Meet the OEB26 Speakers: Gregory Fowler

We’re delighted to welcome Gregory Fowler, to the OEB 2026 keynote stage. As President of the University of Maryland Global Campus, Dr Gregory Fowler is questioning long-established assumptions about education and examining what learner agency, AI and changing expectations mean for universities.

What was your first thought about this year’s conference theme “Sovereign Learning: Trust, Agency & the Education Reset”?

The evolution of thinking around pedagogy/andragogy from learning as a passive thing where learners are taught to an active agency where instructors surrender ego and their own interests to ensure students take accountability for learning with coaching from experts in a given field.

What are you looking forward to the most at this year’s OEB?

Engaging global colleagues.

If you could look into the year 2046, what do you envision learning will be driven by?

The scope of the job to be done and the ways in which learning can happen rather than traditional structures and reward structures.

Which learning technology has recently impressed you?

AI tutors and personal assistants.

Which book should everyone read?

Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education is a book written by Brian Rosenberg.

Which question is asked too rarely when we talk about learning?

What learning is, how does learning happen and are our actions aligned with those two things regardless of self-interest?

What would be the title of your autobiography?

Shades of Gray: The reality of nuance in a world that dreams of binary.



Thank you, Gregory! Gregory Fowler will be speaking at the OEB 2026 Friday Plenary: After the Reset: Who Are We Becoming?