2026 OEGlobal Conference Hosted by MIT OpenCourseWare

On the last day of the recently concluded 2024 OEGlobal Conference in Brisbane, Australia, the OEGlobal team confirmed that the OEGlobal Conference would return to Massachusetts, USA, in 2026. MIT OpenCourseWare co-hosted the Open Education Global (OEGlobal) conference in 2011, then known as the OpenCourseWare Consortium Global Conference. Fifteen years later, in 2026, MIT OpenCourseWare will again co-host the OEGlobal conference in Cambridge, Mass., USA.

Curt Newton, MIT OpenCourseWare’s Publication Director, Shira Segal, Collaborations and Engagement Manager, and Brandon Muramatsu, Senior Associate Director: Projects at MIT, travelled to the OEGlobal conference in Brisbane, Australia to announce the 2026 Conference.

“Open is in our DNA,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in this video announcing the OEGlobal 2026 Conference. “We share information, innovations, and ideas with enthusiasm.”

The 2026 conference will be organised in collaboration with the Massachusetts Open Education Resources (OER) Advisory Council and Open Education Global (OEGlobal). It will mark the 18th anniversary of OEGlobal’s founding as the OpenCourseWare Consortium and the 25th anniversary of MIT OpenCourseWare.

The focus of the OEGlobal 2026 conference will be on inventing a more open and equitable future.

“With the many OER (open education resources) advocates, practitioners, doers, and thought leaders across our region and around the world, we invite you to gather and reflect as a global community on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” Curt Newton, said at the 2024 OEGlobal conference in Brisbane, Australia, as he announced the hosts of the 2026 conference. “Come invent with us!” was his passionate invitation to the open education community to attend the OEGlobal 2026 Conference.

“We are looking forward to co-organizing the next edition of the OEGlobal Conference together with MIT and the Massachusetts OER Advisory Council,” said Igor Lesko and Marcela Morales, co-executive directors at Open Education Global. “The Conference is a premier venue for open education practitioners, advocates, researchers, policymakers and students to share practices, network, and initiate collaborations. Participants will engage in discussions about the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in open education, as well as share their perspectives on its future direction. Over the years, the OEGlobal Conference has attracted participants from more than 60 countries around the world. We look forward to welcoming the global community of open education enthusiasts to Massachusetts, USA, in 2026.”

About OEGlobal

Open Education Global (OEGlobal) believes education should be open and available for all. It should not be a commodity held for a price or kept by a group with exclusive access. Open Education Global is a worldwide community of practitioners supported by member institutions that seek to transform education systems everywhere.

As a nonprofit, OEGlobal provides space through events, networks, and platforms to build a global open community of support and practice. Via its many events, celebrations and collaborative platforms, OEGlobal supports the movement toward openness in all aspects of education. With our passionate members from 250+ institutions, 238+ open educators, and an extensive international community, we foster opportunities to co-create and share resources to encourage and mainstream openness in education worldwide.

OEGlobal annually coordinates and hosts Open Education Week (OEWeek), the Open Education Global (OEGlobal Conference), and the Open Education Awards for Excellence (OEAwards). It brings together global communities through the OEGlobal Connect forum, CCCOER, OELatam and OEGlobal Francophone. Collectively, these efforts successfully encourage and make visible high-quality, inclusive education to all learners around the world. https://www.oeglobal.org

About MIT OpenCourseWare

MIT OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, was launched in 2001, establishing Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the first higher education institution to make educational resources freely available to learners anywhere in the world, regardless of their institutional affiliation. In 2024, OpenCourseWare offers materials on its website from more than 2,500 courses that span the MIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum — from syllabi, lecture notes, and problem sets to assignments, audiovisual content, and insights. With 7,500 videos and 5.5 million subscribers, its YouTube channel reaches even more people for whom video is their gateway to learning. OpenCourseWare also has an open license that allows the remix and reuse of its educational resources, which inspire millions of curious and motivated learners yearly to pursue their interests, develop new skills, and even switch careers.

Read the MIT Open Learning press release for more.

OEG Voices – Latest Podcasts

OE Global Voices

Welcome to the home of podcasts produced by Open Education Global. These shows bring you insight and connection to the application of open education practices from around the world. Listen at podcast.oeglobal.org

OEG Voices 077: Patrina Law on OE Award for Leadership

In our long overdue newest episode, we spoke to Patrina Law about her recognition with a 2023 Individual Open Education Award for Excellence in Leadership. We recorded this back in late September 2024 just prior to the announcement of the 2024 OEAwards. We are confident when you listen to Patrina you will find the wait was worth it!

Patrina shares her path from starting in the field of working in a charity organization, then joining the Open University where she ultimately came to lead OpenLearn, and recently circling back to charity in your current role with the Royal Society for the Arts. You will hear her passion for making educational opportunities available as widely as possible to society and her interests in digital badges, research, and aligning programs to documented impact.

In This Episode

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Join Alan Levine as he interviews Patrina Law, a renowned leader in Open Education Resources (OER), in this latest episode of OE Global Voices. Patrina, a 2023 award winner for leadership in OER, shares insights from her extensive career at the Open University, including her impactful work with OpenLearn.

Explore how Patrina’s passion for open education and inclusion has driven innovative projects and research, such as the introduction of digital badges and alternative learning formats. Learn how these initiatives have empowered diverse learners around the world and the significance of data-driven strategies in shaping educational content.

In this captivating conversation, Patrina also delves into her transition to the Royal Society for the Arts (RSA) and her current role in advancing the Digital Badging Commission. Discover the RSA’s mission and the potential of digital badges in recognizing and validating non-formal learning in the workforce.

Don’t miss this episode filled with inspiration, innovation, and a deep commitment to making education accessible to all. Tune in for a journey through Patrina’s remarkable contributions and her vision for the future of open education.

  • Intro music and highlight quote
  • Welcome to OE Global Voices
  • Conversation with Patrina Law
  • Patrina’s Background and Education
  • Journey to Open Education
  • OpenLearn and Its Impact
  • Challenges and Achievements
  • Digital Badges and Inclusivity

(end of AI generated show notes)

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 77

I think the first side of it was having the freedom to develop the team that develop all the content. And I was very lucky that I had a really fabulous team when I was there of really dedicated and enthusiastic folk who were very good at making open educational resources.

And I think probably I would put that as down as one of the great successes because they had the skill set to work with academics who in some senses were often dealing with very challenging subject material or very deep subject material that was aimed at undergraduates Level Two, Level Three undergraduates, and they had to rework that material and make it accessible to all, and so I and they made wonderful animations, they made great videos, they made great audio they turned that material into real living, breathing, fantastic, engaging learning content, so I think one of the successes for me, although I can’t say that it was all my doing, but as a team, was the team.

Patrina Law on her team at OpenLearn

Because so much of OER is really aimed at just everybody. And it’s, a whole point of it is to be totally open, but to have sat forward and undertaken some learning yourself, I think you should be rewarded for that at some level. And digital badges seem to be that happy marriage. So it’s great to be working in open badging again for the RSA, for all the right social good reasons as well.

Patrina Law on recognition of Open Badges


Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called Let the Flames Lead the Way  by Jon Shuemaker  licensed under a Creative Commons  Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Finally, this was another episode we are recording on the web in Squadcast, part of the Descript platform for AI enabled transcribing and editing audio in text– this has greatly enhanced our ability to produce our showsWe have been exploring some of the other AI features in Descriptbut our posts remain human authored except where indicated otherwise.