Open Educational Resources (OER)

Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials released under an open licence, which make a valuable contribution to the design and further development of digital teaching and research at the European University Viadrina.

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials of any kind and in any medium that are licensed under an open licence. Such a licence allows free access, as well as free use, adaptation and redistribution by third parties, with no or only minor restrictions.” (UNESCO Definition)

Openness in a teaching context refers to the willingness to openly share one’s own teaching and learning materials, such as presentations, worksheets or graphics, with others. This practice is gaining in importance both in Germany and internationally.

Dr Christin Barbarino

59 Große Scharrnstraße
15230 Frankfurt (Oder)
0335 5534 2442
barbarino@europa-uni.de

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OER – What is it?

Open collaboration and sharing are becoming increasingly important in the context of future key skills such as critical thinking, dialogue, participation and media literacy. The basic idea is simple: knowledge grows when it is shared. Openness in research and teaching makes an important contribution to educational equity and the democratisation of knowledge, and is closely linked to movements such as Open Science, Open Access and Citizen Science.

Good reasons for OER

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.

OER platforms

Are you looking for suitable teaching materials such as worksheets, course templates or interactive videos for your teaching? There are numerous platforms for Open Educational Resources in German-speaking countries, most of which are designed to be cross-curricular and offer various filter functions.

Producing your own OER

We invite you not only to make use of OER created by others, but also to share your own teaching materials with others and, in this way, to raise the profile of your teaching. There are a few points to bear in mind, which we have summarised here.

OER Moodle self-study course

“Getting Started with OER – Understanding and Using Open Educational Resources”, is the title of the interactive Moodle self-study course aimed at students, student and research assistants, staff and anyone interested in an accessible yet well-structured introduction to searching for, finding, using and creating open educational resources. The course has an estimated workload of three hours and, upon successful completion, leads to a certificate of completion. It was developed at the University of Potsdam and is available on the Moodle platform of the European University Viadrina.

Community of Practice

Open, connected, collaborative – the collaborative project “Community for OER Knowledge Transfer: Network of Education Practitioners (Co-WOERK)”, funded by the BMBFSFJ, is establishing an OER community for the higher education and vocational education sectors and meets online once a month with its interdisciplinary community of practice to discuss new tools, developments and open educational practices. In addition to a shared communication platform, Co-WOERK also offers a newsletter and individual consultation sessions.

Best practice examples

The examples presented here were developed at the European University Viadrina and demonstrate how open educational resources promote collaboration, enable innovation and enrich education in the long term.