The OE is on a roll this year. And our 2015 Global Conference: Innovation & Entrepreneurship lived up to all of its hype, receiving over 2,000 tweets in just three days.

Each year this important event brings together researchers, practioners, policy makers, and educators to explore open education and its impact on global education. We were joined by over 250 of our peers for three days of rich discussions, thought-provoking keynotes and inspirational presentations. “Attending the global event reminded me of the diverse nature of the open education community. The Consortium is able to bring together students and professors, government and university officials, entrepreneurs and philanthropists from around the world,” said James Glapa-Grossklag, the incoming president of the OEC board of directors.

Impressively, 37 countries were represented at the conference. The top 10 countries attending by enrollment were as follows: Canada, United States, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, South Africa, Slovenia, Taiwan, France, and Indonesia.

A special acknowledgement goes out to our keynote speakers. We were honored to feature the expertise of Mark Surman, Executive Director of the Mozilla Foundation and Dirk Van Damme the Head of Division in the Directorate for Education and Skills at the OECD in Paris. For more information and biographies about our keynote speakers click here.

This year our in-depth sessions covered topics such as new innovations in open education, strategy planning, research results, technology trends, policy development and implementation. “The amount of energy and enthusiasm during the conference was unprecedented. The presentations from our thought leaders were of the utmost quality, were motivating, and extremely impactful,” said Mary Lou Forward.

We received feedback from many of our participants, including Mary Burgess from BCcampus who highlighted two take-aways in her Twitter post on April 30, 2015. She says that we’re a global community and there are global needs we should be thinking about, noting Axel Meisen’s inspirational opening remarks where he cites the demand for OER in development nations. She goes on to point out that its time to think more about open educational practices as opposed to just objects and resources.

The consortium is proud that six papers have been published in a special edition of the Open Praxis. Please feel free to review these papers at the links below.

We welcome James Glapa-Grossklag as our new president of the board. The OE is very excited to accept his leadership and strategic direction for the coming year. James serves as dean of Educational Technology, Learning Resources, and Distance Learning for the College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA. He joins a team of incumbent board members, as well as, Stavros Pangiotis Xanthopoylos from FGV who is new to the board.

We would be remiss if we didn’t thank our exiting president Larry Cooperman. Larry’s ongoing contribution to our consortium and international leadership has been highly valued throughout the years. And we wish all of our best to outgoing board member Murilo Matos Mendonça from Unisul for his significant involvement with the consortium. “For the past two years it has been my privilege to serve as your board president. I’m filled with hope and enthusiasm for the future of the consortium. The OEC is poised to continue its mission of advancing and providing access to education on a global scale. The leadership team, with James at the helm, will carry us into the next chapter of the consortium’s great work,” said Cooperman.

Your participation is what drives our consortium. Thank you for helping us make our global conference a huge success. We hope to see you at the next OE Global in Kracow, Poland, April 13-15, 2016.