Image Credit: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
Parallel to the American Education Research Association
April 13–16, 2026
Call for proposals due: November 23, 2026
Toronto, Ontario
University of Toronto
Image Credit: University of Toronto
Introduction
OTESSA encourages researchers and practitioners to share their scholarship on the complexities that technology and/or open practice raise for education, society, and scholarship, as well as to come together to build connections, collaborations, and critical conversations at this year’s conference.
Scholars, practitioners, graduate and undergraduate students, librarians, designers, makers, policy advisors, and educators or administrators from K12, post-secondary, or workplace settings are all welcome!
Whatever your current role and wherever you are located in the world, we invite you to join us and contribute your experience, expertise, and insights to timely discussions about openness and technology in education, society and scholarship.
Associated Publication
In addition to hosting our conference in multiple locations each year, OTESSA publishes short papers (1000–2000 words) through our Conference Proceedings, as well as full papers (4000–7000 words) and Graduate Highlights through our flagship OTESSA Journal.
When you submit a session proposal to a conference site (Toronto, Saskatoon, or online), you also have the option to submit a short paper for consideration. Your session proposal and short paper will be reviewed independently. This option remains open to you indefinitely, even after the conference has completed.
During the review process, reviewers have the option of recommending that your proposal be expanded into a short paper for the Conference Proceedings or a full paper for the OTESSA Journal.
If you choose to submit a short paper after your session proposal has been reviewed, we will request that you upload your paper to the same submission as your proposal where we will initiate a second round of reviews. If you expand your proposal or short paper into a full paper, you will submit that paper to the OTESSA Journal as a new submission.
Ways to Participate
We invite participation from anyone interested in the intersection of openness and technology in education, scholarship, and society in the following ways.
Present your work. If you work as a researcher or practitioner in openness and technology in education, scholarship, and society at any level, including K12, higher education, and corporate learning, we invite you to submit a proposal about your work. We welcome works-in-progress, workshops, demos, panel discussions, completed research projects, and others. If you have an idea that you would like to share, please submit a 300 word proposal through the submission portal linked at the bottom of this page.
Present at OTESSA and attend CSSE. We have a reciprocal registration agreement with the Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE), who will be holding their in-person conference from June 5–9 also at the University of Saskatchewan. If you present at either conference and pay the registration fee, you are welcome to attend sessions and events at both conferences. If you would like to present at both conferences, you will be required to register as a presenter at both conferences.
Present in-person at Toronto or Saskatoon and attend OTESSA27 online for $50. Presenters at each of the Canadian or online sites are invited to attend other sites for only $50. If you would like to present at more than one site, you will need to pay the registration fee for each presentation.
Attend on a community pass. Non-presenters are welcome to attend one of the Canadian or online sites for $50.