Open education is more relevant to the problems facing higher education than ever before, yet it is too often absent from the rooms where decisions are made. Twenty years of OER advocacy successfully made the case against expensive textbooks. That case still holds, but it no longer opens every door it used to.

This fall, the Open Education Association invites the open education field to collaborate on a process to choose national priorities: specific problems that higher education leaders and policymakers are already trying to solve, where open education offers a solution. Examples could include how to train nurses faster by reducing cost as a barrier, how to break down silos in educational data, or how to improve AI literacy through open materials. Working collaboratively across the field, this process will surface a list of potential priorities, discuss them throughout the fall, and select the final priorities at a national summit in November.

This webinar will officially kick off the process and explain how it will work, including what we mean by national priorities, how to join or host a listening session, and how to apply to serve as a representative at a national summit this November. Everyone in the open education field is invited to participate.

Register now and tell us what problem you think open education is best positioned to solve.

Date: August 12th, 2026

Time: 1:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 11:00 AM MT / 10:00 AM PT

Audience: All are welcome

This webinar will be recorded, and more information will be sent to all registrants following the event.