ask is to return the deckchairs when finished). Hats off to the Open University library that hosted us for two days for such a fun and fab initiative!

These sunny, hopeful days filled to the brim with Open Education goodness left me thoroughly inspired. The programme was both varied and challenging, focusing on some of the biggest questions in open education today. It made me think, reflect and discover lots of new ideas. OER26 also reminded me that even though the noise of the world might be louder than ever, the voices of Open Education are stronger, too, and set out new visions and approaches to make sense of AI, sustainability and change. Bravo!

Big congrats to Beck and Rob, the Conference Co-Chairs, and the many volunteers and colleagues who played their part in making OER26 such a joy!