This post is by GO-GN OER25 scholarship awardee Gelareh Keshavarz (Athabasca University)
As someone new to the formal open education community, being awarded a GO-GN scholarship to attend OER25 was an important step in my journey. While I’ve long practiced open principles in my teaching and research, this was my first opportunity to engage directly with the global network of open education scholars.
OER25 in London marked my first in-person GO-GN event. It was especially meaningful to return to a city I had called home for 15 years, where my family still lives. More than a personal homecoming, it was an eye-opening professional experience that helped me better understand how to align doctoral research with the values and practices of the open education movement.
At the conference, I had the opportunity to discuss the similarities and differences between GO-GN and the Open Education Research Fellowship. No one better than Rob Farrow could have provided a clearer and more thoughtful explanation that helped me understand how each program supports researchers in different yet complementary ways. This conversation was timely, as I had just been selected as a 2025–2026 Open Education Research Fellow with the Open Education Group and was shy about asking foundational questions!
Several presentations left a strong impression. Joanne Kehoe’s session, Student Influencers & Institutional Allies in OER Advocacy, offered a compelling model for embedding student voices into OER adoption, supported by faculty and institutional allies. Her engaging presentation and humble demeanour gave me practical ideas I hope to apply in my own work. James Glapa-Grossklag’s leadership on the Zero Textbook Cost initiative in California’s community colleges and the conversations around co-designing AI professional development were super inspiring. His excellent feedback on my presentation also helped me refine my proposal. He is a dean we all love to have. 😊 I am also grateful to Brandon Carlson for instantly messaging all the feedback from my presentations to my LinkedIn when I couldn’t take notes. A true impromptu colleague!
I was also inspired by the session by Francisco Iniesto and Carina Bossu on Open Science and IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility). Their work helped me, as a second language learner, to think more critically about the equity dimensions of my own research. Carina’s infectious energy and sharp sense of humour deserve a blog post of her own.
Another standout moment was getting to know and hearing from Joe Wilson, whose reflections on supporting educators to create open, ethical, and learner-centred systems resonated with my values. His honest and hopeful keynote message reinforced my belief in the importance of collaboration and educator empowerment. The Scottish Tertiary Education statement on GenAI was another helpful takeaway, offering a policy perspective on how institutions can navigate AI ethically while staying grounded in openness and equity.
The very well-organized conference concluded with a generous and thoughtfully selected closing venue, an ideal space to reflect, connect, and share a few laughs. Thanks to Beck Pitt for making us all feel welcome and eager to return!
Finally, I want to thank Jenni Hayman for initially introducing me to GO-GN and encouraging me to get involved.
Photo credit: Gelareh presenting at OER25 by Jenni Hayman (cropped).
