Open Apereo 2021 Call for Proposals: Open Source and the Next Normal

Open source software -- flexible, adaptable, without licensing constraints, and unaffected by price hikes --  is helping institutions like yours respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Shouldn’t your institution be “in the know” about open source? Open Apereo 21 is the place to gain key insights and share your own best practice.

Open Apereo 2021 will take place online June 7th to 9th, with most content being delivered between 1400 and 1800 UTC (0900 and 1300 US Eastern) on each day. Interactive keynotes will be timed for the broadest possible timezone accessibility. We’ll be adding workshops and other events around these dates and times.

Open Apereo 2021 seeks to feature content contributed by institutional practitioners and experts. There’ll be opportunities to interact, learn, network and share your stories and expertise. We’ll focus on making material available in advance to maximise your time to network with higher education participants from around the globe. We’ll feature an increased number of short, punchy presentations, with extended opportunities to interact with peers and hear about commercially supported solutions. The event will also feature topical and interactive keynotes. Open Apereo 2021 will be accompanied by hands-on workshops, regional gatherings and other events. Expect to see further announcements on these as planning progresses.

Open Apereo is an international, inclusive event organized by the Apereo Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to developing and sustaining innovative open-source software for education. Throughout the event, we’ll also feature a range of social events as well as opportunities for networking.

Open Apereo 2021 will feature a variety of presentation and learning opportunities. Track Sessions are 30 minute opportunities to present alone or as part of a group. Lightning Talks, 5 minutes long and either themed or free-choice, are a great way to communicate a short, punchy idea or a work in progress.

Track Session: Conference Track  Sessions run for 30 minutes with an open format. Track Sessions  can be information sessions, panel discussions, or a hybrid. For information sessions, we recommend 20 minutes for the presentation and 10 minutes reserved for audience questions and answers. We welcome proposals relating to all open-source software used in education. 

We are seeking proposals for Track Sessions around the following key themes: 

1. Leadership: Strategy, Policy & Ethics: Open source pandemic responses; Open source controlling costs; open source, capacity retention and institutional mission; open source and privacy; open source and cloud provision; open source and platform cooperativism; open practices.

2. Teaching & Learning Success Stories: Share your student and faculty success stories; responses to COVID-19; connecting students and services; accessibility and universal design; best practices with learning environments and tools; learning analytics; eportfolios; lecture capture and media management; professional development; open source and open content.

3. Nuts & Bolts: Dive into Tech: Want to get to the technical nitty-gritty? Topics include accessibility and universal design; deploying open source software; webcomponents; integration; managing upgrades; software development best practices; security; identity and access management; software development tools and environments; emerging technologies; internationalization; standards development and implementation.

4. Facing the Future: Innovation and Change: COVID-19 and the ‘new normal’ - what to expect; what's next for technology enhanced learning; next generation learning environments and how we get there; new tools; artificial intelligence and machine learning; institutional innovation; national and regional challenges and solutions; future of research collaboration; Apereo incubation project showcase; emerging standards and their impact on education; scanning the horizon.

Lightning Talk: A Lightning Talk is a fun, five-minute presentation. Is there a little known feature in an Apereo or other tool? Are there common pain points for which you have developed a solution? Is there a new teaching technique or development platform you want to showcase? Want to sound out an idea for a project? Propose a lightning talk! When you sign up for a lightning talk you’ll be asked to choose a topic or ‘free choice’.

We are seeking proposals for Lightning Talks around the following key themes: 

1. Incubation: Have a candidate for Apereo Incubation? Looking for partners? Pitch your idea for the next big project to your peers!

2. Inclusion Stories: Developing inclusive practice can be challenging for open source software communities. Have a story to share about how your software community is addressing inclusion issues?

3. Arguments for open source: What drove your institutional adoption of open source software? What were the key arguments? What worked for you? Share your stories! Marketing open source software: What is your software community doing to reach potential adopters? Share your ideas! 

4. Open Source Financial Impacts: Made a cost saving with open source software? How did you assess the cost benefits of open source? Tell your story!

5. Accessibility: How to audit for accessibility. Stories, challenges and solutions

6. Pandemic Innovation Stories: Share your quick wins!

7. Teaching and Learning: Quick case studies of online learning & teaching -- the very best of the best faculty use cases. We welcome innovative technology-infused teaching techniques as well as Knock-your-socks-off uses of established best teaching practices.

8. Software Tips and Tricks: Things every learning technologist, instructional designer and teacher ought to know!

9. Free Choice: Do you have an idea that doesn’t seem to fit into any of the themes above? This is the option for you!

Your voice is important! Your experiences, expertise, and insights are what drive the success of Apereo events. Submitting a proposal has many benefits:

• Professional development and visibility. Presenting at a conference is a significant professional development opportunity. Hone your own skills, and learn from others. Presenting makes you and your organization’s work more visible, creates profile, and is often the first step to building an effective partnership.


• Engage with others who have shared experiences. Presentations often stimulate additional ideas and informal conversations outside of the presentation. This gives you an opportunity for more connection with colleagues, networking, and opportunities to learn from the experience of others - a practical benefit.


• Learn more about Apereo. Learn how an open source foundation works and benefits education. Discover paths to sustainability with the Apereo Incubation process. Find out about licensing options and how they work. Above all, discover working software from Apereo communities that can help your institution control costs and control its own destiny.


• Contribute to the community. Your presentation will be valued by others who will learn from your experience. By presenting at Open Apereo, you’re helping add to a shared and growing pool of experience and expertise.

• Choose a title that communicates the core topic of your presentation.
• Indicate whether you're submitting a Track Session, or Lightning Talk.
• Write a short, easy-to-read, abstract.
• Spell out all acronyms the first time you mention them.
• Use a clear and direct writing style.
• Describe the key take-aways of your presentation’s subject.
• Use key elements to tag the content of your session.