New Members!

OEGlobal is excited to welcome new members to the OEGlobal family. OEGlobal Members are dedicated to the growth and support of open education practices and the creation and use of open education resources at their institutions.

Brock University
Ontario, Canada

Brock University is a comprehensive university located within a UNESCO biosphere reserve within the beautiful Niagara region of Ontario, Canada. With more than 19,000 students across seven diverse Faculties and experiential education embedded across all of its programs, Brock University is known for its deep community engagement. Brock enjoys a strong reputation for student support and excellence in teaching and learning, and offers an academic experience that’s second to none.

“With an emphasis on breaking down barriers in our strategic plan and an explicit commitment to building supports for the creation, adaptation, and adoption of OER in our academic plan, Brock University shares the values and goals of open education. In joining Open Education Global, we look forward to working with like-minded organizations across the world to build a more equitable, inclusive, and just future.” — Rajiv Jhangiani, Ph.D., Vice Provost, Teaching and Learning, Brock University

Their open education initiatives include a growing OER Grant program, support for Open Pedagogy by the Centre for Pedagogical Innovation and the Library, and recognition for the creation of OERs in tenure and promotion. This article details their most recent Open Education success.

American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC)

Virginia, United States

The AIHEC has joined OEGlobal as a member of CCCOER. AIHEC is a 501(c)(3) organization governed by a board of directors composed of the presidents of the accredited US-based Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs). AIHEC is the unifying voice of 35 accredited and 2 developing TCUs and is committed to strengthening tribal nations and making a lasting difference in the lives of American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIs/ANs).

Their open education initiatives program’s goal is to increase the adoption of open education textbooks to ease the financial burden of course materials for AI/AN students and promote open pedagogy to facilitate the incorporation of Traditional Knowledge (TK) into the curricula.

Grand Rapids Community College
West Michigan, United States

Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) has joined OEGlobal as a member of CCCOER. It was established in 1914 – Michigan’s first community college – and is focused on making a college education accessible and affordable. Classes are scheduled in person and online, on weekdays, evenings, and Saturdays at locations throughout Kent and Ottawa counties in West Michigan. GRCC faculty and staff are committed to helping students succeed inside and outside the classroom. Student support services include academic and career counseling, occupational and disability support, and tutoring.

GRCC has an average class size of under 25 students, giving students access to faculty members who are among the best in their fields, many of whom are known nationally and internationally.

The college offers traditional liberal arts and occupational pathways, adult education courses, and skilled training courses and apprenticeships. Thousands of students each year take advantage of the Michigan Transfer Agreement to continue their education at a four-year college or university.

Their open education initiatives programs are focused on the adoption of Open Textbooks and the support of Open Pedagogy through the work of a faculty and librarian team, certified through the Open Education Network Certificate in Open Pedagogy.

View all OEGlobal Members here.

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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

We are pleased to return to our series that introducse you to members of OEGlobal Board of Directors. In this episode, we take you to Nagoya, Japan, for a conversation with Takaya Yamazato, who joined the board in 2024. Listen in to learn more about Takaya’s background, motivations, and vision for open education. You will also hear right in the opening music a fascinating insight into his many talents and his research into the micro details of one of the most iconic paintings.

As professor and Deputy Director at the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Nagoya University, Takaya’s specializes in wireless and visual light communication and also leads Nagoya University’s OpenCourseWare initiative, working with faculty to publish and enhance course content. He describes how their OCW effort are much more than uploading content aimed at supporting materials to “preserve a legacy of teaching excellence.”

We offered Takaya the option to reply to our questions in his natural language, but he went beyond that in replying in both English and Japanese. He shared his responses in notes as a PDF we are sharing as a download, which is well worth looking at because Takaya added photos to show key locations near his location in Nagoya, a beautiful photo of him as a child, and examples of his open education achievements.

Side by side photos of Takaya Yamazota sitting in his office and Alan Levine in his home library. — In the OEGlobal Voices studio with Takaya Yamazota (left) and Alan Levine (right).

You find many inspiring and global level viewpoints from Takaya:

We believe that this is a message that will bring back the way of education from the bottom up. The education that a person needs now is to grow people who are able to do the right thing. We must grow people who are not just for efficiency, profit, or national gain, but also for the good of the world.
Open education has the potential to provide a space for that reflection. It can create opportunities for ethical reasoning, global dialogue, and personal transformation, not just academic advancement.
Takaya Yamazota

Episode 84 Transcript Download

Notes on This Episode

We are pleased to offer this conversation with Takaya’s voice heard in both English and Japanese and offer a transcript of the English portions. Unfortunately the Descript editing tool we use was unable to process the dual languages, so we lack the usual listen option with the transcript and its GenAI summary.

The episode required additional editing in Audacity to add Takaya’s audio and we used MacWhisper to obtain a transcript of his responses in English. But we do offer as a bonus the full musical track that Takaya shared so we could we use in the episode’s introduction and closing. You should listen to the full episode to appreciate the story behind the music.

Additional Links and Quotes for Episode 84

diverse regions and disciplines, all united by the belief that education should be freely available and socially meaningful.
It’s not just about strategy, it’s about values. And it’s given me hope that open education can help build bridges where politics cannot.
Takaya Yamazota

Nagoya University https://en.nagoya-u.ac.jp/
- Nagoya University Motto 勇気ある知識人 — courageous intellectual via Wikipedia
Takaya Yamazota (OE Global Board profile)
- Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (Nagoya University)
- Nagoya University OpenCourseWare (NUOCW)
- YLAB – Yamazota Laboratory (Department of Information and Communication Engineering, Nagoya University)
The Secret of the Eyes of Mona Lisa (2024, The Review Policy and Current Status of the IEICE Transactions)

Italian researchers discovered the letters “LV” hidden in the Mona Lisa’s pupil, unseen for centuries, and only revealed thanks to modern technology with very precise microscope lenses.
Similarly, in telecommunications, the LDPC code was overlooked for decades before being rediscovered and becoming fundamental to today’s wireless standards.
And these examples remind us if we evaluate ideas only by today’s capabilities, we may miss tomorrow’s breakthrough.
That’s why our OCW is designed not just to present knowledge, but to inspire, reinterpretation, and rediscovering. I believe open education should be an invitation not just to learn, but to look again with new eyes.
Takaya Yamazota

Our open licensed music for this episode is “Ceramic Feeling” recorded from a live performance by Takaya’s band “Rough Diamonds” and is shared under a Creative Commons By Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license.