In this episode of OpenEd Mic, the hosts chat with Daniel Williamson of OpenStax, who shares his unexpected journey into open education and reflects on how the movement has evolved from modular learning objects to widely adopted open textbooks. He discusses how OpenStax has expanded access to affordable, high-quality learning materials for millions of students, while also grappling with a rapidly shifting educational landscape. From declining textbook engagement to the rise of AI and immersive technologies, Williamson highlights the growing need to rethink how course materials are designed, delivered, and experienced by today’s learners.

The conversation explores the future of open education as more flexible, personalized, and engagement-driven. Williamson emphasizes the importance of trusted, high-quality content in an AI-driven world and calls for stronger collaboration and sustainability within the open education community. He also points to emerging opportunities in modular learning, workforce-aligned credentials, and reimagined general education. Ultimately, the episode underscores a central challenge—and opportunity—for open education: creating dynamic, relevant learning experiences that prioritize student success while preserving the values of openness and access.

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Daniel Williamson is a leader in open education and currently oversees the OpenStax initiative at Rice University, one of the most widely used open educational resource (OER) programs in the world. Under Williamson’s leadership, OpenStax has grown from a small startup into a global force, providing freely available, openly licensed textbooks and learning technologies to millions of students each month while saving learners hundreds of millions of dollars in textbook costs. He has guided the organization’s strategic growth, expanded its partnerships across nonprofit and commercial sectors, and helped build a sustainable ecosystem that supports innovation in affordable learning.
Williamson’s work focuses on advancing access, affordability, and innovation in education. He played a key role in securing philanthropic and legislative support for OER, including efforts that have influenced statewide adoption of open textbooks.

With a background that spans technology, content development, and organizational leadership, Williamson brings a forward-looking perspective to the future of learning—championing more personalized, modular, and engaging educational experiences. His work continues to shape how open content evolves in an era defined by artificial intelligence, emerging technologies, and changing student needs.

Social Media: linkedin.com/in/danielcwilliamson

Leader in Open Education

OpenStax initiative at Rice University

Explore our Open-Ed Mic podcast for practical guidance and inspiring stories about open education. Discover how to incorporate OER materials into your course while connecting with a community dedicated to transforming teaching and learning through openness.

Your hosts—Kevin Corcoran, Zach Claybaugh, Brittany Dudek, and Dr. Michael A. Mills—bring decades of combined expertise as prominent thought leaders in open educational resources (OER) within higher education. With extensive backgrounds spanning digital learning, library science, student success initiatives, and strategic leadership at state and national levels, they have collectively shaped policies, driven impactful initiatives, and advocated passionately for increased access to education. Their collaborative approach highlights their deep commitment to advancing open education practices, ensuring quality, affordability, and accessibility for learners everywhere.

In this episode of Open-Ed Mic, the hosts welcome Andrew McKinney, University Director of Research and Publishing Strategies at the City University of New York (CUNY) and a leading advocate for aligning institutional policies with open education. The conversation centers on the tension between open educational practices and traditional tenure and promotion systems, which often reward research outputs more readily than innovative teaching. McKinney reflects on his work with the DOERS (Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success) community, including a project that compiled case studies demonstrating how faculty have incorporated open educational resource (OER) work into tenure and promotion portfolios. The discussion highlights how faculty interest in OER is often tempered by concerns about whether such work will be recognized or valued within existing academic reward structures.

The conversation also addresses emerging pressures in higher education, particularly the growing focus on generative AI, and how faculty can navigate competing institutional priorities. McKinney encourages educators to pursue the work they believe best supports their students and their teaching values rather than chasing short-lived trends. Ultimately, he frames OER not only as a tool for reducing textbook costs but as a pathway toward open pedagogy, where students become active participants in creating knowledge. Looking ahead, McKinney imagines a future in which institutions more fully recognize teaching, openness, and student empowerment as central to the mission of higher education.

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Andrew McKinney is the Director of Research and Publishing Strategies and Open Educational Resources (OER) Coordinator for the City University of New York (CUNY). He leads system-wide initiatives that support open education, scholarly publishing, and innovative teaching practices across CUNY’s campuses. Andrew is a recognized advocate for aligning tenure and promotion systems with open and equitable teaching, and has contributed to national conversations through his work with the DOERS (Driving OER Sustainability for Student Success) community. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center.

Social media: linkedin.com/in/andrew-mckinney-39a34b198

Director of Research and Publishing Strategies and Open Educational Resources (OER) Coordinator

City University of New York (CUNY)

Explore our Open-Ed Mic podcast for practical guidance and inspiring stories about open education. Discover how to incorporate OER materials into your course while connecting with a community dedicated to transforming teaching and learning through openness.

Your hosts—Kevin Corcoran, Zach Claybaugh, Brittany Dudek, and Dr. Michael A. Mills—bring decades of combined expertise as prominent thought leaders in open educational resources (OER) within higher education. With extensive backgrounds spanning digital learning, library science, student success initiatives, and strategic leadership at state and national levels, they have collectively shaped policies, driven impactful initiatives, and advocated passionately for increased access to education. Their collaborative approach highlights their deep commitment to advancing open education practices, ensuring quality, affordability, and accessibility for learners everywhere.

In this episode of OpenEd Mic, the hosts welcome Dr. David Wiley, a pioneer of the open education movement and creator of the Five Rs of Openness, for a thoughtful conversation about how open education and generative AI are converging. David shares his origin story, tracing his early realization in the late 1990s that digital technologies fundamentally changed how knowledge can be shared—and why open licenses were essential to making that sharing legal, scalable, and equitable.

The discussion centers on how the Five Rs—retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute—remain highly relevant in an AI-driven world. David explains how these principles can be applied not only to open educational resources, but also to large language models themselves, from modifying model weights to fine-tuning AI with new data. The group also tackles faculty concerns around copyright, legality, and fears of displacement, with David emphasizing that AI should support—not replace—the relational, trust-based work that sits at the heart of teaching.

Looking ahead, the episode challenges educators to move beyond using AI to simply generate static, textbook-like content. Instead, David encourages a shift toward AI as a conversational learning partner that enables dialogue, exploration, and embedded assessment. The conversation ends on an optimistic note, highlighting the creativity and commitment of the open education community.

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Dr. David Wiley is an associate professor at Marshall University, co-chair of the university’s AI Steering Committee, and a founding leader of the open education movement. His work sits at the intersection of generative AI, open education, instructional design, entrepreneurship, and student success. He is the creator of the Five Rs of Openness and a co-founder of organizations including Lumen Learning and Degreed. Dr. Wiley has received numerous national recognitions for his academic and entrepreneurial work and continues to shape the future of open and AI-enabled learning.

Social Media Handles:
@opencontent on Twitter, https://www.linkedin.com/in/opencontent/ on LinkedIn and
@kalendar on Github.

Associate Professor

Marshall University

Explore our Open-Ed Mic podcast for practical guidance and inspiring stories about open education. Discover how to incorporate OER materials into your course while connecting with a community dedicated to transforming teaching and learning through openness.

Your hosts—Kevin Corcoran, Zach Claybaugh, Brittany Dudek, and Dr. Michael A. Mills—bring decades of combined expertise as prominent thought leaders in open educational resources (OER) within higher education. With extensive backgrounds spanning digital learning, library science, student success initiatives, and strategic leadership at state and national levels, they have collectively shaped policies, driven impactful initiatives, and advocated passionately for increased access to education. Their collaborative approach highlights their deep commitment to advancing open education practices, ensuring quality, affordability, and accessibility for learners everywhere.