AI and OER: Insights into Current Use and Emerging Challenges

Gen­er­a­tive AI is increas­ingly trans­form­ing how open edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als are cre­ated. A twillo sur­vey con­ducted in spring 2025 shows how higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions, instruc­tors, and active users are already apply­ing AI, where they see poten­tial, and where uncer­tain­ties remain. This arti­cle sum­marises key find­ings and con­tex­tu­alises them for OER prac­tice.

Purpose and Structure of the twillo Survey

Between April and June 2025, twillo con­ducted a mixed-meth­ods study on the use of gen­er­a­tive AI appli­ca­tions for cre­at­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing OER. Three groups were sur­veyed:

• Early adopters from Ger­many and Aus­tria – indi­vid­u­als already using AI in OER cre­ation

• Vice pres­i­dents for teach­ing and pro­gramme direc­tors at uni­ver­si­ties in Lower Sax­ony

• active twillo users

The aim of the study was to iden­tify exist­ing areas of appli­ca­tion, poten­tials, and chal­lenges asso­ci­ated with using AI tech­nolo­gies and tools for OER cre­ation.

High Potential: How AI Supports OER Creation

The results paint a clear pic­ture: Respond­ing insti­tu­tions and indi­vid­u­als are largely open to the pos­si­bil­i­ties of AI and are already using a wide range of tools. At the same time, respon­dents empha­sise that clear bound­aries and respon­si­bil­i­ties are essen­tial when inte­grat­ing AI.

61.7% of the 102 respon­dents attribute sig­nif­i­cant poten­tial to the use of AI in cre­at­ing and fur­ther devel­op­ing OER. AI pri­mar­ily sup­ports instruc­tors by gen­er­at­ing visu­al­i­sa­tions, opti­mis­ing texts for dif­fer­ent tar­get groups, trans­lat­ing mate­ri­als into numer­ous lan­guages, and thereby enabling inter­na­tional use of OER. Sev­eral respon­dents also high­light that AI can con­tribute to enhanc­ing acces­si­bil­ity, for instance through sug­ges­tions for alter­na­tive texts.

Prac­ti­cal guid­ance on cre­at­ing edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als can be found in the sec­tion “AI in open uni­ver­sity teach­ing”

Challenges: Ensuring Quality, Legal Clarity, and Didactic Integrity

Despite these poten­tials, the use of AI is not with­out risks. Respon­dents fre­quently men­tion qual­ity issues such as hal­lu­ci­na­tions or dis­tor­tions that may under­mine the reli­a­bil­ity of results. Legal uncer­tain­ties related to copy­right and licens­ing also remain a major con­cern for uni­ver­si­ties, increas­ing the need for clear guide­lines.

Addi­tion­ally, some respon­dents fear that didac­tic exper­tise might become over­shad­owed. Uni­ver­si­ties there­fore need to find ways to posi­tion AI as a sup­port­ive rather than sub­sti­tu­tive ele­ment in the ped­a­gog­i­cal design process. The rapid evo­lu­tion of tech­nol­ogy presents fur­ther organ­i­sa­tional chal­lenges, as tools and qual­ity stan­dards are con­tin­u­ously chang­ing. Finally, respon­dents point out that pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity OER with AI still requires time — for exam­ple, through pre­cise prompt­ing and care­ful review of out­puts.

Fur­ther insights into the impact of gen­er­a­tive AI on teach­ing and learn­ing are pro­vided in the work­ing paper “How AI Is Trans­form­ing Higher Edu­ca­tion”, which high­lights key devel­op­ments and areas for insti­tu­tional action.

Conclusion and Outlook

The twillo sur­vey demon­strates that AI appli­ca­tions can make a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the cre­ation, refine­ment, and dis­sem­i­na­tion of OER. Visu­al­i­sa­tion, text opti­mi­sa­tion, trans­la­tion, and meta­data gen­er­a­tion offer tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits for edu­ca­tors and higher edu­ca­tion insti­tu­tions. At the same time, a reflec­tive approach to the lim­i­ta­tions of AI sys­tems remains essen­tial — includ­ing qual­ity assur­ance, didac­tic design con­sid­er­a­tions, and legal frame­works. When these fac­tors are care­fully com­bined, AI can mean­ing­fully sup­port and advance open higher edu­ca­tion.

The full study results and result­ing con­clu­sions are expected to be avail­able in early 2026 via the HIS-HE media cen­tre.

Stay Up to Date

If you don’t want to miss upcom­ing stud­ies, events, and prac­ti­cal insights related to OER and open higher edu­ca­tion, we rec­om­mend sub­scrib­ing to our newslet­ter. Sub­scribe to the twillo newslet­ter in ger­man lan­guage.