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

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 are open from June 9 until July 21. The 2025 Nomination Guide contains all the information you need to nominate an individual, organization, asset, project or practice for an award. It includes tips on how to craft your nomination and templates to help you draft your entry.

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 just three. These new categories encompass all previous awards. Nominators can either specify a focus within each category—such as “Significant Impact OER” or “Open Collaboration”—or they can define 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

• A Walk in the Garden of 2025 OEAwards
  June 25, 2025
  We are excited to hear many positive reactions to the new planting a seed of recognition design for the 2025 Open Education Awards for Excellence.
• It’s the Season for Planting Seeds of Recognition that Grow into OEAwards for Excellence
  June 9, 2025
  The timing of the season of Spring varies globally, but every region experiences the time of year when gardens and fields are prepared for planting seeds to become our food, […]

Activity in OEG Connect

• Dig Deep for OEAwards25 – 2016 Organizational Leadership Award to National Open University of Nigeria
  July 10, 2025
  oeawards25 nominations close July 21 Dig deep – nominate deserving non-traditional, unexpected or unusual open education people and projects … e.g. this #OEAward16 winner: >> The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)
• Dig Deep for OEAwards 25 – 2011 Open Site Award University of Sumatera Utara OpenCourseWare
  July 10, 2025
  oeawards25 nominations close July 21 Dig deep – nominate deserving non-traditional, unexpected or unusual open education people and projects … e.g. this #OEAward11 winner: >> University of Sumatera Utara OpenCourseWare
• Dig Deep for OEAwards25 – 2015 Open MOOC Award Mobiles for Development
  July 9, 2025
  The oeawards25 nominations close on July 21 Dig deep – nominate deserving non-traditional, unexpected or unusual open education people and projects … e.g. this #OEAward15 winner: >> Mobiles for Development
• Dig Deep for OEAwards25 – 2022 Open Reslience Award Ukrainian State University of Science and Technologies
  July 9, 2025
  oeawards25 nominations close July 21 digdeep – nominate deserving non-traditional, unexpected or unusual open education people and projects … like this #OEAward22 winner >> Advocacy work of the Scientific Library to advance Open Education in Ukraine
• Dig Deep for OEAwards25 – 2023 DEI Award
  July 9, 2025
  The oeawards25 nominations closes on July 21 Dig deep – nominate the unexpected, unusual open education people & projects … e.g. this #OEAward23 winner >> Enhancing Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility (IDEA) in Open Educational Resources (OER)