CFP

OER24: Open Education Conference 2024

Munster Technological University

Cork, Ireland, March 26-28, 2024

Conference website	https://www.oer2024.co.uk/
Submission link	https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=oer24
Abstract registration deadline	November 15, 2023
Submission deadline	November 15, 2023

In 2024 the OER Conference, ALT's annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy, will be co-chaired by Dr Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin and Dr Tom Farrelly from Munster Technological University.

Dr Gearóid Ó Súilleabháin is Head of the Department of Technology Enhanced Learning at Munster Technological University. Gearóid has worked at the intersection of learning, media and technology for more than twenty-five years during which time he has participated on and co-ordinated a wide range of grant-funded and commercial ed-tech and digital learning projects. Gearóid chairs the Ed Tech and E-learning research group in MTU and is course director for MTU’s online MA in E-learning Design and Development.

Dr. Tom Farrelly is a Senior Lecturer and currently an Academic Developer in Munster Technological University with the n-TUTORR project. An advocate for openness in all forms he has a particular interest in OA Publishing and has been on the OA journal editorial team of the Irish Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning for several years. Those of you that have attended ALT and OER Conferences in the past may know Tom as his alter ego – The GastaMaster.

MTU offers an excellent space for all members of the open education community to collaborate, learn and share in an inclusive environment. We are excited to welcome OER participants from the UK and across the world to the MTU Bishopstown Campus in Cork, Ireland.

OER24 will bring together the strong Irish Open Education movement and international participants to leverage our shared expertise for change in policy and practice.

OER24 will take place over two days, 27-28 March 2024 with a GO-GN workshop taking place on Tuesday 26 March.

Call for Proposals

We are inviting proposals for on-campus workshops, research papers, presentations and Gastas.

Your proposal needs to show clearly how your session will address the conference title and two of the conference themes 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.

Deadline for submissions 12th November 2023. (All deadlines at 23:59 anywhere in the world)

Session formats

All session formats are for on-campus sessions.

Workshop - 45 minutes (500 words)

Research Paper - 25 minutes (250 words)

Presentation - 15 minutes (250 word submission)

GASTA - 5 minutes (150 word submission)

Submission guidelines

The conference will put the spotlight on Open Education Practices through five themes. We are particularly keen to hear from people who have an interest in the following indicative areas of practice:

Theme 1 - Open Education Landscape and Transformation: This theme explores Open Education and its transformative potential, with a particular emphasis on key initiatives and developments in the Irish education and training context.
Theme 2 - Equity and Inclusion in OER: This theme delves into the role of Open Educational Resources (OER) in serving marginalised groups and in promoting inclusivity, diversity and equity in open education.
Theme 3 - Open Source and Scholarly Engagement: This theme focuses on the connection between Open Education, Open Data, the Open-Source movement, and digital scholarship/librarianship, showcasing the collaboration of researchers across these areas.
Theme 4 - Ethical Dimensions of Generative AI and OER Creation: This theme highlights the ethical considerations surrounding the use of generative AI for content creation and its potential in making educational content more accessible.
Theme 5 - Innovative Pedagogies and Creative Education: This theme explores the intersection of Open Education with instructional design and learning design, examining creative practices and innovative pedagogies that enhance the learning experience.
Theme 6 - Wildcard: submissions that address the wider conference theme, covering practice, research or policy in open education.

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

Please see the session format section for maximum word counts. Proposals that exceed the word limit will not be accepted or reviewed.
Submissions for workshops, research papers and presentations should include references: the relevant reference and citation text will be counted towards the word limit. Ideally such submissions should include two or three references, six at most. References should follow the APA Style. For APA citation and referencing examples please see https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples
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 submitted 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 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 Sunday 12 November 2023. (All deadlines 23:59 anywhere on earth)

Acceptance and conference registration

Initial decisions will be published in December, with all speakers invited to register for the conference during the earlybird booking period.

Scholarship support

The conference will be a paid for 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.