OEGlobal Voices

With 2026 celebrating key 25 year Open Education milestones (e.g. the founding of MIT Open CourseWare, Creative Commons, and Wikipedia) we add a rich collection of stories of the people behind the open education movement in the state of California published as Sowing the Seeds of a Global Movement: Stories from California Trailblazers of Open Education.

The voices in this episode are lead author and interviewer Barbara Illowsky plus editor Judith Sebesta sharing the “story behind the stories.” It is most fitting that Barbara herself is one of the featured trailblazers for her long career effort at De Anza College where her early Collaborative Statistics OER become one of the first titles published on the plarform known widely as OpenStax.

The idea for Sowing the Seeds was “planted” by James Glapa-Grossklag (in the book) Dean at College of the Canyons and previous board member of OEGlobal. Sowing the Seeds includes interviews with Cathy Casserly, Una Daly, Gerry Hanley, Barbara Illowsky, Martha Kanter, Gary K. Michelson, Lisa Petrides, and Hal Plotkin (describing all of these leaders would take too much of this post, so follow the links to read their stories). Each chapter includes the trailblazer’s “aha” moment in open education with their perspectives on both the early years of open education in California and where it has gone since. It’s worth noting how so much of the trailblazing started in the California community college system, all leading to the initial creation of the Community College Consortium for OER at Foothill-DeAnza Community College district that has evolved into the even larger reaching CCCOER organization within OEGlobal.

And Judith also shared that the followup volume From Grassroots to Ecosystem: The Growth of OER and ZTC in California will be published before the end of the year. We hope you listen to and appreciate all the stories in this episode, and ignore Barbara’s overly humble statements!

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Sowing the Seeds of a Global Movement: Capturing California’s OER and ZTC Trailblazers

In episode 102 of OE Global Voices, host Alan Levine talks with Barbara Illowsky in Cupertino, California, and Judith Sebesta in Austin, Texas, about Sowing the Seeds of a Global Movement, an openly licensed OER documenting the origins of OER and Zero Textbook Cost efforts in California. Illowsky recounts her “aha” moment teaching community college students facing financial barriers, leading to co-authoring an early low-cost statistics text that became the first ADA-accessible open textbook via Rice University’s Connexions (later OpenStax), saving De Anza College students over $3 million. Sebesta, project manager for the California Community Colleges ZTC Grant Program technical assistance provider, explains how James Glapa-Grossklag initiated the project to preserve pioneers’ stories as early leaders retire. Illowsky interviewed California-centered trailblazers including Cathy Casserly, Una Daly, Gerry Hanley, Martha Kanter, Gary Michelson, Lisa Petrides, Hal Plotkin, and James Glapa-Grossklag, and Sebesta previews a forthcoming expanded history, From Grassroots to Ecosystem: The Growth of OER and ZTC in California.

(end of AI generated show notes)

But my life was so enriched, really so enriched by knowing that I contributed to this movement, to find out how much money at my own college we had saved. At one point before I retired, we had saved over $3 million just in elementary statistics books.

And that’s the aha moment. It was like, okay, this is what I can do besides being hopefully a fabulous instructor, and making students not hate statistics, at least tolerate it. This is the little piece I can do to help people achieve their educational goals.

Barbara was a perfect person to do this because she was doing similar work. You’re being very modest, Barbara, as a trailblazer of open education. So I think had an inside understanding of the types of things that work required, as well as the rewards. Repeatedly in these interviews, the interviewees highlight the joys and the rewards of this very grassroots work that they were doing.

They make it clear that it’s hard work, but it also kind of highlights that anyone– that, a faculty member, a staff member, or just about anyone with the right passion and then surrounding themselves, I think, with the right people and resources can engage in this very, very impactful work.

When you listen to Barbara in this episode describe herself as an “old lady” keep these photos in mind that she shared with us!

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Plant A Seed by Brentin Davis  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.  Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Photo of field in Central California coast used in background of the featured image for this episode is Field of Greens flickr photo by kla4067 shared under a Creative Commons (BY 2.0) license.

It took us a long time to get from Episode 100 to 101 but this one is worth your listen. We bring you a globe-crossing conversation recorded back in June with Amy Cicchino in Orlando, Florida and Kristina Hoeppner in Wellington, New Zealand. In this show you will learn how Amy, director of the University Writing Center at the University of Central Florida and Kristina, project lead at Catalyst IT for the open source portfolio platform Mahara have been part of a large multi-institutional task force that has created a remarkable guide called Digital Ethics Principles in ePortfolios.

This work has been accomplished as part of the Association for Authentic, Experiential, and Evidence-Based Learning (AAEEBL), the international professional development organization for ePortfolio practitioners and researchers. The relevance of our conversation is not only that the Digital Ethics in ePortfolios Principles has been published under an open license and that of of the 10 principles is Respect for Author Rights and Re-Use Permissions, but that all 10 ethical principles are applicable to other domains.

Amy Cicchino, PhD, is associate professor and director of the University Writing Center at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL, USA. Her work focuses on writing curriculum and pedagogy, especially digitally enhanced and online writing instruction and writing as experiential education, and high-impact practices. In addition to her involvement with the AAEEBL Digital Ethics Task Force, she holds leadership positions in the Global Society of Online Literacy Educators (GSOLE) and the Society for Experiential Education (SEE). She is the Editor-in-Chief for the Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education journal. 

Kristina Hoeppner, MA, is the project lead for the open source portfolio platform Mahara, working at Catalyst IT in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington in Aotearoa New Zealand. She enjoys supporting and working with the New Zealand and worldwide community of educators, learning designers, and education innovators in both formal and informal learning settings to create positive and supportive learning environments. She has been a member of the AAEEBL Task Force on Digital Ethics in ePortfolios since 2019 and a member of the Executive Committee of FLANZ (Flexible Learning Association of New Zealand) since 2021.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios (AAEEBL) with Amy Cicchino and Kristina Hoeppner

In OEGlobal Voices episode 101, host Alan Levine talks with Amy Cicchino (University of Central Florida Writing Center) and Kristina Hoeppner (Catalyst IT, Mahara) about AAEEBL and their ongoing project to publish Digital Ethics Principles for ePortfolios, recorded June 25, 2026. They describe AAEEBL as an international community of ePortfolio practitioners and researchers spanning disciplines and roles, and explain how 2019 conference discussions on issues like end-user license agreements, consent, privacy, and reuse sparked a task force that brainstormed ~30 ideas and refined them into 10 principles. The current version includes Support, Promote Awareness, Practice, Evaluation, DEIBD, Accessibility, Technology and Usability, Responsibility, Respect for Author Rights and Reuse Permissions, and Visibility of Labor, emphasizing practical guidance, scenarios, and recognizing ePortfolios as labor for students, educators, and staff. They discuss ongoing work, including an AI-focused paper and workshops.

(end of AI generated show notes)

I’ll just add the idea behind this structure– we talked a lot about audience when we were developing the first version of the principles, and we wanted these principles to be accessible, to educators, to administrators, but then also to students because students are the ones often doing this work.

They’re intentionally concise, and they’re intentionally accessible, with the ideas that you could use then the resources to jump off into to research supporting these principles.

And for me DEIBD, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Decolonization is a favorite principle because we interviewed a whole bunch of people from these areas. And we also interviewed non-portfolio practitioners because we are not creating the principles necessarily for the people that are in the field but as Amy said, for the students as well. So we wanted to make sure that we also get a perspective from people that are not involved in portfolio practice.

And that’s why this one is one of my favorite really because it’s also so rich in the strategies and covers a lot that we want to achieve with portfolios: That students have ownership; that students create portfolios; that students bring in themselves so that they see they belong; that they see that it’s included; that we see the diversity in the answers and not just, ‘oh, everybody’s going through a multiple choice test and it gives the same answers.;

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Im Labor Pt.1 by 4di licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Photos of Amy’s location Orlando and Kristina’s location on Wellington are combined and included as background in the featured image for this episode are Orlando Skyline rawpixel public domain photo CC0 and Wellington flickr photo by US Embassy New Zealand shared with no copyright restrictions using Creative Commons Public Domain Mark (PDM)

Here in Episode 100 we cross an OEGlobal Voices podcast milestone of triple digits and very fitting it is for a conversation with Amanda Coolidge who has traversed an impressive expanse of landscapes in Open Education. Amanda was recognized in 2025 with an OEGlobal Board Award of Excellence for Compassionate Leadership.

In the journey of this conversation, we learn about Amanda’s journey starting with helping develop the first open education repository for teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa, then into the open education scene at universities in British Columbia, ultimately to supporting the ground breaking open textbook projects at BCcampus and eventually serving as Executive Director of the organization. Amanda shares her influences as well as her insights and perspectives in being a leader driven by an ethics of care for her colleagues.

We also hear about her new role as Vice President of Strategic Engagement and Growth at Pressbooks some hints at new projects she is leading there, the strong collaborative spirit that exists in the organization, and a concept of “No Meetings Tuesdays”. Tune in as well to hear how she does all this work while living and traveling across Canada in an RV from a base on Vancouver Island. We could not have had a more perfect guest for episode 100.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Episode 100: Compassionate Leadership and Open Education with Amanda Coolidge

In episode 100 of OEGlobal Voices, host Alan Levine marks the milestone with Amanda Coolidge, VP of Strategic Engagement and Growth at Pressbooks and a recent Open Education Award for Excellence recipient recognized as a Compassionate Leader. Speaking from Victoria, British Columbia on WSÁNEĆ First Nations land, Coolidge describes living full-time in a 42-foot RV with her family, working remotely while traveling. She traces her path into open education from a 2006 project in Nairobi with the African Virtual University, BBC, and Open University UK to build an open repository for Sub-Saharan African teacher education, reflecting on access challenges and global differences in open practice. Coolidge discusses influential mentors, her career through BCIT, Royal Roads, BCcampus, and consulting, and her leadership approach emphasizing listening, boundaries, and recognition. She shares her work at Pressbooks, including a micro-credential authoring platform pilot with Maricopa Community College, and reflects on concerns about budget cuts alongside optimism for broader intersections across open movements.

(end of AI generated show notes)

I would say it is absolutely true that the majority of Open Education work happens off the side of people’s desk. I think that the only way that the work can be on somebody’s desk or can be continued to be funded or to continue to be that budget line on someone’s budget is the act of recognition.

When you nominate someone at your institution or in your organization or someone even outside of your organization who you’re seeing does great work, it adds to both their recognition and for them realizing that the work that they’ve been doing is important to the world.

But it also signals to their organization or to their institution that the work that they’re doing is important for the world. It really goes a long way in terms of being able to continue to support and advocate for Open Education.

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Back on the road by TRG Banks placed into the public domain under a CC0 1.0 Universal License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

A photo of location near Amanda’s home base on Vancouver Island included as background in the featured image for this episode is File:Mystic Beach, Vancouver Island, Canada 01.jpg Wikimedia Commons photo by Michal Klajban shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Our podcast has been quiet for a while but we are excited to turn the sounds back on with a trip to Lagos, Nigeria for conversation with linguist, folklorist, artist, and storyteller Adéṣínà Ayẹni.

Recognized in 2025 with an Open Education Award for Excellence as a Leader, Adéṣínà shares an insightful perspective into the richness and complexity of language in a country that counts more than 500 of them spoken, the cultural importance of localization to ones such as Yoruba. Enjoy our conversation that ranges from the language we think in to learning via music and puppets to the limits of Artificial Intelligence for translation of languages the large corporations are not including in models to the role of mentorship.

Our recording on June 15 was intended to highlight Adéṣínà’s achievements recognized by the OEAwards as nominations were still open at the time. And in the time since, as a previous awardee, Adéṣínà’ was generous to serve as a member of the review committee for the 2026 Awards.

Also listen closely to this episode’s musical intro track.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Preserving Nigeria’s Languages and Oral Traditions Through Open Education: A Conversation with Adésinà Ayeni

Host Alan Levine previews an OEGlobal Voices conversation with Adésinà Ayeni (Omo Yoruba), a Lagos-based creator and 2025 Open Education Award for Excellence winner, recorded June 15. Ayeni discusses Nigeria’s linguistic diversity (over 500 languages), the roles of Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, English, and Nigerian Pidgin, and concerns about minority language decline amid urbanization and education policy favoring English. He argues people think first in their mother tongue, citing a Yoruba-vs-English teaching study, and emphasizes translation/localization as essential for inclusive education and Open Education. Ayeni describes projects translating stories, children’s oral literature using puppetry and music, and archiving Yoruba folklore as elders and oral “libraries” pass away. He critiques AI translation for lacking African-language data and promotes creating indigenous-language datasets and mentoring advocates via conferences and large WhatsApp groups.

(end of AI generated show notes)

And I have two WhatsApp groups, where I have over eight hundred linguists where I mentor them, on how to be language advocates, how to be cultural heritage promoters, so as to ensure that what I started, continues. Even when I’m no more, there are still people handing on the baton, like that. So yes, it continues. Just like I was talking about, cultural heritage and folklore. I’m a folklorist and almost everything I do is about folklore, because you get the folktale from someone, then you pass it on.

So they too become folklorists in the long run.

Join us September 2 for the revealing of the winners of the 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence, who are likely to be future guests on the podcast.

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Conga Adepro created and shared by our guest Adésinà Ayeni that he has shared under a Creative Commons Attribution License.

A photo of the Adésinà‘s location in Lagos, Nigeria included as background in the featured image for this episode is Wikimedia Commons image Aerial view of Victoria island in Lagos, Nigeria by Ayorinde Ogundele shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Para este episodio viajamos a Barranquilla, Colombia, para conversar con Ana Michelle Tellez Ferrer, cofundadora de AlmaFuerte Lab. Ella describe cómo, a través del arte, la creatividad y el bienestar, este laboratorio de aprendizaje está creando oportunidades, especialmente para mujeres y personas con discapacidad, para que crezcan como aprendices y líderes. Reconocida en 2025 con el Premio Open Education a la Excelencia como Educadora, la dedicación y la sólida formación pedagógica de Ana Michelle están teniendo un impacto impresionante en toda Sudamérica, llegando también a comunidades latinoamericanas en Estados Unidos.

Junto a su hermana Alexandra, produce el podcast Dos Voces, Un Alma que reúne las historias de científicos, líderes y otros agentes de cambio que dan visibilidad a voces a menudo marginadas. ¡Nos encanta escuchar podcasts con otros podcasters!

Como parte in our Spanish language series, este episodio de OEGlobal Voices ha sido un experimento, ya que el presentador Alan Levine solo habla inglés y Ana Michelle habla español. Se utilizó traducción de texto, subtítulos en directo durante la grabación y el editor de audio Descript AI para generar la voz de Alan en español. Cabe mencionar que esta publicación ha sido traducida automáticamente al español. Agradecemos la disposición de Ana Michelle para participar en este experimento.

Esperamos que disfruten de este programa para conocer mejor a Ana Michelle y el Laboratorio AlmaFuerte. Además, es muy oportuno, ya que están abiertas las nominaciones para los 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence. Escuchen la voz alentadora de Ana Michelle, quien los invita a considerar la posibilidad de crear este reconocimiento para otra persona.

en Descript.com

Para su información: En aras de la experimentación y el espíritu de transparencia, este conjunto de notas del programa fue generado únicamente por la IA “Underlord” en el editor Descript que utilizamos para producir OEGlobal Voices.

Ana Michelle Téllez Ferrer y AlmaFuerte Lab: educación abierta, narrativas y formatos para empoderar voces marginadas
En el episodio 98 de OEGlobal Voices, Alan Levine presenta a Ana Michelle Téllez, cofundadora de AlmaFuerte Lab (Colombia) y ganadora en 2025 del Premio Open Education a la Excelencia como educadora, en una entrevista grabada el 8 de mayo de 2026 con un formato experimental apoyado por traducción, subtítulos y una voz en español generada con IA. Desde Barranquilla, Ana explica cómo AlmaFuerte Lab impulsa programas de bienestar, cultura y escritura, usa tecnologías e IA para cerrar brechas y trabaja con estudiantes y organizaciones de distintas latitudes. Describe su pódcast “Dos Voces, Un Alma” y un formato de streaming en colaboración con una comunidad latina en Filadelfia para visibilizar voces discriminadas. Menciona desafíos de crecimiento sin financiación, su experiencia en el Laboratorio de Vanguardia Pedagógica en Perú, metas de llegar a un millón de estudiantes y un llamado a postular a los Premios de Educación Abierta.

(Fin de las notas del programa generadas por IA)

Y lo vuelvo a decir, porque hay muchas formas de enseñar y, y de entender la enseñanza, de educar, de ver la enseñanza como un puente. Y realmente, dentro de Alma Fuerte generamos programas tanto de bienestar como culturales, como escriturales, y es abierto a docentes, creativos, escritores. Y obviamente, muchos de estos programas están pensados para hacer la práctica más individualizada, más cercana, más humanizada, más de que las personas se sientan seguras en nuestros espacios, pero también puedan sentirse acompañadas.

También acompañamos, eh, proyectos, eh, personas, proyectos de aula. Eh, también ayudamos a crear, eh, diseñamos y facilitamos espacios también para que las personas puedan aterrizar sus ideas, puedan generar como ese espacio para volver a sí mismos también.

La música de este episodio, con licencia libre, es una pista titulada Bring Peace de Ketsa compartida bajo una licencia Creative Commonss Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 4.0 Internacional. Al igual que la mayoría de la música de nuestro podcast, la encontramos en el Free Music Archive (consulta nuestra lista de reproducción completa de FMA).

Una foto de la ubicación de Ana Michelle en Barranquilla, Colombia, incluida como fondo en the featured image for this episode es Barranquilla – Barrio El Golf flickr photo by fejorca compartido bajo una licencia Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA 2.0).

All of our episodes are special but this one even more so as it was recorded the day that the article Virginia Rodés co-authored with Regina Motz, Between openness and responsibility: how to make good use of Open Educational Resources was published as part of the Sharing is a Challenge series addressing the challenge of “Misuse.”

This multiauthor, multilingual collaboration released a new article 4 days each week during March 2026, in alignment with Open Education Week.

Joining us in this conversation was ringleader for the project Colin de la Higuera, UNESCO RELIA Chair plus his colleague from Nantes University, Lucie Grasset, who was one of the team that coordinated the complex effort, plus OEGlobal Co-Executive Director Marcela Morales — who wrote the first article in the series on the challenge of Legitimacy.

Colin and Lucie spoke about the why and how of the project, which produced in sum 17 articles in 6 languages written by 30 co-authors from 15 countries published across three web sites. And OEGlobal set up a hub on the Open Education Week site that used the feeds from all sites to dynamically list the articles as they were released plus discussion threads always open for your comments in OEG Connect.

Virginia shared he she and Regina flipped the issue of “Misuse” to openness and responsibility. This comes from Virginia’s research and practice working with faculty noting the obstacles of appropriation. It has also been influenced by her thinking deeply in her current research on impact of Artificial Intelligence on open education, and how ethics should be approached not only individually but systemically. Her article for the series is cast humanly as a conversation between two educators with both a common ground of motivation for open education and differing perspectives on the rile of responsibility. Yet they come to a place of respect and understanding at the end.

Update: The team behind the project has translated this episode’s post into French.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

OE Global Voices #97: Sharing Is a Challenge—Misuse, Responsibility, and the Work Behind a Global OER Series
Host Alan Levine convenes Colin de la Higuera, Lucie Grasset, Virginia Rodes, and OE Global executive co-director Marcela Morales to discuss the “Sharing is a Challenge” article series published for Open Education Week and coordinated by Colin with support from Lucie and a University of Nantes team. Colin explains the series grew from reframing OER workshops around “sharing” and identifying obstacles that make sharing harder today, including AI. Lucie describes the production workflow: collecting articles from 27 authors, editing, translating (including via DeepL with review), publishing across three WordPress blogs, distributing a daily newsletter, and cross-posting to OEG Connect. Virginia discusses her article on “Misuse,” reframed as openness and responsibility amid generative AI, governance, quality, representation, platform enclosure, and provenance concerns. Marcela connects responsibility to legitimacy and the community’s need for practical guidance.

(end of AI generated show notes)

 So we continued working in that line saying, okay, perhaps sharing is an interesting word. We can use it in a way independently of having to explain the Five Rs and UNESCO and whatever. And it’s true. it’s a word which resonates so much with teachers– difficult to find a teacher who’s in the game for something else than sharing. They’re all in the game for sharing.

So that’s where it comes from. And then little by little we understood that, it sounded nice, but it was much more difficult we thought, and that there was something like obstacles to sharing. And we then just listed the obstacles and off we went.

 And that is the way, responsibility appears as part of approaching misuse. It’s not only a problem of ethics when you use contents that have been developed by other people. Now there is another actor in the landscape that is AI, Generative AI mostly, that take part [in] adaptations.

This is one of the aspects that I see the individual perspective of ethics has to be transferred to responsibility, not only as an individual responsibility, but mostly as a problem of governance, a problem of accountability, a problem of stress.

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Share Your Project by TimTaj shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

A photo of the location of the team behind the Sharing is a Challenge series of Nantes, France included as background in the featured image for this episode is Nantes, Sud Ouest flickr photo by Arnaud Abélard shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA 2.0) license.

Our 2026 season opens here, an inspiring conversation with Saida Affouneh, professor, researcher, and director of the E-Learning Center at An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine. We got to learn about Saida via a nomination for a 2025 Open Education Award for Excellence, leading to her recognition as an awardee as an Educational Leader. Saida was a key voice on the panel discussion on the opening day of the OEGlobal Tour in October.

We are honored to share with you this conversation recorded with Saida Affouneh in the podcast studio January 22, 2026.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Navigating Education and Resilience in Crisis: A Conversation with Saida Affouneh

In this episode of OE Global Voices, host Alan Levine speaks with Saida Affouneh from An-Najah University in Palestine. Saida shares her experiences and insights as an educator in a region afflicted by constant crisis. Discussing her journey from Palestine to the UK for her Ph.D., Saida emphasizes the importance of education as a tool for resilience. She elaborates on the current state of education in Gaza and the West Bank, highlighting the challenges students face and their determination to continue learning despite extreme adversities. Additionally, Saida explains the critical role of Open Educational Resources (OER) and digital literacy in crisis settings, along with her vision for culturally sensitive, low-bandwidth educational content. This episode provides a deeply personal and motivational narrative on the intersection of education, crisis, and hope.

(end of AI generated show notes)

So there are new skills that rise up in the crisis situation that need to be developed. And this could be done through open resources, through like self-run courses with low bandwidth in Arabic, with examples from the situation here or around the area. …The second module that is needed, and I talk about it very much, is related to first aid support– first aid from medical background and first aid from psychological, mental and psychological background. Just the first steps in order to give yourself the support, is needed.

The third one, which is very important is about how to be safe online because you know media and how it’s used inside the crisis. We need to raise the awareness of people how to use social media, how to use AI in crisis settings since it could be their main enemy, if they are not aware how to use it, which is very important.

The open licensed music for this episode is a track called Deserts of Gaza by Ethos shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

A photo of Saida’s location in Nablus, Palestine included as background in the featured image for this episode is Nablus panorama-cropped enhanced.jpg a photo from Wikimedia Commons by Anna Frodesiak shared under a e Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license.

As a perfect last episode of the 2025 OEGlobal Voices podcast, we are delighted to share an inside look at the workings and impact of the Open For Anti-Racism program (OFAR) You will hear in the voices of Laura Dunn and Jamie Thomas how this has succeeded as a collaborative effort to increase the integrations of open educational practices and pedagogy for faculty to make their classes ever more accessible and responsive to the learning needs of students in community colleges across the state of California.

OFAR, a project led by CCCOER (and OEGlobal), not only includes professional development through course materials facilitated by expert coaches, but also a process where each participant develops an Action Plan that is carried out in courses they teach the following semester. OFAR truly is the kind of professional development that goes far beyond resources and training, but supporting changes in pedagogical strategy. And this is accomplished through a distributed cohort model.

Listen closely in the conversation how Laura and Jamie both refer to “students”, not only the learners ultimately in community colleges courses, but often they refer to the “students” as the faculty participants themselves. You will understand why there has been interest in this program from other educators in the US plus Canada as well. And you will hear of the future plans to publish and share an OFAR “Toolkit”.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

OFAR and Open Pedagogy: Bridging Equity and Education

Join host Alan Levine in an enlightening conversation with Laura Dunn and Jamie Thomas, key figures in the Open for Anti-Racism (OFAR) program. This episode delves into how OFAR empowers community college faculty to incorporate open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy in their teaching. With personal anecdotes and professional insights, the guests discuss the transformative impact of culturally responsive strategies and community collaborations. Highlights include real-world examples of innovative course projects and the challenges and successes of implementing anti-racist teaching practices. This episode emphasizes the interconnectedness of educational communities and the ongoing efforts to make learning inclusive and accessible for all.

(end of AI generated show notes)

So OFAR steps in then as a really actionable professional development program that helps faculty harness the power of OER and open pedagogy in their classrooms and in their teaching so that their teaching can become more accessible, regardless of student backgrounds. Students are then invited to bring their quote unquote whole selves. We say that a lot, in colleges and universities, but do we really mean it?

But within OFAR we’re really looking for ways and strategies to help faculty bring their students– the whole student– into the classroom. Community colleges across the state of California and OFAR has had cohorts and teams from these colleges over the past six years now who are learning how to apply OER and open pedagogy to their teaching.

One of the things we talk about with folks as we also have them connect with past participants through say a live webinar so that they can learn from other folks who’ve gone through this journey… we can try to help them be as adaptable as possible to whatever course they might end up getting assigned to at the last minute. Or, the particulars of who their students are and what their students are interested most in learning. And sometimes that connects really well with this idea of wanting to localize, say, a Biology curriculum or a History curriculum or a Cosmetology curriculum so that what is learned in the class also has immediate relevance to the neighborhood environment where our students are circulating and possibly going to serve new clients or stand up programs of their own.

Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called  Everyone Knows It by Xennial that is shared under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. license. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Join us for our newest podcast episode, with voices connecting open educators from distant locations, both by the sea, Laura Czerniewicz from the southern tip of South Africa and Catherine Cronin from the west edge of Ireland. Listening to these two influential forces in open education, you should feel like you are in one room together.

Recorded in September 2025, we invited Laura and Catherine to reflect on their multiple recognitions in the 2024 Open Education Awards for Excellence. Catherine was awarded in the area of leadership and both our guests were part of the entire team recognized for the global collaboration that produced Higher Education for Good. We hear about ongoing efforts that came from their subsequent keynote presentations as calls to action to critically address Open Education “at the crossroads.” In many threads you will understand how both Laura and Catherine embody, in a most human fashion, both leadership and collaboration.

There’s much to be inspired by in hearing Laura and Catherine’s share stories of their influences, experiences, and mostly, the optimism that comes from witnessing how their vision for Higher Education for Good came to be openly created and shared.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Reflections on Leadership, Collaboration, and Open Education with Laura Czerniewicz and Catherine Cronin

In this episode of OEGlobal Voices, host Alan Levine catches up with Laura Czerniewicz and Catherine Cronin. The conversation reflects on their journeys in open education, touching upon leadership, humanity, and courage. They discuss their collaboration on the book ‘Higher Education for Good,’ recognized with multiple awards, and share personal stories from their pasts, including their childhoods and educational backgrounds. The discussion also explores the evolving landscape of open education, the impacts of big tech, and the importance of maintaining a human-centered approach. The episode closes with a reflection on community, personal well-being, and the joys of life outside work.

(end of AI generated show notes)

We know that in the midst of the chaos and collapse, there are people doing good things and soldiering on. That’s still true today. When we had this conversation about this possibility, that is exactly what we hoped for, that we would capture that dogged insistence on doing good in the face of what might feel intransigent obstacles.

And it happened. It’s amazing and astonishing and bigger than we ever thought, but it’s a real celebration of the fact that, in the midst of everything and something we have to all remind ourselves now, when we watch what’s going on in the world, that there are good actions and people, no matter what.

And this sounds simple, but you don’t see it everywhere. It’s increasingly obfuscated and not mainstream. For me, it’s very sad. I think that we need more courageous leadership that respects humanity, that holds hope, that can paint a vision so people can see the difference from where we are now to what might be, what could be, more humane and socially just futures.

And then help and encourage people to step towards that. So I dunno how I got there, but that’s my raw thoughts about leadership today.

Listen to more of our episodes recorded with Open Education Awards for Excellence winners.

Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called  Hope by Xennial that is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution license. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).

Into this last month of 2025 we continue catching up with winners of the 2024 Open Education Awards for Excellence (that’s how much excellence is out there). In this episode recorded August 11, 2025 we hear the voice and open education perspectives of Melody Chin, Senior Librarian at Singapore Management University (SMU).

Recognized with an Individual OEAward as a Catalyst, Melody shares the state of open education resources and practices at SMU and it’s impact in Singapore and beyond, through her activities and fostering of openness regionally with the ASEAN University Network. Listen in to learn more about Melody’s interests and motivations for being an open catalyst.

at Descript.com

FYI: For the sake of experimentation and the spirit of transparency, this set of show notes alone was generated by the AI “Underlord” in the Descript editor we use to produce OEGlobal Voices.

Exploring Open Education and Librarianship with Melody Chin

Join us on OE Global Voices as we dive into a fascinating conversation with Melody Chin from the Singapore Management University. Recognized with an Open Education Award for Excellence as a Catalyst in 2024, Melody shares her journey from her early educational experiences in Singapore and Sydney to her pivotal role in advocating Open Educational Resources (OER). Discover how Melody’s passion for education and libraries has driven her efforts to make OER more accessible and impactful, both at SMU and across Southeast Asia. Melody also discusses the evolving role of librarians in the digital age, challenges in promoting OER, and the importance of building communities of practice across the region.

(end of AI generated show notes)

…especially [for] some of the classes that’ are based on local context, because one of the university priorities is Growth in Asia. Some courses have been based very much on Asian topics, Asian economies. For those sort of local based courses, it’s been a little bit more difficult to find relevant OER.

But at the same time, I’ve constantly been reminding instructors that’s the beautiful thing about OER. You can customize the case studies, customize the examples that you have for our local context.

Listen to more from our episodes recorded with Open Education Awards for Excellence winners.

Our open licensed music for this episode is a track called  Catalyst by Anemoia that is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license. Like most of our podcast music, it was found at the Free Music Archive (see our full FMA playlist).