2023 Attendee Guide
The 2023 Open Education Conference is almost here! Here is a guide with everything attendees need to know to access the conference and maximize your experience. Watch your registered email address for more updates, and you can always reach us at contact@openeducationconference.org!
ABOUT THE CONFERENCE
The Open Education Conference is an annual convening for sharing and learning about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education initiatives. As the 20th annual gathering of the conference community, this year spotlights innovation and praxis in open education—recognizing how far the field has come, and how it can continue to evolve toward more accessible, equitable, and inclusive educational resources and practices for all. This year’s program is organized around the theme Innovation and Praxis: Building on 20 Years of Community, offering a wide range of sessions that relate to innovation, praxis, community, and social justice.
What: 2023 Open Education Conference (#OpenEd23)
When: November 7-9, 2023
Where: Virtual (held in the platform Oxford Abstracts)
Logging Into Oxford Abstracts
This year’s conference is hosted in a new platform called Oxford Abstracts. You will need to log into Oxford Abstracts in order to build a schedule, access sessions, and interact with other attendees.
Activating Your Account
If you already set up your Oxford Abstracts account during registration, simply log in or reset your password. If someone else registered you, you may need to create an account using your registered email address (see your attendee emails) and complete a brief ticket holder form. If you haven’t registered, registration is still open!
Accessing the Program
As soon as you log in, you will be directed to the OpenEd23 Dashboard. Click “view” to access the program. The first time you access the program, you will have the opportunity to set your time zone and create a name badge. See our Privacy Blog for important information BEFORE proceeding if you would like to limit how other attendees can see or message you.
Building a Schedule
Oxford Abstracts makes it easy to assemble a personal schedule. Once you are in the program, there is a menu on the left side of the page that offers multiple ways to view and discover sessions. You can “bookmark” sessions you want to attend, and make sure to pay attention to which are live and pre-recorded.
Joining Sessions
The program has more than 150 live and pre-recorded sessions, so this conference was not designed with the expectation that you will attend everything! We recommend prioritizing the sessions you find most exciting to attend live, and schedule time to watch pre-recorded sessions when it’s convenient for you.
Joining Live Sessions in Zoom
All live sessions are held in Zoom. To access the link to join Zoom, you will need to log into Oxford Abstracts at the time of the session and open the session page from the Program Schedule. Click the button that says “Join Zoom” and enter your name and email on the Zoom instant registration page that loads in your browser. Click “register” and the next page should give you the Zoom link to join. We recommend downloading the latest version of the Zoom Desktop App.
Watching Pre-recorded Presentations
There are over 50 pre-recorded presentations embedded into the program. These sessions are scheduled at suggested viewing times, but can be watched anytime, starting the very first day. To watch a session, log into Oxford Abstracts and open the session from the Program Schedule or your bookmarks. The video will be embedded in the session page. After you finish watching, be sure to leave a comment for the presenters below the video. Also don’t forget to browse the Poster Gallery.
Session Types
Plenary Sessions: Each day has a plenary session with featured programming on this year’s theme, Innovation & Praxis: Building on 20 Years of Community. These sessions will be recorded, but you won’t want to miss attending them live!
Concurrent Sessions: Most of the scheduled program is filled with concurrent sessions, which relate to one of our six program topics. Live sessions are held in Zoom at their scheduled time, and pre-recorded sessions can be viewed anytime. While there may be up to five live sessions happening at once, most all are recorded and will be posted for later viewing.
Breakout Sessions: This year’s conference features a new opportunity to engage in informal discussion with other attendees. Each day will offer a 30 minute block where you can select the topic of your choosing and connect with other participants. You won’t want to miss these!
Social Sessions: Wrap up each day by joining a social session of your choice. Each day ends with the Daily Debrief, OpenEd’s talk show style recap, followed by informal social activities including games, story telling, and light-hearted discussions.
SOCIAL SPACES
Oxford Abstracts: This year’s conference platform includes an embedded chat feature, which you can use to send messages to the whole conference and individual attendees. You can also leave comments and questions on session pages. While we hope you will consider using this feature, you are also welcome to disable it by toggling off chat in your Name Badge settings.
Discord: In addition to the embedded chat, the conference has once again set up a Discord server for attendees. If you’re familiar with Slack, Discord is a similar concept. To join our Discord server, look for an email invitation from contact@openeducationconference.org on the first day of the conference.
Social Media: The official conference hashtag is #OpenEd23 and you can find us on most platforms at @HeyOpenEd. We’ll be most active on Twitter (X) throughout the conference, and we invite you to join us there or wherever you post.
Code of Conduct
The Open Education Conference is committed to being a safe, accessible, equitable, and inclusive environment for all. Our code of conduct is important to facilitate those values and is essential to supporting environments centered on our principles in all conference spaces. The code of conduct applies to speakers, attendees, sponsors, and organizers alike, and it covers all aspects of the conference, including sessions, chats, and online spaces. Participation is conditional on reading and accepting the code of conduct, and unacceptable behavior is subject to sanctions. Please take a moment to review the code of conduct now.
Schedule at a Glance (Eastern Standard Time)
Tuesday, November 7th
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM ET: Kick off your conference experience by joining a speed networking activity, conference overview presentation, or a mug share! These 30-minute breakouts will be followed by our morning plenary featuring a keynote by Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, titled “Building Open Community: Lessons from the Commons.”
12:30 PM - 5:30 PM ET: The majority of this portion of the day will involve concurrent live sessions with one 30-minute discussion session and two 30-minute breaks. Also be sure to browse the suggested pre-recorded sessions to watch now or later.
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM ET: Close out your agenda with the Daily Debrief, OpenEd’s talk show recap of the day, and grab your favorite beverage or snack to join informal chit chat at the Opening Reception.
Wednesday, November 8th
10:00 AM - 1:30 PM ET: Jump right back into the program with four time blocks of concurrent live sessions. Two 30-minute breaks are scheduled at 11:30 AM and at 1:30 PM.
2:00 PM - 5:30 PM ET: Jasmine Roberts-Crews will kick off our afternoon program with her keynote speech “There has to be another way: A Post-Oppositional Approach to Social Justice in Open Education.” This afternoon will also feature a back-to-back poster session and breakout discussion session, followed by a final concurrent session block for the day.
6:00 PM - 7:00 PM ET: Close out your conference day with the Daily Debrief, followed by GAME NIGHT! Come ready to relax and have fun with other attendees.
Thursday, November 9th
10:00 AM - 4:00 PM ET: With one discussion session at 11:00 AM and three 30-minute breaks, most of Thursday features multiple blocks of concurrent sessions. Don’t forget to look back at recordings from earlier days you missed, and make time for pre-recorded sessions.
3:30 PM - 6:00 PM: For our closing plenary, tune in for a panel of four incredible students discussing open education through the lens of student activism. Also don’t miss the announcement of next year’s format and location. Don’t miss the final Daily Debrief, then bring a beverage or snack to relax at the Closing Reception.
Can’t Wait?
Neither can we! Building on the conference’s previous four virtual years, this year’s event aims to be a refreshing and engaging experience that is driven by the community. As the conference moves forward into the next phase of its history, we’re going to need everyone’s help to make this year’s event a success and improve it for the future.
Got questions? Contact us at contact@openeducationconference.org.
