Image by OEGlobal CC-BY

OEGlobal Announces New Board of Directors Leadership

The Open Education Global (OEGlobal) Board of Directors is pleased to announce the election of a new President, Vice President, and Treasurer to the Board of Directors on September 1st, 2023.

The changes to the OEGlobal Board Office Bearers include:

Connie will serve as Vice President of the Board along with Lisa Young, who was voted Vice President of the Board in January 2023.

At the same time, Cathy Casserly (USA) and Martin Dougiamas (Australia) were re-appointed as Board Members.

The OEG Board of Directors would also like to sincerely thank Lena Patterson (Canada) and Willem van Valkenburg (The Netherlands) for their service as President and Past President of the Board, respectively.

Lena Patterson served as President of the OEG Board of Directors from 2021 until 2023 and will continue her involvement with OEGlobal as the Past President of the Board until 2024.

Willem van Valkenburg has served on the OEG Board of Directors since 2013. From 2019-2021, Willem served as President of the Board of Directors. He completed his term as the Past President of the Board in 2023.

Meet the newly appointed Board Members

Perrine de Coëtlogon (France) works on Open Education and Digital Identity at the Directorate for Pedagogical Innovation of the University of Lille. She represents the French authorities in the European Blockchain Partnership and leads a public transformation project to gather an eWallet diploma and micro-credentials. She is also in charge of developing open education activities and policies. She has participated in OEGlobal since 2016, when she co-hosted the Open Education Leadership Summit in Paris. She has been a board member of OEGlobal since 2020 when she launched the OEGlobal Francophone online conference and network.

Perrine holds a Master of Law from the University of Paris Saclay (France) and an LLM from the University of Potsdam (Germany). She was a lawyer at the Paris Bar from 2002 to 2009 and the General Secretary of a public interest grouping promoting open education resources in health and sports sciences from 2009 to 2015. Perrine was then a digital expert (Europe and International) at the Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation from 2015 to 2018. She joined the University of Lille in 2018 on Blockchain and Open Education.

“We look forward to advancing the vision and mission of Open Education Global (OEG). Adopting a collaborative approach, we will work with the OEG Board members, staff, members and partners to accelerate mainstreaming of Open Education within education systems worldwide. We strongly believe in the power of Open Education to transform education practices and address pressing societal challenges.”

Perrine, Connie, Lisa and Marian
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Constance Blomgren (Canada) is an Assistant Professor of Education at Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University. Her background as a K-12 teacher in rural, remote, and northern Canadian locations now informs her research and interest in open educational resources and open pedagogy for K-12 teachers and learners. She curates the BOLT Multi-author blog that houses videos and podcasts regarding open pedagogy and OER for K-12. Her research on strengthening K-12 teacher awareness and using OER and open practices was published in IRRODL and Open Praxis. Connie is interested in visual and multi-literacies, participatory technologies, teacher-professional learning, and open pedagogy.

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Hsu-Tien (Marian) Wan (Taiwan) is the Associate Dean of the Office of Information Technology at Taipei Medical University (TMU). In 2017, she founded the Digital Initiative Center at the College of Interdisciplinary Studies at TMU, whose vision is to promote the best practices of OER, e-learning, and MOOCs. Marian holds a Master of Computer Science and a Bachelor of Pharmacy.

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Cathy Casserly (USA) is the founder and president of Casserly Consulting & Coaching. She is an experienced leader and a focused strategist who challenges entrenched thinking and positions individuals and organizations for accelerated performance. Her work spans the U.S. and international arenas and involves consulting partnerships and executive coaching with philanthropic, nonprofit, corporate, startup, and learning organizations.

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Martin Dougiamas (Australia) founded the open-source Moodle LMS (used by over 60% of all higher education in the world). Martin has a mixed academic background with multiple post-graduate degrees in Computer Science and Education and two honorary doctorates (from Spain and Belgium). He continues to focus on researching how technology can support teaching and learning in open and human ways, primarily when it supports the UN’s sustainable development goals.

“Congratulations to the newly elected office-bearers and re-appointed board members. The diversity of experiences and expertise embodied in the Open Education Global (OEG) Board of Directors is remarkable. We look forward to working with the OEG Board, staff, members and the open communities on the implementation of OEG’s strategic plan to ensure mainstreaming of Open Education Practices worldwide.”

Marcela and Igor, Interim Co-Executive Directors

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 082: Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell on “The Small Things”

Our newest episode features the voices of three experienced leaders of open education organizations who also do most of this work online. In a session recorded live during Open Education Week 2025, Amanda Coolidge, Marcela Morales, and Maren Deepwell reflect on now, more than even before, the importance of finding small things of joy in our practice. 

How this came about is an example of small things in action. After listening to one of Maren Deepwell’s podcasts with OE Global’s Alan Levine, Amanda did a small act of gratitude by sending them both an email of appreciation.

Hi Maren and Alan

I just finished listening to your podcast episode together and I absolutely loved it. It brought a smile to my face listening to your stories Alan. It was so refreshing to hear you say that it’s gotta be fun. I needed this reminder. There are days when being the ED of an org is far from fun and it’s important for me to not let that drag me down.

Loved the conversation and just wanted to let you both know.

email from Amanda Coolidge

Maren replied noting “how important it is for us to rediscover the joy in small things in our practice” leading Amanda to share “It truly feels like this ‘rediscover the joy in small things in our practice is more important than ever in our contexts (globally and nationally).” This was how we came to plan an open podcast recording for OEWeek and bringing Marcela in to expand the conversation. And as we learned since recording, the connection continues as Maren will be publishing a new podcast soon from a followup conversation she had with Amanda and Marcela.

In the OEGlobal Voices Podcast Studio with clockwise from top left, Amanda Coolidge (BCcampus), Marcela Morales (OE Global), Maren Deepwell (Maren Deepwell Coaching), and Alan Levine (OE Global). Not pictured, but listening in live were Shira Segal (MIT), Manisha Khetarpal (Maskwacis Cultural College), and Beck Pitt (The Open University).

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.

In this episode of OE Global Voices, Alan Levine hosts a dynamic conversation during Open Education Week 2025 with Amanda Coolidge, Maren Deepwell, and Marcela Morales. They discuss leading open organizations, the importance of self-care, and finding joy in the small things amid the challenges of managing teams and building relationships. The conversation is filled with heartfelt insights, practical examples, and touching personal stories.

  • Introduction to OEWeek Podcast
  • Amanda’s Perspective on Leadership
  • Marcela’s Views on Team Dynamics
  • Maren’s Insights on Virtual Team Leading
  • Story Behind the Conversation
  • Connection Amid Critiques
  • Exploration of Relationship Building
  • AI and Thoughtful Leadership
  • Concluding Thoughts and Personal Joys

(end of AI generated show notes)

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 82

 It’s been something that I have intentionally been really working towards, which is, sending snail mail notes to staff after they’ve done something, if it’s bringing people together or potentially asking a really awesome question that sort of got people thinking.

And then when I listened to that podcast, I just thought, oh, that really, inspired me. And it just reminded me of the importance of play in our work and how sometimes when you lead an organization, there’s so much operational day-to-day that you forget the reason why you started in this work to begin with. Yeah, that’s why I really wanted to give you both a shout out and a note of appreciation because it truly impacted, not just how I went about that day, but how I’ve proceeded to think about my own work.

Amanda Coolidge

 I’ve been creating walking OERs you can go for a walk and listen to. It’s really open available recording, like as a reflective practice or as a leadership practice. And it’s been making me think a lot about, how long do you really need to do certain things?

To me, having a half an hour walk, even if it’s just for me, for myself, can be much more productive than reading summarized reports. So I’ve been thinking a lot about that sort of reclaiming of pace and cadence.

Maren Deepwell

 In our case, it’s very interesting that many of our staff members together, with Igor and I, we have not met in person many times. So I can count the times that we have been in the same room in person on the fingers of my hands. So it’s amazing that we have been able to create these relationships only online.

And whenever we have the opportunity to be in the same room, it’s the opposite, like a different way of connecting. Like I’m so used to seeing you in your little box. And having the very few opportunities to share a space in person, it just magnifies the relationship.

So we have had this opportunity of creating the relationship that we have with staff, mainly online and have them be amplified in person.

Marcela Morales

New Feature: The “Aftercast”

In all episodes of OEGlobal Voices, we close with an invitation to join us for followup conversation in our OEG Connect community space A new topic there is created every time we publish an episode, and you can find the conversations also included at the bottom of this post.

As a new idea invented since our recording, we are also going to ask our guests to close with a question or call for response related to the episode. This was added to this episode after the recording, but consider the following questions:

 What are some of the small things that you find effective to get outta the focus on productivity and time crunches? What are the ways your colleagues achieve more relationship building through actions like the BC Campus Health and Safety Committee videos that Amanda shared, the reflective walks that Maren describes or the life outside work sharing that Marcela talked about carving time out for in our OE Global staff meetings?

The OEGlobal Voices Episode 82 “Aftercast”

But wait, there is more! From Episode 80’s conversation with Bryan Mathers, he created a new Remixer Machine template– the Hat Tip, which completely fits with what Amanda, Maren, and Marcela talked about in terms of small acts of appreciation.

Remix this hat tip, publish as a new one, and send as a link to someone else as a small act of joyful appreciation.

Alan remixed a digital hat tip to all three guests that are being sent privately aling with a request to “hat tip it forward” by starting with the basic template, changing the colors, the hat style, the message, to send forward (not to me!) to another person they wish to share appreciation.

Just imagine what would happen if this spread…


Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called Small Wonder by Steve Combs shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 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.