Open Education Week 2026 went far beyond a “week” extending to the end of April — and what a celebration it was! Across every continent, time zone, and language, the Open Education community showed up. You hosted events, shared resources, sparked conversations, and reminded the world why being “open” matters.
This year, 146 organizers (including representation from 86 OEGlobal Members and partners) delivered 273 events (including 24 ongoing campaigns). Activities ran in every format imaginable: 207 online sessions open to the public, 11 limited attendance online gatherings, 36 in-person workshops and seminars, and 19 hybrid experiences that brought local and global audiences into the same room. There were stands at book fairs, local radio station coverage, a month-long 17-article challenge written by 27 authors, digital OEWeek postcards were remixed, and fascinating insights shared by the LATAM, Francophone, and Arabic communities.
OEWeek is not only about the events, but it’s also about showing up to support your peers and colleagues in their work (the OEWeek Ambassador Program pilot was a great success) and sharing the resources that inspire you– 136 Open Education assets (and counting) were added through four pathways.
Thank you, Open Education champions around the world. Your creativity, generosity, and commitment keep a growing community energized and moving forward
The Global Town Square
That’s exactly how we described OEWeek 2026 from the outset: as a global town square — a plaza, piazza, alun-alun, центра́льная пло́щадь, platz, maydan — a place where people with a shared purpose gather to meet, exchange ideas, and celebrate what openness makes possible. This year, that vision came to life in a remarkable way.
As of today, the OEWeek global calendar has displayed over 273 events, and the activity continued well beyond the initial “opening” week, with events, campaigns, and your opportunity to share Open Assets running through to the end of April. Educators and institutions around the world have been adding to their events, sharing their Open Assets, and joining in the conversations.
Across six packed weeks (so far…), the open education community came together to:
- Run workshops, webinars, and in-person sessions on Open Educational Resources (OER), open licensing, open pedagogy, and open policy — in dozens of languages and across all time zones,
- Share open assets through OER Commons, OER World Map, and OEGlobal Connect, making learning materials freely available to anyone, anywhere
- Engage in deep community discussion on OEGlobal Connect, including the release of the thought-provoking ‘Sharing is a Challenge’ series exploring whether OER still matters in the age of AI
- Participate in the OEWeek Ambassador program — a new initiative launched this year that brought dedicated community voices into the fold to champion open education in their regions
- Held other activities that shine a light on the benefit of Open Education for students, like the book fair at Vancouver Island University, designing digital escape rooms for education,
- Take part in ongoing activities, including the Open Photo Competition 2026, the Activity-A-Thon, Wiki Loves Africa 2026, El reto REA: el enigma del saber, the ISA Tell Us About Her: Women in Sports drive, and an Open Scholarship call on AI, Education, and Society.
Open Assets Shared with the Commons
The Open Education movement grows one resource at a time. During OEWeek 2026, the community contributed 134 assets to shared repositories and channels, where they are now discoverable, remixable, and reusable by anyone, anywhere:
- 65 resources curated in OER Commons
- 28 resources added to OER World Map
- 35 resources or activity summaries shared in OEG Connect
- 6 contributions submitted via the general sharing form
Each of these is now part of a lasting legacy of OEWeek — one that any educator or student, anywhere, can build on.
The 2026 OEWeek Ambassadors
A highlight of 2026 was the launch of the OEWeek Ambassadors pilot program — 11 passionate open educators amplified the OEWeek’s events hosted by colleagues in their networks, institutions, and communities.
Together, they contributed 34 Sharebacks: session highlights shared on LinkedIn under #OEWeekAmbassadors, on blogs, and across social feeds.
The Ambassadors showed us something important: Open Education is not only a set of practices — it is showing visible support for each other.
Every Shareback extended OEWeek’s reach far beyond what any single channel could achieve. We are deeply grateful to this first cohort for stepping forward and setting the tone for what we hope will become a growing program in the years ahead. Read more here.
All the Numbers — OEWeek 2026
Community
- 273 events
- 24 campaigns
- 146 organizers
- 86 OEGlobal Members represented
- 11 OEWeek Ambassadors with 34 Sharebacks
Event Formats
- 207 online, open to the public
- 11 online, limited audience
- 36 in-person
- 19 hybrid
Open Assets
- 134 freely licensed resources shared across OER Commons (65), OER World Map (28), OEG Connect (35), and the general form (6)
Email Reach
- 8 direct email campaigns
- 51,797 emails delivered
- 6,035 emails opened
- 12,342 people reached
- Catch up on Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and Day 5
Website
- 27,092 viewers
- 61,135 page views
- 26,475 engagements across 33,465 sessions
- 99.07% first-time visitors — a huge volume of new audiences finding open education
- 165,107 tracked event interactions on the site
Social Media
Across LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, Bluesky, and X, OEGlobal shared 847 posts that generated 7,182 engagements and well over 100,000 impressions — with a crossover boost of your posts tagged #OEGlobal26 extending the reach even further.
Highlights from the Community
The best part of Open Education Week is the way the community tells its own story. Member write-ups, blog reflections, radio sessions, campus news posts, podcasts, and short videos capture what the raw numbers cannot. This year’s events spanned topics ranging from OER advocacy in teacher education (Vaud, Switzerland) to digital escape rooms, from the evolution of open learning plans at Spanish universities to open-source software and education convergence in Italy. The community once again showed that open education is not a monolith — it is a movement with many voices, many contexts, and a common conviction.
OEWeek Live! conversations both launched this year’s OEWeek on Monday, and brought key Open Educators to discuss what lies beyond ChatGPT, how Open Storymakers collaborate to make award-winning books, and finally, to have frank, open Conversations about Online Communities.
On OEGlobal Connect, one of the most resonant threads came from Tetiana in Dnipro, Ukraine, who shared her reflections on open education and community during extraordinarily difficult times. It was a reminder of why Open Education work matters.
Tell Us About YOUR OEWeek26
How was OEWeek for you, your students, your campus, or your network? Share your reflections in the OEWeek26 surveys — and help shape OEWeek 2027. A short survey response goes a long way in making next year’s event even more useful to our community. If an incentive helps, the surveys include an option to enter a drawing for certificates to get wearable symbols of the OEWeek Town square.
What’s Next
OEWeek doesn’t end — and neither does Open Education work and the OEGlobal community remains active and engaged year-round on OEGlobal Connect.
Thank you to every organizer, presenter, asset-sharer, and participant who continue to make OEWeek what it is every year. The town square is full — and the world is better for it!