Call for Proposals

The Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas (DigiTex), Texas Digital Library (TDL), and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) are now accepting proposals for the second annual, virtual Open Texas conference, to be held September 21-23, 2022.

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Following the success of last year’s Open Texas conference, Open Texas 2022 will again bring together open education practitioners and advocates, including librarians, faculty, and administrators in Texas, to explore research on the impact of open educational resources (OER) on student learning and success, review new tools and resources to reduce costs of textbooks and learning materials for students, and highlight the labor and advocates that make OER possible.

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This year’s conference theme, “The Labor of Open Education,” invites participants to reflect on the work, creativity, art, and science of open education 20 years since UNESCO adopted the term “open educational resources” in 2002. With its origins in social justice and motivation to achieve equity in access, participation, and attainment for students and practitioners, open education has required significant work and commitment. 

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Twenty years in, OER have become more mainstream in higher education. Texas has seen growth in awareness, support, and commitment to OER, with over 45% of institutions having formal policies or programs in place to support OER practices. In addition, about a third of institutions are providing a more comprehensive approach to OER efforts on their campuses by engaging an ecosystem that includes students, faculty, library and digital learning staff, and faculty development centers. 

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However, there is still work to be done. Institutions report that only 10% of faculty have been formally trained on OER, and training efforts have remained stagnant from 2019 to 2021. There is also variation in resources, both human and financial, across colleges and universities to promote OER awareness and adoption (Jimes, et.al., 2021). This emphasizes and validates the importance of collective practitioner events such as the Open Texas conference. 

In 2022, as higher education has become more comfortable with the digital universe and the pandemic becomes endemic, it is time to examine the labor of open education. This year’s conference will explore the people and passion behind the success of OER over the last two decades. We encourage you to submit a proposal in the following topic areas:

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• Collective power supporting OER – The people behind OER

  • Staffing, workflows, and support: How can practitioners navigate work environments amid shared interests, competing priorities, increased demands, and pressures that are both self-imposed and external to continue to move OER forward?

    • Presentations on creative and equitable approaches to staffing, collaborative partnerships, strategic workflows, and best practices to garner support for OER progress.

  • Balance, bandwidth, and enjoyment: Two years into COVID, how do we sustain and support those who have been doing the work and/or reclaim the joy and creativity in the labor of open education?

    • Presentations on practices that encourage balance, mental health, and cultivating positive and productive work environments.

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• Advancing OER – Pioneering programs and robust resources

  • Innovative and inclusive open educational practices: How can we apply diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in open education? Specifically, how is DEI incorporated in terms of workforce development, resources, content, pedagogy, and the benefits that accrue to students from OER?

    • Presentations on existing services, programs, and activities that foster an inclusive open education ecosystem. Programs and practices with an applied DEI focus are especially welcome.

  • Leveraging existing resources to move OER forward: How can we find, adopt, and adapt resources that have already been created by the OER community? What avenues of assistance are already in place or forthcoming for those engaged in OER work?

    • Presentations on resources and funding opportunities available or in development that can be leveraged to advance open practices and support those doing the work.

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• OER Frameworks and Advocacy - Processes and policy

  • Establishing effective OER frameworks: What are the processes and requirements for developing, maintaining, and sustaining current OER initiatives and building capacity for new initiatives?

    • Presentations on effective OER campus policies, governance structures, and advisory councils and insights on complying with existing legislation (SB810, HB1027).

  • Building on advocacy for OER resources: How can practitioners work with decision-makers to acquire resources—people, time, funding—to support and sustain the open ecosystem?

    • Presentations on effective strategies for those engaged in the labor of OER to advocate for resources to advance OER practices.

Presentations aimed at novice, intermediate, and experienced open education practitioners are welcome. Presentations should fall into one of the following formats:

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• Presentations and Workshops (45-50 minutes)

  • Engaging content delivery presentations with time for audience question and answer. These sessions will include learner outcomes and interactive formats are encouraged.

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• Micro-Presentations (20 minutes including Q&A)

  • Short content micro-presentations that are designed to highlight condensed topics or high-level overviews.

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• Show and Fail (10 min with additional 5 minutes for Q&A)

  • Short talks about programs, initiatives, workflows, or strategies you lead or participated in that did not work out as planned. This session type is new to Open Texas and will celebrate risk-taking rather than success. See examples at:

    • https://thecollective2020.sched.com/event/WxkE/failure-confessions

    • https://thecollective2019.sched.com/event/IOQA/failure-confessions 

Complete proposals must include a title, abstract (1200 character limit, each space counts as a character), two to three learning outcomes for the audience (500 character limit with spaces), and information for each speaker (name, title, institution, brief bio, and email address). Proposals must indicate the preferred format and topic area.

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Proposal will be submitted via Cvent and is due on Friday, June 17. Presenters will be notified of acceptance in late June-early July. 

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Proposals will be evaluated based on relevance to the conference theme or topic areas, appeal and utility for conference participants and the open education community, and clarity and succinctness. 

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Contact open.ed.texas@gmail.com with questions.

Jimes, C., Karaglani, A., Godwin, A.E., Sebesta, J., Pike, U., Singh, M., & Torre, K. (2021). Advancing an Ecosystem for Open Educational Resources: OER in Texas Higher Education, 2021. Austin, TX: Digital Higher Education Consortium of Texas and Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; Half Moon Bay, CA: Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education.