2020 Theme: Reimagining Open Education

The theme of the 2020 Open Education Conference is “Reimagining Open Education.” This theme reflects how the events of 2020 have underscored urgent challenges in education—both new and longstanding—from the rapid pivot online in response to a global pandemic, structural inequities including systemic racism, and barriers to the access and full participation in the exchange of knowledge. 

This year’s conference seeks to inspire attendees to “reimagine” open education as a solution to these many challenges, and also to think critically about how the current practice of open education can be more equitable and inclusive. The theme also applies to the conference itself, which is in the process of "revising" and "remixing" itself as a community-owned event as it enters its seventeenth year.

Reimagining must be an active process. It starts with critical reflection and the formulation of ideas, but it is only meaningful if concrete action follows. In choosing the theme of reimagining, our intent is to spark active efforts to reinvigorate, reinvent, and reshape open education for a more equitable future.