The garden of recognition is prepared and ready for seeding the 2025 round of Open Education Awards for Excellence! Here are the timelines, stages in the process, and updates for this year.
The 2025 OEAwards Timeline
| Jun 9 | Call for Nominations opens |
| Jul 31 | Deadline to submit a nomination (now extended) |
| Aug 27 | Review Committee process commences |
| Sep 8 | Notifications and certificates emailed to all nominees. All nominees are now listed! |
| Sep 30 | Shortlist of finalists announced online |
| Oct 17 | Winners announced in a LIVE webcast as closing event of the OEGlobal Tour 2025: Snapshots of Open Education |
Stages in the Awards Process
Be Inspired for the 2025 OEAwards!
Explore the stories of the 254 awardees who have been recognized since 2011, or discover something new by viewing a randomly selected winner. Tune in to 45+ episodes of the OEGlobal Voices podcast, featuring conversations with previous winners. You can also check out “Education for All,” the ebook published in 2021 to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the OEAwards.
Dig Deep – Submit your Nominations!
Nominations for the 2025 OEAwards were open from June 9 until July 31. In this year’s calls to “plant seeds of recognition” we collected 196 nominated people, projects, and resources. Now we move to the next stage of the process.
Tending the Seedlings – The Review Process Commences
After collecting all the seeds of recognition, in August 2025, the Awards Review Committee consisting of previous awardees are nurturing the garden and identifying the ones that will be shared as the Shortlist of Finalists by the end of September. All nominees will be notified that their have been recognized and provided a digital badge and certificate of accomplishment for the honor of being nominated.
What is New in 2025?
- The 2025 theme: Everything Starts With a Seed. If you have participated in the OEAwards in the past, you may notice new visuals that showcase seeds, plants, and gardening. What does this symbolize? It represents the idea that all open education projects and programs begin with a seed. These seeds are nurtured and cared for, much like tending a garden, with the anticipation that they will grow into flourishing plants and trees. By applying this metaphor to the OEAwards (one part of a larger ecosystem of recognition and gratitude), we celebrate the effort and care behind the beauty and diversity of fully grown plants and flowers, which all start from a seed. In this context, your nomination is like that seed.
- Simpler Set of Award Categories. This year, we are simplifying the OEAward categories from the 16 previous options to three. These new categories encompass all previous awards bur in 2025 we provide a means to specifically define the name of the award. Nominators can either select a focus within each category based on previous category names—such as “Significant Impact OER” or “Open Collaboration”—or they can enter a unique focus for their nominee, which will then be used as the award name.
The main categories are:- Individual Awards (People of Open)
- Open Assets (What We Share)
- Open Practices (How We Share)
Recent OEAwards News
- As part of the efforts of the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence to ensure all nominees are recognized, we have sent notifications by email to all contacts listed in […]
- If we have not gone too far on our seed planting metaphor for the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence, please bear with our need to adjust some of the […]
Activity in OEG Connect
- Indeed, everyone has a front row seat in YouTube to see the live streamed announcement of the winners of the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence. Join us on OEGLive to see who and what are added to the Hall of Fame gallery of previous award winners. This is the full flowering of this year’s […]
- The 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence have announced their exciting shortlist of 48 finalists, celebrating visionary individuals, impactful open resources, and inspiring practices that are shaping the future of open education worldwide. Chosen from 193 nominations across 42 countries, these finalists represent the best in growing the global open education movement. Explore their stories, […]
- If you had not seen previously, in the spirit of wide recognition, we have listed all nominees for the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence. The listing includes a link to a document with the full details of each nominee as entered in the submission form. OEGlobal – 18 Sep 25 All OEAwards Nominees Listed […]
- Originally published at: More Time Needed for OEAwards Harvest– Consider the Act of Micro-recognition – OEGlobal If we have not gone too far on our seed planting metaphor for the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence, please bear with our need to adjust some of the timelines for review and sending nominee certificates. Indeed, the […]
- Originally published at: From Seeds to Seedlings: 196 Nominations Planted for 2025 OEAwards – OEGlobal The nomination window closed yesterday for the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence. Following the gardening metaphor, we collected 196 seeds of recognition planted for this year’s program. If you missed the deadline, do not worry, we can accommodate more […]
Who deserves recognition? Share!
Use the #OEAwards hashtag • Connect with @oeglobal on the platforms you use!