Location
Expo Center
Session Number
2
Keywords
Open Educational Resources, Digital Fluency, German Higher Education, Continuing Education
Description
Free access to education, information and knowledge is a declared educational policy goal that all state universities in Germany strive to achieve. Open Educational Resources (OER) make an important contribution to this, as their use is open to all teaching staff and learners. The development, use and distribution of OER is currently focused by several government funding grants, but still has not fully arrived in the country’s educational practices. Reasons for this include the fact that dealing with OER requires sound knowledge much of which relates to copyright and licensing law. In addition, for the technical design and provision of extensive OER (e.g. courses, self-learning modules), competencies for dealing with (complex) digital systems are particularly necessary. In order to develop competencies for OER and thus promote their establishment, incentive and support measures are of particular relevance. While legal and didactic topics are focused on in a wide range of continuing education programs from established institutions, the technical design of OER (e.g., using Markdown or Git) is often not taken into account. This is where libraries come in: Since they are key actors in the field of Open Science and - as infrastructure institutions - possess a high level of technical expertise, they also play a crucial role in supporting the development of digital fluency for the technical creation of OER.
The paper states the current status of the implementation of OER in the Germany higher education sector. In particular, the role of libraries as multipliers for a culture of open access to education and knowledge is taken into focus. As a practical example to support competence development for using OER - with special regard to their technical creation - a digital training concept of the TIB (Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology | University Library) in Hanover, Germany is presented and reflected upon.
Included in
Digital fluency for Open Educational Resources: The active role of libraries in establishing OER in Germany's higher education sector
Expo Center
Free access to education, information and knowledge is a declared educational policy goal that all state universities in Germany strive to achieve. Open Educational Resources (OER) make an important contribution to this, as their use is open to all teaching staff and learners. The development, use and distribution of OER is currently focused by several government funding grants, but still has not fully arrived in the country’s educational practices. Reasons for this include the fact that dealing with OER requires sound knowledge much of which relates to copyright and licensing law. In addition, for the technical design and provision of extensive OER (e.g. courses, self-learning modules), competencies for dealing with (complex) digital systems are particularly necessary. In order to develop competencies for OER and thus promote their establishment, incentive and support measures are of particular relevance. While legal and didactic topics are focused on in a wide range of continuing education programs from established institutions, the technical design of OER (e.g., using Markdown or Git) is often not taken into account. This is where libraries come in: Since they are key actors in the field of Open Science and - as infrastructure institutions - possess a high level of technical expertise, they also play a crucial role in supporting the development of digital fluency for the technical creation of OER.
The paper states the current status of the implementation of OER in the Germany higher education sector. In particular, the role of libraries as multipliers for a culture of open access to education and knowledge is taken into focus. As a practical example to support competence development for using OER - with special regard to their technical creation - a digital training concept of the TIB (Leibniz Information Centre for Science and Technology | University Library) in Hanover, Germany is presented and reflected upon.