Six visions for the future of OER at universities

In con­nec­tion with the dis­cus­sions about the edu­ca­tion of the future, uni­ver­si­ties are faced with the chal­lenge of keep­ing pace with advanc­ing dig­i­tal­iza­tion in the area of uni­ver­sity teach­ing, using mod­ern dig­i­tal forms of teach­ing and learn­ing in a ben­e­fi­cial way and estab­lish­ing suit­able exam­i­na­tion and advi­sory con­cepts.

In the course of the dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion at uni­ver­si­ties, the impor­tance of dig­i­tal teach­ing and learn­ing resources has also steadily increased. The extent to which the use of free teach­ing and learn­ing mate­ri­als is already wide­spread at uni­ver­si­ties in Lower Sax­ony and how the accep­tance of OER can be pro­moted at uni­ver­si­ties was inves­ti­gated by the twillo project net­work through HIS-HE as part of an online sur­vey from May to June 2022 (see blog post). In addi­tion to iden­ti­fy­ing mea­sures for more exten­sive use of OER in their own teach­ing and incen­tives for greater pro­vi­sion and adap­ta­tion, the sur­vey, in which 104 employ­ees and man­agers from cen­tral insti­tu­tions at uni­ver­si­ties in Lower Sax­ony took part, also aimed to deter­mine the fun­da­men­tal impor­tance of OER at uni­ver­si­ties. In this con­text, the twillo net­work also inves­ti­gated the ques­tion of how impor­tant the respon­dents believe OER should be at their own uni­ver­sity in five years’ time.

The eval­u­a­tion results show a col­or­ful bou­quet of future visions for the desired teach­ing cul­ture at uni­ver­si­ties, in which OER will have a firm place:

1. Advi­sory ser­vices: OER advi­sory ser­vices have been expanded at uni­ver­si­ties and sup­port teach­ers in the use, cre­ation and dis­sem­i­na­tion of OER mate­ri­als.
2. OER pol­icy: The legal frame­work and por­tals for access­ing and using OER are known; uni­ver­si­ties have for­mu­lated a pol­icy for teach­ers.
3. Fur­ther devel­op­ment of teacher train­ing cur­ric­ula: OER are part of teacher train­ing.
4. Part of teach­ing cul­ture and plan­ning: OER are known to all teach­ing staff, are an inte­gral part of cur­ricu­lum plan­ning and sup­port teach­ing design.
5. Open­ness & Open Edu­ca­tion: OER are a dri­ving force for the didac­tic devel­op­ment of uni­ver­si­ties.
6. Learn­ing mate­ri­als: OER mate­ri­als are tai­lored to the stu­dent tar­get group, sup­port self-study and con­tribute sig­nif­i­cantly to the stu­dents’ level of knowl­edge.
   

These six visions for the future illus­trate the con­sid­er­able poten­tial that OER is said to have in higher edu­ca­tion teach­ing in the com­ing years, as well as the diverse pre­req­ui­sites and impli­ca­tions that need to be taken into account on the path to open edu­ca­tional prac­tice at uni­ver­si­ties. It remains to be seen to what extent the indi­vid­ual visions can be par­tially or fully imple­mented in the future. The twillo net­work will con­tinue to work hard in the com­ing years to cre­ate the nec­es­sary frame­work con­di­tions.