OpenCon Ohio 2026 Call for Proposals & Call for Registration

[Amanda M Goodsett]

Dear Colleagues (apologies for cross-posting), 

We invite you to submit proposals for lightning talk presentations for our OpenCon Ohio 2026 virtual conference!  

Submission Form: OpenCon Ohio 2026 Call for Proposals 

The event will be held online the week of May 11-15, 2026.  During the week, asynchronous conversations will be held online in Discord to discuss prerecorded lightning talks. On Friday, May 15, we will have live presentations and interactive conversations via Zoom! 

Lightning talks should preferably be related to the theme of Reimagining Learning: The Future of Open Education, though other topics are welcome. If accepted, lightning talks will be prerecorded and submitted for viewing by conference participants May 11 - 15. Presenters of lightning talks will engage with participants asynchronously on the conference web platform.  
 
All proposal submissions are due on March 20th, and decisions about accepted submissions will be communicated by April 3rd, if not earlier. Proposals will be evaluated according to the proposal rubric. 
 
Accepted lightning talks should be recorded and submitted to the conference planning team by May 4th. Additional information about structure and format will be provided to lightning talk speakers. 

 

Call for Registration 

If you are interested in attending an open education conference that:   

• Offers maximal flexibility for attendees to view content when it is convenient  
• Has an amazing keynote speaker  
• Prioritizes community building, both synchronous and asynchronous  
• Is in its 9th year of supporting the open ed community  
• Is completely free and online ...  

 

... then we hope you will join us for OpenCon Ohio 2026!   

This year’s OpenCon Ohio 2026 will be offered for free via Zoom on Friday, May 15, 2026 with an in-person preconference on May 14 at Cleveland State University. Our theme this year will be Reimagining Learning: The Future of Open Education. We are thrilled to have Anna Mills, visionary leader in open education and AI, as our keynote speaker (more info below)!   

We are also pleased to offer an in-person component to our event for the first time since 2020. Our in-person preconference event will be held at Cleveland State University on Thursday, May 14th. The free preconference is meant to build community, allow for the exchange of ideas and resources, and offer training related to textbook affordability for our Ohio colleagues. The intended audience for this event is support staff at Ohio institutions. Registration (while spots last) includes breakfast and lunch. The preconference is generously sponsored by the Midwest Higher Education Compact (MHEC).  

Registration for the May 14th preconference is open through February 27th. Registration for the May 15th virtual conference is open through May 8th. 

Register for OpenCon Ohio 2026   

 

Keynote Speaker (May 15) via Zoom:  

Anna Mills, Visionary leader in open education and AI Writing  

  

Anna Mills has taught writing in California community colleges for 20 years and is author of the widely used open educational resource textbook How Arguments Work: A Guide to Writing and Analyzing Texts in College and the newly released AI and College Writing: An Orientation. Her writing on AI appears in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, Computers and Composition, AIPedagogy.org, and TextGenEd: Continuing Experiments. She serves on the Modern Language Association Task Force on Writing and AI. As a volunteer advisor, she has helped shape the pedagogical approach of MyEssayFeedback.ai, and she currently serves as prompting and communications lead for the Peer & AI Review + Reflection (PAIRR) project funded by the California Education Learning Lab. 

 
Please feel free to direct any questions to Mandi Goodsett at a.goo...@csuohio.edu and/or Heather Caprette at h.cap...@csuohio.edu. 

 

We hope you can join us! 

Sincerely, 

OpenCon Ohio 2026 Planning Committee