Call for Proposals

Open Connections: Regional and Local Community Building for Equity and Sustainability

The Open Education Southern Symposium (OESS) is now accepting proposals for its virtual 2021 conference to be held July 12 - 16, 2021. Proposals should fall into two categories:

• Presentations: 25 minutes
• Panel Discussions: 50 minutes

We welcome proposals from faculty/educators, students, librarians, instructional designers, educational technologists, and administrators from all educational institutional levels (K-16) and organizations big and small involved in open education and open pedagogy. We're hoping to create a program that provides development opportunities for both novices and advanced open education practitioners.

Some proposal topic ideas that might be of interest include:

• Sustainability for OER
• Open Education and the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Adoption and creation of resources
• OER Publishing
• Best Practices and Impact of Open Education
• Creative Commons, Copyright, and Other Licensing
• Marketing and Advocacy
• Open Pedagogy Practices
• Student Success
• K-12 Highlights
• Funding Strategies for Developing OER
• Instructional Design Strategies for OER
• Trends & Emerging Ideas
• OER in Community Colleges
• Tenure, promotion, and OER
• OER Community Building
• Assessment
• Inclusion and Diversity in Open Education
• Crowdsourcing OER Projects
• Graduate Students, Teaching Assistants, and OER on Campus
• OER Basics: Tips for New Programs
• Student Engagement in OER Advocacy
• Accessibility and OER

OESS is committed to highlighting a variety of voices and experiences. First time presenters are encouraged to submit a proposal.

Submission Details:

• The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 19, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Central Daylight Time.
  A preview of the full submission form is available as a PDF.
• Proposal social media summaries should not exceed 240 characters (spaces included). Social media summaries are shortened abstracts which will fit into a single tweet on Twitter.
• Proposal abstracts should not exceed 2000 characters or approximately 500 words.
• All submissions will be evaluated based on the relevance of the topic and potential to advance the thinking or practice of open education and open pedagogy. Proposal reviewers will use the Open Education Southern Symposium’s 2021 Proposal Reviewing Procedures document to guide their evaluation of submissions.
• The program committee will deliver decisions to submitters by April 19, 2021.
• Presenters will be asked to accept or decline the invitation to present by May 7, 2021.
• All presenters will be required to register for the symposium.

If you have any questions, please contact Stephanie Pierce, University of Arkansas (sjpierc@uark.edu) or the Open Education Southern Symposium Planning Committee at openedsouthsymposium@gmail.com.