Celebrating the 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence Winners
On September 2, the seeds that were planted back in June came into full bloom. From a record field of more than 200 nominations, narrowed to a shortlist of 48 finalists, OEGlobal is proud to reveal the winners of the 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence — the newest additions to a Hall of Fame that has celebrated the very best of Open Education since 2011.
These winners span the globe and the full spectrum of Open Education work: the people who lead it, the assets we share, and the practices that make sharing possible. Each award represents countless hours of generosity, creativity, and commitment to a more open world. We invite you to explore their accomplishments — every profile below links to the work that earned this recognition.
For me, the Open Education Awards are really an ecosystem of recognition. Since 2011 they have been about much more than just showcasing winners. They help us make visible the incredible range of people, practices, resources, and often unseen work happening. So today is certainly about celebrating the winners, but it’s also about celebrating this whole community and the many people whose work make open education possible.
Marcela Morales, OEGlobal Co-Executive Director
If you were not able to join us live for the celebration, the recording is now available.
The awards are really a reminder that open education really doesn’t belong to any particular country or institution or a group of individuals. It really is a global community that is strengthened by the thousands of those who actually engage in creating and sharing open educational resources and engaging in applicable practices.
Igor Lesko, OEGlobal Co-Executive Director
People of Open
The People of Open category honors the individuals whose leadership and dedication move Open Education forward.
- Gabriella Paolini — Italy
- Girish Bhuteja — Canada (student, Conestoga College)
- Javiera Atenas — United Kingdom
- Jonathan Lashley — United States
Girish has been such a wonderful student leader. He’s been working with my team for well over a year. And I see the open principles even beyond his work in open and all of the work he does as a student leader here at Conestoga College. He’s always putting people first and helping to develop his co-students and sharing out what we do here in OPEN with his colleagues, so I’m thrilled.
Kimberlee Carter, Conestoga College on Girish Bhuteja, 2026 Individual Awardee
It honestly got me by surprise– I was marking a dissertation when this happened. So lots of love to this community. And I’m I’m extremely thankful. You all make this community, this world a little bit better.
Javiera Atenas, 2026 Individual Awardee
Open Assets
The Open Assets category celebrates the openly licensed resources — “what we share” — that expands access to knowledge.
- Cosumnes River College ZTC Faculty Resources — United States (CCCOER)
- Open Praxis — Turkey (Anadolu University)
- The GHOSHEH Model: An Open Instructional Design Model for Creating Open Educational Resources — Palestine
- Virtual Language Environment (AVI) — Mexico
I’m really excited. I wasn’t expecting an award, but you know, it’s really great to see that our hard work is appreciated. So it’s really a great honor. I really would like to thank the whole team, especially our reviewers, our authors, without them, you know, this wouldn’t be impossible.
Aras Bozkurt, Anadolu University, representing Open Praxis, 2026 Open Asset Awardee
Open Practices
The Open Practices category recognizes the innovative approaches — “how we share” — that put openness into action.
- Digital Ethnography Jember: Open Cultural Heritage for Education — Indonesia
- K-12 Studio — Canada
- HAN University’s Comprehensive OER Strategy Development and Implementation — The Netherlands
- Sharing Is a Challenge: 16 Obstacles Overcome to Enhance Sharing — Europe
It’s a great honor for us to be nominated, and even shortlisted, and now to be a winner. It feels amazing. This is just a small part of our complete project group, I agree with Colin de la Higuers, you have to collect a lot of people to get things done.
Marja Versantvoort, HAN University of Applied Sciences, 2026 Open Practices Awardee
My heartiest, congratulations to the entire UNITWIN network. I believe that this award is a powerful recognition of our shared vision and collaborative strength. It is a privilege, myself, to witness the incredible work that we are doing all together. Sharing is a challenge.
Fawzi Baroud, UNESCO Open Educational Resources representing 2026 Open Practices Awardee Sharing is a Challenge
Special Awards for Contributions to Open Education
Our highest honor – Special Awards – recognizes sustained, extraordinary impact on the Open Education movement.
- Haruo Takemura — Japan
- Paul Stacey — Canada
- Stephen Carson — United States
- MIT OpenCourseWare — United States
One of the things I find really wonderful about [the awards] is you discover new things that you didn’t realise were going on. I find that there’s this kind of generation of energy and enthusiasm that’s uplifting and helps everyone continue to move forward together. And so I’ve been honoured to have the great privilege of working with some awesome people, many of whom are here in this particular awards ceremony but many others who aren’t. I want to say thank you all for working with me, collaborating with me, and being a partner in this adventure around open education. It’s still a thrill, and I’m still really enjoying it, and look forward to doing lots more with everyone.
Paul Stacey, 2026 Special Awardee
We have a lot of records of the kinds of conversations that were going on 25 years ago when this whole thing got launched and it’s just clear, this is just one of so many manifestations that. It has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations from the very beginning. And just what a thrill it is to witness year after year the incredible richness and energy that’s going through this whole community as shown by all of these nominees and awards. What an honor it is year after year after year doing this work to keep “losing market share”– I can’t think of a better thing.
Curt Newton, representing 2026 Special Awardee MIT OpenCourseWare
Explore, celebrate, and share
Congratulations to every 2026 winner — and to the entire Open Education community whose nominations made this such a remarkable year. Take a moment to explore their work for yourself: read the projects, meet the people, and share the recognition widely. When we celebrate Open Education, we help it grow.
The most important celebration is to be with people who care, and as Raphael said, what a community. Thank you, everybody for having us here and for putting this bunch of amazing people from all over the world together. Everybody, your work matters. This is to Openness, Open Education Global, and I hope to see you very, very soon. Greetings from Germany!
Chahira Nouira, shortlisted for an Individual Award
We are all winners
To continue the arc of nominations as planting seeds of recognition, this year again we are making a contribution to One Tree Planted to have trees planted around the world in the name of each award winner as acts of transforming and restoring global landscapes.
The Open Education Awards for Excellence are about far more than crowning winners — they are a celebration of an entire community. Every nomination is an act of recognition, and this year that recognition reached further than ever. So alongside this year’s winners, we want to honor:
- The 204 people and projects nominated from 49 countries, with 31% outside of the Global North, each one a seed of recognition planted by the community. The nominees represent the world of open education from Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Palestine, Peru, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Viet Nam, and Yemen.
Among the nominees, 10% were from community colleges reflecting the influence of CCCOER and 22% were from OEGlobal member organizations. - The shortlist of 48 finalists — outstanding individuals, open assets, and open practices.
- The 42 committee members who read and reviewed the nominations with such care. This year’s reviewers include 32 previous winners of awards, 5 members of the OEGlobal Board of Directors, and asa new addition this year, representatives of 9 OEGlobal Member Organizations.
- And everyone who supported and cheered the program on. Each nominee’s information is shared publicly and is open for adding comments and questions. Share the news across social media and add your congratulations in OEGlobal Connect.
- All winners attending the OEGlobal 2026 Conference in person or online are invited to share their work in an OEAwards presentation session. We will also be organizing a series of showcase events for all nominees during Open Education Week 2026.
From seeds, to saplings, to trees — thank you for helping the garden grow. 🌱🌳