Open Education Global conference to return to MIT’s hometown in 2026
MIT OpenCourseWare will co-host the conference, bringing the global open education community to Cambridge, Mass.
By Sara Feijo
In 2011, MIT OpenCourseWare co-hosted for the first time the Open Education Global (OEGlobal) annual conference, then known as OpenCourseWare Consortium. Now, more than a decade later, MIT OpenCourseWare will co-host the OEGlobal conference once again in 2026, along with the Massachusetts Open Education Resources (OER) Advisory Council and OEGlobal.
The OEGlobal 2026 conference will be focused on inventing a more open and equitable future. The conference will bring to Cambridge, Mass. and MIT’s campus a community of open education practitioners, policy builders, advocates, researchers, students, and decision-makers from around the world, who will discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in open education and share their perspectives on its future direction.
“With the many OER (open education resources) advocates, practitioners, doers, and thought leaders across our region and around the world, we invite you to gather and reflect as a global community on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,” Curt Newton, MIT OpenCourseWare’s publication director, said at the 2024 OEGlobal conference in Brisbane, Australia, as he announced the hosts of the 2026 conference.
OEGlobal is a member-based, global, nonprofit supporting the development and use of open education around the world. The 2026 conference will mark the 18th anniversary of the consortium and the 25th anniversary of MIT OpenCourseWare.
“MIT has played a crucial role in the open education movement for over two decades,” Igor Lesko and Marcela Morales, both co-executive directors at Open Education Global, said in a statement. “MIT OpenCourseWare was the incubator of OEGlobal. Through its open learning initiatives, MIT has reached and positively impacted millions of people worldwide. We are excited to co-organize the 2026 OEGlobal Conference in collaboration with MIT and the Massachusetts OER Advisory Council, as we also celebrate the 25th anniversary of MIT OpenCourseWare.”
OpenCourseWare, part of MIT Open Learning, was launched in 2001, establishing MIT as the first higher education institution to make educational resources freely available to learners anywhere in the world regardless of their institutional affiliation. Today, OpenCourseWare offers materials on its website from more than 2,500 courses that span the MIT undergraduate and graduate curriculum — from syllabi, lecture notes, and problem sets, to assignments, audiovisual content, and insights. With 7,500 videos and 5.5 million subscribers, its YouTube channel reaches even more people for whom video is their gateway to learning. OpenCourseWare also has an open license that allows the remix and reuse of its educational resources. The platform inspires millions of curious and motivated learners every year to pursue their interests, develop new skills, and even switch careers.
“Open is in our DNA,” MIT President Sally Kornbluth said in a video announcing the OEGlobal 2026 conference. “We share information, innovations, and ideas with enthusiasm.”
The OER Advisory Council leads the open education research initiative for public higher education in Massachusetts. According to Robert Awkward, assistant commissioner for academic effectiveness at the OER Advisory Council, the council is delighted to collaborate with MIT and the Open Education Council to host OEGlobal 2026.
“We view open education as an important teaching and learning approach to increase affordability and student learning and success for all students, and especially minoritized students,” Awkward said.
While the open education community has grown in size, expanded its perspectives, and delivered life-changing impacts over the past two decades, there are still countless opportunities to innovate. Newton is encouraging the community to “come invent” at the 2026 conference.
“Our cycles of ideation and invention never quit,” Newton said at the 2024 OEGlobal conference this month. “While we celebrate what we’ve achieved, we’re not satisfied. There’s so much more to do, more opportunities to unlock, more futures to liberate. We will keep imagining and inventing together, toward a more open and equitable future.”
Visit the OEGlobal website for more information about the conference, the OpenCourseWare and Open Learning websites to learn about open education at MIT, and the OER Advisory Council website to discover how the commonwealth is expanding the use of open education resources on Massachusetts campuses.
