Call for Proposals for the Online Conference is Closed

Timeline (Online Conference) 

• Call for Proposals opens: 14th April 
• Call for Proposals closes: 7th May 16th May
• Notifications to authors: 21st June 
• Registration opens: 1st June 
• Deadline for authors to register: 31st August  
• Online conference: 27th September – 1st October 

Open Education Global Conference is the premier event for Open Education. It is the meeting place for communities interested in using, developing, promoting, advancing and mainstreaming Open Education.

The one-week online conference (27 September-1 October). The online conference will be the occasion to build a global and contrasted understanding of the state of Open Education worldwide today. To that end, we welcome submissions for webinar presentations. To support cooperation, we welcome submissions for interactive sessions. To enhance friendly exchanges around our shared values, we encourage submission of proposals for social activities.

The online conference is structured around the five action areas of the UNESCO OER Recommendation.

We welcome submissions for the following three online conference session types:

1. Webinar Presentations
2. Interactive Activities
3. Social Activities

A key aspect of the online conference is networking and relationship building across the open education community. To encourage connection, discussion, and a deeper knowledge exchange, all session formats have a social engagement component that extends over the duration of the conference. Presenters are asked to not only commit to giving their formal session but also to participate in discussion, Q&A, and social engagement in the OEGlobal conference platform over the entire conference.

Session Formats

The following table describes the online conference call for proposals session formats.

Session Format	Session Description
Webinar Presentations (Each webinar is 2 hour, 30 minutes.) (Webinars can be in any of the six languages of UNESCO – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish.)	Each online conference day starts with webinars, focused on the UNESCO OER action area of the day and programmed by language. Each webinar has up to five presentations (selected from call for proposals). Each webinar has a session chair who helps organize the webinar, coordinate the format sequence and content of the five presenters, and facilitates the live webinar  Webinar format: – Introduction – by session chair and rapporteur to action area and to presenters – 10 min – Presentations – five 20 min presentations by practitioners in the field related to the days action area – Discussion: Session chair and rapporteur extract from presentations and online participant comments and questions key ideas for discussion – 30 minWrap up – 10 min Each webinar has its own OEGlobal online conference platform area for posting webinar recording and engaging the global open education community in asynchronous Q&A,  discussion, and sharing of related resources. Each webinar has a rapporteur who generates a curated summary of each webinar and reports out at the in-person event in Nantes. Learn more – Become a Rapporteur. If you’re interested in being a Rapporteur please say so using the Rapporteur Form.  All accepted presentation proposals will be included in the online conference program. Those not selected for a webinar will be invited to upload a pre-recording of their presentation as an Interactive Activity.
Interactive Activities	Each online conference day has interactive asynchronous activities (selected from call for proposals) focused on the action area of the day.  Activities can be in any of the six languages of UNESCO – Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian or Spanish.  To encourage creativity no pre-defined specific formats are required other than they be asynchronous and scheduled to start on the relevant action area day and end during the conference. There are endless possibilities. Examples include: – Presentations uploaded as pre-recorded video describing something that worked or didn’t work and engaging online conference attendees in discussion around lessons learned – A mini learning activity that helps conference participants learn an open education practice – Engaging conference attendees in defining the steps associated with adoption and implementation of OER – A forum that engages online conference participants in forming collaborative partnerships around shared areas of interest and planning collective action – Sharing an OER related resource that helps others advance their own open education efforts – And so on … Preference will be given to interactive activity proposals that: – Provide an easy means for participants to actively contribute – Engage the global open education community in taking action together around some aspect of the UNESCO OER Recommendation – in real time during the conference – Are short, have a clear purpose, and produce an outcome that contributes to implementation of the UNESCO OER Recommendation Each Interactive Activity has its own OEGlobal online conference platform area for posting resources and engaging the global open education community in asynchronous dialogue, question and answer,  discussion, and sharing of related resources.
Social Activities	The online conference will have fun, informal social activities that provide a means for connecting people together, bridging culture, and helping participants get to know each other. If you have ideas or suggestions for social activities please let us know with a Social Activity Proposal.

Additional Instructions:

1. Proposals for Webinar Presentations and Interactive Sessions need to be submitted through EasyChair.
2. Proposals for Social Activities need to be submitted through a provided google form.
3. Expressions of interest to serve as a Rapporteur need to be submitted through google form.
4. Before submitting your proposal for the online conference, please read through relevant sections of the conference website. More information about the online conference format and the conference purpose. 
5. When submitting your proposal via EasyChair, please ensure that you provide enough information in the Abstract field to assess its relevance. We recommend that you provide a minimum of 250 words. Submissions with minimal information are challenging to evaluate and are therefore not likely to be accepted. You are also asked to upload an extended narrative with more information about your respective initiative (up to 1000 words). Extended narratives can be submitted in any of the six official UNESCO languages.

During the submission process via EasyChair, you will need to provide the following information. Please note that all fields are compulsory and you won’t be able to submit your proposal without uploading an extended abstract.

1. First name:
2. Last name: (If there are multiple authors associated with your submission please select/mark, in the submission form, the lead presenting author).
3. Email:
4. Country / Region
5. Organization 
6. Web page
7. UNESCO OER Recommendation Action Area proposal relates to: (Refer to UNESCO OER Recommendation to learn about the action areas.) 
8. Language: In which of the UNESCO official languages will you give your presentation/interactive activity?
9. Type of proposal (Webinar Presentation or Interactive Activity)
10. Title
11. Abstract (in English) 300-word description: The title, abstract and keywords need to be entered in English. They should also be in plain text (they should not contain any formatting or HTML elements)
12. Keywords
13. Upload an Extended Abstract (Upload your extended abstract written in the UNESCO official language that you intend giving your presentation/interactive activity) – up to 1000 words – as a .pdf

In your extended abstract description specify:

• If your session is for a webinar presentations, please answer the following:
  • How does your session address the UNESCO OER Recommendation?
  • Briefly describe your initiative (goals/objectives). 
  • Address lessons learned including successes, challenges and key recommendations.
• If your session is an interactive activity, please answer the following:
  • How will your session engage the global open education community in taking action together?
  • What outcomes will your session generate?

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For questions, please email conference@oeglobal.org