Good reasons for OER
Rethinking education with open educational resources
Open educational resources offer the opportunity to rethink education: teaching content can be developed collaboratively, adapted to one’s own teaching context and continuously improved. The use of open licences provides legal certainty when working with one’s own and third-party materials. The result is a dynamic exchange from which both teachers and students benefit. OER not only enhance the quality of education, but also foster a culture of sharing and collaborative learning.
1. Adapt flexibly rather than reinvent — Open educational resources can be adapted to suit your own courses, target audiences and learning levels. This is legal and encouraged, as that is precisely what open licences are designed for.
2. Quality through collaboration — Materials that are further developed by several teachers gain new perspectives, practical examples and a greater variety of teaching approaches. What begins as an individual set of lecture notes can grow into a dynamic resource.
3. Legal clarity — Anyone using open educational resources under Creative Commons licences is on safe legal ground. Unlike many commonly available materials, their use, adaptation and redistribution are explicitly permitted.
4. Visibility and recognition — Those who openly publish their own materials showcase their expertise and teaching practice — both at their own university and beyond. The UNESCO recommendation on OER and the German government’s OER strategy underscore the educational policy relevance of this commitment.
5. Timeliness — Open educational resources can be updated promptly, unlike traditional textbooks with long publication cycles.
1. Openness as an attitude — Open educational resources are part of a forward-looking approach to sharing in education. Those who use and create them contribute to an education system that prioritises collaboration over isolation.
2. Networking across institutional boundaries — Sharing materials fosters connections with lecturers at other universities and educational institutions. This strengthens academic exchange and regional as well as national cooperation.
3. Promoting digital skills — Working with open educational resources develops skills in using digital media, open licences and collaborative working methods — skills that are indispensable in an increasingly digital educational landscape.