A Time of Transitions…

It’s hard to believe that September is here already and the end of summer (at least here in the Northern hemisphere) is upon us. August is often a quiet month in academia as everyone takes their summer break, but the GO-GN team has been working just as hard as ever! 

It’s a time of renewal for us and, as we celebrated our 10th anniversary in 2024, for the network as a whole.  Our strategic review was an opportunity to hear from members about what they would like to see from the network in the future, as well as a chance to look back and offer a definitive history of GO-GN for the first time. We’re continuing these conversations and hope to be able to put some new activities into practice soon.  We’re also busy looking ahead to our forthcoming workshop in Brisbane, Australia ahead of Open Education Global.  In our current phase of work, we are improving our understanding of equity, diversity and inclusion in the Asia-Pacific region, and day 2 of our workshop will focus on this. A GO-GN team planning day in August enabled us to focus on how we’ll organise ourselves going forward. 

One big change that won’t have escaped your notice over the summer is the departure of our longstanding Director, Prof. Martin Weller.  We’ve expressed these sentiments to various people online and offline, but we’d once again like to acknowledge the leadership provided by Martin since the coordination of GO-GN first migrated to The Open University (UK). The network has grown substantially during this time, and also weathered the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic.  We’re grateful for the contributions Martin has made (and continues to make) to the network!  He’s still associated as a member, so you might see him around in a webinar or a conference… maybe he will even write about us in his blog someday! 

So, you might be wondering what Martin’s departure means for GO-GN from an operational perspective…

From a leadership perspective, we have always been quite democratic and team members have long had responsibility for leading different areas of activity.  Although the coordination team is quite small, we have decided to share the newly opened role of Director.  Beck Pitt and Rob Farrow will be Co-Directors of GO-GN going forward.  This is a less hierarchical model in the sense that it distributes the executive function of the coordination team.  Beck will have responsibilities more focused on operations and events, while Rob will have more of a focus on research and collaboration. These are extensions of the leadership roles we have both provided for several years.  

In practice, members are unlikely to notice much change in the provision of services or network activity.  The third member of the academic coordination team, Carina Bossu, can act as a ‘tie-breaker’ for any issues where agreement cannot be reached, although it should be noted that we aspire to a deliberative and democratic style which means it is unlikely that such a situation should arise!

Another thing we have been discussing is the potential introduction of new roles within the network.  These would not be paid roles – at least not in the foreseeable future – but they would allow us to offer semi-formal coordination roles to others outside the coordination team, or to highlight expertise within the network.  (Our various fellowships and scholarships already provide a lighter version of this.) We can also make these roles more visible by updating our descriptions of GO-GN online.  We’re currently considering different approaches to this and will further consult with members. (Our website refresh is scheduled for later in the year.) We’ll be inviting input as part of our annual review in December.

In some ways, this is another response to the growing size and maturity of the network.  With over 180 doctoral researchers and alumni, in addition to several hundred experts and friends, we have the potential to establish special interest groups, highlight expertise, incubate ideas and working groups, and coordinate activity at scale.  As we move forwards, we’re trying to work out the ideal ways of developing the processes and presentation that will support this.  Please share any suggestions with the team!

Another consideration that came out of the various discussions around the strategic review is whether “Global OER Graduate Network” is the right name for us going forward.  Yes, this is a sacrilegious thought! But a focus on OER exclusively risks dating the identity of the network, and potentially closes us off to members who are interested in aspects of open but not OER.  There are, of course, many ways to be open, and the meaning of “open” is not uniform. We’re not thinking of completely rebranding, but perhaps a move to “Global Open Graduate Network” would be a bit easier for newbies to understand while being a bit more future proof.  It also arguably reflects the diversification of research interests within GO-GN away from ‘pure’ OER and into social, ethical and political dimensions. We won’t make any decisions on this right away, and will consult with members widely first. Look out for our annual survey later on in the year that will act as a starting point for feedback and discussions on this proposed change.  

As always, it’s an exciting time to be in GO-GN! Thanks for being along for the ride!