small OpenEd tweak
Delmar Larsen
Dear Open Community:
I was delighted to see so many participants at last week’s OpenEd conference and to take part in the thoughtful discussions sparked by so many insightful presentations. Looking back over the schedule, though, I noticed that certain themes and ideas surfaced repeatedly, often led by the same speakers and organizations. After hearing about many other interesting proposals that weren’t accepted for presentation, I couldn’t help but feel a bit disappointed by the missed opportunity to showcase a wider range of voices. It seems the conference might benefit from a small tweak to increase the range of ideas and perspectives presented.
I have observed that other conferences facing similar issues have implemented a “rule of two” or “rule of three,” ensuring that no single individual or organization is overrepresented in the presentation or workshop lineup. I believe adopting a similar approach at OpenEd could offer several benefits. It would broaden the diversity of perspectives, giving attendees access to a wider range of ideas, experiences, and approaches. It would also increase engagement by reducing repetition and introducing fresh content, while providing fairer opportunities for early-career academics, underrepresented groups, and smaller, less-developed groups and organizations to share their activities.
I understand that there may be reasons why certain individuals or organizations are more prominent in the schedule, such as sponsor commitments. However, I believe this is an idea worth considering for next year’s OpenEd conference to further enrich the experience. I would be interested to hear from the community if there are any concerns about pursuing this sort of approach.
Regards,
Delmar
Delmar Larsen
CEO and Founder; LibreTexts
del...@libretexts.org
https://LibreTexts.org
The Future is Open
Amanda Coolidge
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Delmar Larsen
Amanda:
I received the form and will complete it, but I wanted to note that I have shared this idea locally before without any response or progress. I felt it was worthwhile to bring it to the broader community that this conference serves, in the hope of sparking a wider discussion on something I believe we all value: increasing equity and diversity of perspectives and ideas.
Delmar
Delmar Larsen
Professor and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Affairs
Department of Chemistry
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
+1 (530) 754-9075
dla...@ucdavis.edu
Amanda Coolidge
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Amy Hofer
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Amanda Coolidge reacted via Gmail
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ash.barber
Delmar Larsen
Ash:
Thanks for the clarification. I went back to the schedule and was able to track your statistics, which certainly appears solid. Only one person in my quick review had more than three talks although several organizations had multiple presenters distributed among different people. Perhaps that was why I felt that diversity was missing in the presentations and especially many of the panels I attended (I personally like panels with panelists that don't all agree on all the salient topics otherwise it resembles "groupthink"). While I know that my opinion that more diversity is needed for the conference is shared by others, I am also aware it isn't shared by all. Clearly there is a different origin to my observation and I will carefully review my notes before I provide formal feedback to the committee.
Thanks again for the statistics and information.
Regards,
Delmar
Hi Delmar and all, On behalf of the OpenEd Board of Directors, it was a pleasure to welcome so many of you in Denver and online last week. As a community-elected board, we strive to produce a program that includes a diverse range of perspectives and encourage ongoing community participation in our efforts to continuously improve. This year, we received more than 450 submissions for less than 200 slots. So, the selection process is extremely competitive and requires us to make many difficult decisions based on the criteria laid out in the call for proposals. Our review process includes multiple stages of review conducted by more than 100 proposal reviewers and a volunteer selection committee. We are proud that the program accommodated over 400 unique speakers. More than 60% of concurrent sessions included first-time speakers, with 20% presented exclusively by first time speakers, and 16% including at least one student presenter. Our call for proposals currently includes a limit of 3 proposals per individual speaker, and ~90% of speakers only spoke at one session (2% spoke at the maximum of 3). We recognise the work of including diverse perspectives is never done and we remain committed to improving year after year. We actively encourage community members to participate in the proposal review process or by running for the board (self-nominations are open now). We also have a public comment form and welcome feedback directly at con...@openeducationconference.org. Thank you,
Ash BarberChair, Open Education Conference Board of Directors
On Tuesday, November 4, 2025 at 4:45:59 AM UTC+10 Amy Hofer wrote:
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cccoer-advisory/302cf04d-6dac-4477-960c-f5b12dafc621n%40googlegroups.com.
Delmar Larsen
Professor and Vice Chair for Undergraduate Affairs
Department of Chemistry
University of California, Davis
One Shields Avenue
Davis, CA 95616
+1 (530) 754-9075
dla...@ucdavis.edu