OEGlobal 2024 took place in Brisbane, Australia, in November 2024. The conference was packed with an incredible diversity of people and projects to celebrate, including new approaches and inspiring work, research results and launches of collaborative OERs, and much, much more.
We want to thank each of the 190+ attendees who could be in Brisbane, making OEGlobal 2024 a success! (All un-cited quotes below are directly from participants who filled out the OEGlobal 2024 survey)
“A warm, joyful atmosphere, time spent with kind and inspiring colleagues, and more great ideas than can be found in my brain. So many things to share with my colleagues back home. I love how multi-disciplinary this conference is. Layers on layers on layers.”
This year, under the theme “Open is Everyone’s Business”, the conference was an exploration of collaboration that started (but did not end) with the local organising team – Adrian Stagg and Carmel O’Sullivan at the University of Southern Queensland, Sarah Howard at the Queensland University of Technology Library (QUT) and Anna Raunik from State Library of Queensland. They and Brisbane (!) put on a fantastic conference!
“Learning about all the Open Education action in Australia was a highlight.”
100% of our survey respondents claimed that OEGlobal met or exceeded their expectations of the conference.
“Open minds, open hearts, caring people and the ability to collaborate with like-minded people.”
This year, as it was the first time an in-person international open conference was held on Australian soil, there was a noticeable skew towards first-time attendees, who accounted for 60% of the delegates.
“My expectations were pretty high; I expected it to be energizing, renewing and inspiring, and it was. I did not expect to hear kookaburras walking home at night. Loved!”
Images from the OEGlobal team and from delegates on Linked In, including the Open Education Network, Franco Ponte, AAC&U Innovate, Jörg Pareigis, Tracy Creagh (AFHEA), Nicole Clark, Perrine de Coëtlogon, Lucy Walton, Max Mosterd, Stephanie Bradbury, QUT Library, Lyndelle Gunton, Brandon Carson, Karlstads universitetsbibliotek and the photos posted on this OEGlobal Connect page.
OEGlobal 2024 in a nutshell
Here are just some of the statistics about the conference.
- 3 days of in-person sessions
- 6 pre-conference OEGlobal Live discussions
- 17 days of Conference of the Air audio programming around the conference
- 187+ attendees from 21+ countries
- 112 or 60% are 1st-time attendees
- 75 OEGlobal members
- 112 sessions held in Brisbane
- 25 Lightning Talks
- 7 Panel discussions
- 9 Workshops
- 61 Presentations
- 1 Special celebration of OE Awards
- 8 Wildcards
- 1 Social event
- Sessions live-streamed and available online
- 813 views of the YouTube playlist dedicated to OEGlobal24
- 22 sessions captured as audio and available as recordings
- 6 partners, sponsors, and donors
“The joy, collaboration, hearing so many great projects. Sorry, I gave so many fives don’t throw out my survey! lol. It just really was a great conference. Well done!”
Below is a small gallery of photos from the conference. Find more on Flickr or add yours on OEGlobal Connect!
What The Delegates Thought of OEGlobal24
As with all things in Open, it is the community and those who participate who make it as successful as possible. With this in mind, we have shared the impressions of those who attended below.
“Friendliness and welcoming nature of all attendees. Very positive feedback from others re: my lightning talk presentation.”
The delegates have spoken! Below, you can experience the conference through the eyes of the delegates – thank you to those who responded to the survey for sharing your experiences!
OEGlobal24 attendees included librarians and education support staff, lecturers and teachers, members of aligned organisations, the Openly Curious, students, technology specialists, researchers, creatives, policymakers, Indigenous open education leaders, department heads, and administrators.
“A beyond warm welcome and inclusion, a true feeling of community and belonging, and so many possibilities and ideas – you’ll be very, very busy!”
Of the topics discussed, the five most popular were Open Education Practice, Diversity Equity and Inclusion, Global Access and Equity tied with Advocacy, and First Nations tied with Social Justice and Developing Skills in OE.
When asked to share their most inspiring memory or significant moment of the conference, we received the following beautiful responses:
“Robert dhurwain McLellan keynote on day one was deeply inspiring and moving. The discussions around Indigenous data sovereignty, particularly the emphasis on the ‘nothing about us without us’ principle, have deeply resonated with me. I’m leaving with a renewed commitment to incorporating these values into my own work.”
“Universities are repositories of social hope.”
“This community is so welcoming and open to collaboration. I love hearing other people’s OER and OEP journeys. Open Education and Open Access is truly a communal movement.”
“OE community is very open indeed!”
“Hopeful being with like-minded people. Inspired through discussions and presentations that we can tackle some of the world’s issues through open education.”
Most people attended the conference with the expectations of:
- Learn about new research and open education projects
- Look for ideas towards implementing open education practices
- Renew and make new professional relationships
- Explore collaboration opportunities with colleagues
- Share my open education work with my colleagues
“After a very tiring year, it was just lovely to connect with like-minded individuals who share our struggles and keep contributing to open anyway. I feel reinvigorated and inspired to persevere in this important work.”
“Meeting fellow Go-GN students for the first time was a great experience. Completing research in Open Education can feel lonely when no one else at your institution is researching the same field. It provided me with renewed energy, and I am excited to continue with my research when I arrive home and stay connected with fellow Open Education researchers.”
There was an overwhelmingly positive response from attendees (100% of survey respondents) who enjoyed the three keynotes. The keynotes were also mentioned frequently when delegates responded to a question about which sessions or elements inspired or motivated them most. As were the focuses on the intersections of AI and OE, Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing, DEI and social justice, and sessions on Open Pedagogy and OE Practice, and research in OE. Also mentioned were the following:
“Seeing what is happening in the Australian context re: open publishing and Indigenisation.”
“The sessions I attended about OEP and policy making were very inspiring and encouraging to know that the struggle with administrative support is not an anomaly at my university but something that affects others. The presentation about DEI in a DEI climate was also inspiring. Although the climate we are in in the USA is scary, people, more specifically, marginalized groups have been doing this work for years without that language of DEI. We need people making loud calls for changes while those who are doing it secretly can continue to do work as well.”
“Decolonisation discussion, new processes of sharing and understanding, and the first and second keynotes where all highlights.”
When asked if anything unexpected happened during the conference, we had the following responses that mostly referenced connection and validation, including:
“Almost every time I started to chat to an attendee I picked up a useful contact.”
“Overwhelmed with possible partnerships and collaboration!”
“So many people knew me!”
“I learned how to edit Wikipedia.”
“Engaging with international attendees.”
“Reconnecting with other OER Passionate people has helped renew my passion to continue my own work which has hit roadblocks.”
We’re extremely grateful to our six partners, sponsors and donors who supported the event, and we look forward to seeing you at MIT OpenCourseWare for OE Global 2026. Remember that you can continue to interact with these supporters of Open Education on their OEGlobal Connect profiles.
Beyond Brisbane:
The AND Conference and Conference of the Air
We’d also like to thank the global open education community for their unwavering support, who defied the distance and time zones to interact with and engage in the programme, including the 542 unique viewers who have watched live-streamed sessions and other OEGlobal24 videos 813 times (watch them all here).
“So glad to be able to listen to some sessions at #oeglobal24 (Open Education Conference) thanks to the Conference of the Air program on #ds106 radio! Thanks so much to @cogdog and others who may be involved in making this happen!”
@chendricks – Mastodon
Alan Levine, OEGlobal Director of Global Community, came up with preemptive interactions through the engaging AND Conference program that started on 28 October. The program connected existing Open Education online events and included OEGlobal24-focused live discussions, panels, and studio recording sessions.
Open is all about innovation, and in an ode to Australia’s legendary School of the Air, OEGlobal launched the Conference of the Air vis DS106 Web Radio platform. The stream was launched 2 weeks before the conference with a pre-conference program of open education-related podcasts and other open content (access this library of audio delights here).
“Thank you for streaming these OEG Voices episodes on #ds106radio. Just subscribed to my podcast catcher. Awesome stuff.”
@timc – Mastodon
During the conference, one room was geared to stream live audio from the conference, and these sessions are now available to be listened to at anytime here.
“@cogdog We’re all complicit, but I think you might be closer to the centre of #ClimateAction Venn diagram than you realise. The #oeglobal24 conference of the Air has kept this Kiwi flightless so you can offset my 0.5 tonne of CO2.”
@stephenharlow – Mastodon
OEGlobal 2024 is always alive online!
- Did you miss a session? Watch it here!
- All the recorded sessions on our YouTube Playlist
- Explore all the sessions that were recorded as audio
- Presenter materials are on Sched https://oeglobal2024.sched.com/
- Each session is still open for discussion on OEGlobal Connect
- Where Are your OEGlobal 2024 photos? Ours are on Flickr, and some attendees have shared theirs on OEGlobal Connect.
- Share your blog posts and news stories!
Share Your Experience in OEGlobal Connect
Was your experience reflected above? We’d love to hear your views and experiences!