Initial results of the online survey
In June 2024, the twillo network conducted a quantitative survey on the use of Open Educational Resources (OER) in the field of economics. The aim of the online survey of professors and academic staff was to promote a culture of openness at universities and to further develop existing measures of the twillo network for a greater dissemination of OER in teaching.
The online survey was aimed at 813 lecturers at 25 public and private universities in Lower Saxony, the federal state in which the OER portal twillo is based. The survey addressed topics such as the significance and dissemination of open education approaches, practical experiences and needs in the field of open teaching as well as inhibiting and promoting factors for the provision and adaptation of OER in the field of economics.
The as yet unpublished survey results show, among other things, a reluctant adaptation of open learning materials in economics — for example, only 15.5 percent of respondents stated that they were familiar with finding OER at an intermediate level, while 27.6 percent stated that they were “(very) unsure”. At the same time, some of the open questions formulated far-reaching expectations regarding the future relevance of open learning materials for economics teaching.
Analysis of the materials in twillo
In addition to the online survey, twillo carried out an analysis of the open teaching and learning materials stored in its own OER portal. In March 2024, 26 percent of the OER included materials from the fields of law, economics and social sciences — the largest block of all subject groups. In turn, economics is the largest field of study.
Among the 274 economics teaching materials available in twillo, materials created with the support of state funding programs stood out in particular. In close connection with the OER portal twillo, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture has announced the funding measure “OER for the higher education sector — promoting the creation, maintenance and dissemination of open educational resources at universities in Lower Saxony” between 2020 and 2022.
Creation of OER in funded projects
As part of three rounds of calls for proposals, three projects with close links to economics were funded. These are the projects
- “Methods and technologies for the digitalization of business processes in the digital transformation” (Professor Schumann, Professor Hoppe and others, Universities of Göttingen and Osnabrück; first round of calls)
- “Creating and disseminating open educational resources for business administration” (Professor Röbken, Professor Breisig, Professor Fischer and others, University of Oldenburg, Jade University of Applied Sciences; second round of calls)
- “Qualitative Research Methods for Responsible Management Education” (Professor Trittin-Ulbrich, Professor Wenzel and others, Leuphana University; third round of calls).
A total of 257 free teaching materials, including high-quality e‑lectures and animated teaching videos, annotated slide sets, full texts, diagrams and exercises, were created in these three projects alone as part of this commendable state funding measure. The variety of subjects, topics, course types, material types, didactic approaches and levels of difficulty represented (see an overview on the twillo website) documents the extraordinary influence that government funding policy can have on the available range of high-quality free teaching materials.
The OER developed as part of the three projects make up — at least at present — a significant proportion of the range of economics teaching materials available on twillo. The first step towards a stronger adaptation of open learning materials in economics — in the sense of the far-reaching expectations formulated by some teachers — has thus been taken.