July 2026 | Edition 205

OpenEd Digest

Your monthly roundup of what’s new in open education

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Upcoming Events

Curated picks from our lists of upcoming webinars and conferences

Upcoming Webinars:

OE Global - A Listening Session on the Hybrid Conference Experience -Aug. 6
Open Education Association - Choosing What’s Next: Introducing the National Open Education Priorities Process - Aug. 12
Creative Commons - CC 201: Finding and Reusing CC-Licensed Works - Aug. 13
Regional Higher Education Compacts - Open Educational Resources and Research: A National Research Agenda - Aug. 18

Conference Call for Proposals:

2027 AAC&U Conference on Learning and Student Success (In Person & Online, Mar. 10-12) - Deadline Aug. 14
Affordable Learning Summit - (virtual, Oct. 14) - Deadline Aug. 28

Last Chance Conference Registration:

Virtual 2026 AI+OER Institute - Aug. 7-8

Registration Now Open:

OEGlobal 2026 takes place October 7–9, 2026, at MIT’s Samberg Conference Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and online. Early Bird registration rates are available until August 9, and the conference program is live.
Registration is open, and the program is now live for the 2026 Open Education Conference on October 27-29. Register by August 31 to get earlybird pricing. Register Now!
Registration is now open for the 2026 MI OER Conference, OER for the Long Haul: Building Sustainable Programs to be held at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor, Michigan on Friday, November 13, 2026. Register Now!

More Events

Open Opportunities

Highlights from our open education opportunity board

Open Calls:

Research: Bookstore Oversight Survey - Deadline Aug. 14
Feedback Request: Helping Attendees Connect at OEGlobal 2026 - Deadline Aug. 18

Job Opportunities:

Scholarly Communications Librarian - Kennesaw State University
WisTech Open Lead Editor - CVTC
Open Education Librarian - University of Texas at Arlington
Scholarly Communications and Digital Initiatives Librarian - Bridgewater State University

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Stories from the Field

Snapshots of open education making a difference

From California: A delegation of students, faculty, and administrators traveled to Sacramento in late June to advocate for the state's Zero Textbook Cost Degree Grant Program, meeting directly with seven legislative offices and sharing impact data with more than thirty more. New data shows the program saved California community college students an estimated $32.9 million in course material costs during the 2024-25 academic year. Read More>>

From New York: John Jay College of Criminal Justice has saved students $3 million in course material costs since 2020, with nearly 200 faculty now engaged in open education. The college was also one of just 15 institutions selected nationwide for the AAC&U study that led to OER being named a high-impact practice. Read More>>

Hot Off the Press

Newly-published resources to explore and share

Research: Open Educational Resources: A New High-Impact Practice presents findings from AAC&U’s two-year, mixed-methods study examining the relationship between OER implementation and student success. The findings indicate that OER implementation can positively influence student success outcomes while making higher education more accessible and affordable.

Report: Open Education and Open Educational Resources Research Agenda is a research agenda supporting a decade of growth in open educational resources (OER) and the increasing need for coordinated, evidence-based strategies that strengthen affordability, access to required course materials, and student success.

Resource: SPARC’s updated OER Mythbusting resource debunks the top myths about OER in North American higher education. It’s a useful resource for both OER advocates and those seeking to learn more about the topic.

Resource: Growing Your OER Program is a marketing and advocacy toolkit. This practical resource was created to support programs in growing awareness through consistent messaging and visible examples that help faculty, students, staff, and administrators understand why OER matters at their institutions.

Open Textbook: Foundations of Education: Cultivating Diverse Perspectives is an open textbook that was written to prepare future educators to grapple with the history of education, reflect on their own experiences and biases, and continually adapt to meet the unique needs of students and communities.

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