We are delighted to welcome our keynote speakers for this year’s conference, including:
Laura Gibbs
Laura has been teaching fully online Humanities courses at the University of Oklahoma since 2002. She’s taking early retirement at the end of Spring 2021 to focus her full-time attention on the Tiny Tales OER project. Find out more about her classes and about the Tiny Tales (free books!) at LauraGibbs.net.
Twitter: @OnlineCrsLady @OnlineMythInd
Dr Rajiv Jhangiani
Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani is the Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia. The architect of Canada’s first zero textbook cost degree programs, Rajiv’s scholarship focuses on open educational practices, student-centered pedagogies, and ethical approaches to educational technology. A recipient of the Award for Excellence in Open Education from BCcampus and the Emerging Leader Award from Open Education Global, Rajiv has spoken at the United Nations about how open education supports the sustainable development goals and recently served as an Ambassador for the Global Advocacy of OER with the International Council for Open and Distance Education. A co-author of three open textbooks in Psychology, his books include Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science (2017) and Open at the Margins: Critical Perspectives on Open Education (2020). Together with Dr. Robin DeRosa, he is a co-founder of the Open Pedagogy Notebook. You can find him online @thatpsychprof or thatpsychprof.com
Jasmine Roberts
Jasmine Roberts is a renowned open education leader and professor of communication at The Ohio State University. Professor Roberts’ advocacy work centers on creating a socially just academia as well as the experiences of people of color, women, queer communities.
She has delivered numerous keynote presentations across the globe on the topics of inclusion in open education. Professor Roberts is also the author of the highly-rated, openly-licensed book “Writing for Strategic Communication Industries.” In her spare time, she loves to connect with her green babies (52 plants total), fur babies (2 dogs), and loving fiancé.
Opening plenary keynote speakers
Tutaleni Asino
Tutaleni I. Asino, is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Director of the Emerging Technology and Creativity Research Lab in the College of Education and Human Sciences at Oklahoma State University. His research agenda includes Open Education, how culture, agency and representation manifest themselves and interplay in education settings, Comparative and International Education, mobile learning, diffusion of innovation.
Dr Orna Farrell
Dr Orna Farrell is Assistant Professor specialising in online and blended education in Dublin City University (DCU). Orna holds a PhD in Education from Trinity College Dublin.
Currently, Orna leads the Digital Learning Design Unit, created to support DCU’s pivot to hybrid learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously, she was Chair of the DCU Connected Online Humanities programmes for four years.
Working within DCU’s National Institute for Digital Learning. Orna’s research interests include online pedagogy, online student success and engagement, eportfolio and open educational practice. She has a growing publication record in her fields of interest, including a range of book chapters, journal articles, invited presentations and conference papers. She has published in high ranking journals such as Distance Education, the Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Research in Learning Technology, and the International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.
Nicolas Garcia
Nicolas is currently the Student President at City of Glasgow College. Covid 19 has triggered a digital revolution and the education sector has been forced to quickly adapt to a blended and online dynamic for learning and teaching.
This year Nicolas has worked (and continues to work) with College Partners to help the College successfully establish blended learning and adapt their digital provision to the new needs this pandemic has created.
Nicolas adopts the approach that if the world has completely changed, we don’t need to know everything, we can find out together and we can start by asking the primary users, the students.
Catherine Stihler OBE
Catherine Stihler OBE is the CEO of Creative Commons. She has been an international champion for openness as a legislator and practitioner for over 20 years. After graduating from St Andrews University, she worked in the British House of Commons as a researcher before successfully standing for election as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland in 1999, representing the UK Labour Party. In 2019, Catherine was awarded the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Her Majesty the Queen in recognition of her services to politics. Catherine joined Creative Commons in 2020.