CFP

OER21: OERxDomains 2021

Online, UK, April 21-22, 2021

Conference website	https://oer21.oerconf.org/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=oer21
Submission deadline	February 13, 2021

Topics: open education open education policy domains open source tools

Organised by the Association for Learning Technology and partnership with Reclaim Hosting’s Domains Conference, this special edition of the much loved event is the 12th annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy. We are proud to incorporate a special strand hosted by the Domains Conference - bringing our two communities closer together in 2021.

Call for Proposals

We are inviting proposals for virtual presentations, workshops and alternative formats. Your proposal needs to show clearly how your session will address the conference title and one or more of the conference key questions and should include recent research, case studies, practice or learner perspectives from any educational context, including schools, colleges, universities, industry, training and skills, and/or community contexts.

Keep in mind that the proposal you submit for review now will, if accepted, be used for inclusion in the conference programme and is the primary way that participants will choose which sessions to attend.

Session formats

Reflective practice presentations	Reflective practice presentations offer a contribution towards the practice of open education, e.g. case studies, descriptive accounts, etc., but with a reflective and critical component. Time: 25 minutes (typically 15-minute presentation, 10 minutes Q+A)Abstract word limit: 500
Research presentations	Research presentations offer a theoretical and/or empirical contribution towards open education; located clearly in the field through, for example, a literature review. Time: 25 minutes (typically 15-minute presentation, 10 minutes Q+A)Abstract word limit: 500
Workshops	Workshops may follow a variety of formats, but all are virtually hands-on, engaged and interactive. Due to the high demand for these sessions, we have to limit the number of workshop proposals to those who clearly demonstrate how participants will engage. Time: 60 minutesAbstract word limit: 500
Alt-format	[7 minutes maximum] Alternative short formats are very welcome, e.g. demos, Pecha Kucha, spoken word, TED-style talk, multimodal presentations, performance, improvisation, screening a digital story, web content, etc. This format asks you to be creative, to share an idea in a way that speaks to hearts and minds. Time: 7 minutesAbstract word limit: 500
Open spaces	Facilitate spaces for people to engage in emerging conversations. We invite experienced facilitators to create a space for participants to interact and engage with issues during the conference. Please provide as much information as possible regarding suggested topic/question, format, anticipated time requirements, anticipated number of participants, how participants will engage, etc. Time: 30 minutesAbstract word limit: 500

Submission guidelines

All proposals should clearly address one or more of the conference key themes:

Theme 1: Openness, care, and joy in the times of pandemic;
Theme 2: Open Education responses to surveillance technologies and data ownership in education;
Theme 3: Open in Action: open teaching, educational practices and resources, how you might be using Domains and other tools;
Theme 4: Shifts in agency and creativity as empowerment of learners and educators;
Theme 5: Open Source Tools: infrastructure, cloud environments, targeted teaching tools

We also consider Wildcard submissions: open education practice, research or policy session proposals that address the overarching conference theme.

Submission, reviewing, and acceptance process

All submitted proposals will be double-blind peer-reviewed by members of the Conference Committee. After review and one cycle of revision and resubmission, the Conference Committee will select proposals for inclusion in the conference.

Submission criteria

The maximum word count for proposal abstracts is 500 words. Proposals that exceed the word limit will not be accepted or reviewed.
Presentation proposals should include references, which will be counted towards the 500-word limit. Ideally presentation proposals should include two or three references, and six at most. References should follow the Harvard System (parenthetical referencing – see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parenthetical_referencing).
All proposals will be double-blind peer-reviewed, so abstracts should not include the names or affiliations of the authors.
Contributions should not have appeared elsewhere in their entirety, although it is understood that earlier versions or portions of OER20 contributions may have been openly published prior to the conference.
To ensure a suitably diverse programme, no individual can be named as the main author or presenter of more than one proposal, though they may be named as co-authors.

Note for proposals with a commercial focus

We do not accept proposals with a primary focus on demonstrating services or products offered by a commercial provider and which do not explicitly address the conference theme(s) in a learning context. If you are unsure of how best to submit your proposal, we encourage you to attend our author webinars or contact us directly.

Review criteria

Proposals will be reviewed according to the following criteria:

Relevance to one or more of the conference key themes
Usefulness to conference participants globally, and from across all sectors of education
Contribution to the provision of reliable evidence for scholarship and research into Open Education
Demonstrated evidence of reflection, evaluation, and criticality
Engagement of participants
Creativity and innovation
Openness
Clarity, coherence and conformance to guidelines.

Education is considered broadly, incl. formal and informal learning settings in schools, colleges, universities, the workplace, homes and communities, at any stage in learners’ lives.

Submission process

Please submit your proposal in the following format:

Title
Abstract including chosen conference theme and preferred session format.
Please include details of references and resources (and where possible specify how materials/activities related to the session will be shared openly before, during, and after the conference.

Deadline for submissions 31 January 2021. (All deadlines at 23:59 Anywhere on Earth time.)

Acceptance and conference registration

When a proposal has been accepted, at least one presenter must register to attend the conference. Presenters will be notified of the registration deadline at the time their proposal is provisionally accepted. Only when the presenter’s registration booking has been made will the proposal be fully accepted for the conference. Detailed guidance for presenters will be provided in advance of the conference.

Scholarship support

The conference will be a paid for online event and participants in need will also be able to apply for free scholarship places.

Increasing impact and widening dissemination

Resources and recordings from the event will be made available openly to all post-conference. If you are seeking to increase the impact of your work or looking to disseminate research beyond the conference, we encourage you to make a submission to the Research in Learning Technology journal. The journal is a Gold Open Access journal and we do not levy any charges to ensure researchers can disseminate new work in learning technology as widely as possible.