Open Education Austria
Open Education Austria (OEA) is a project of the University of Vienna, the Universityof Graz, the Technical University of Graz and the University of Innsbruck, as well as the forum ‘Neue Medien in der Lehre Austria (FNMA)’ and the ‘Austrian Institute for Vocational Training Research (öifb)’, which provides a cross-university specialist portal for Open Educational Resources (OER) and services and training opportunities for teachers.
The aim is to link the services of e-learning centres, central computing services and libraries of partner universities to support teachers in the production of OER materials for self-study and teaching. The project also aims at gradually increasing the quality of teaching and learning, as well as the visibility of good practice resources for different disciplines. The target audience of the project are teachers, students and other interested.
Get to know the project
OERhub
The ‘OERhub’ can launch a cross-school search for OER across the local archive systems and find relevant material. In this context, under the ownership principle, teachers can pass and release their OERs in one of the interlinked institutional archival systems. These locally stored OERs will then become publicly available for wide use beyond their own institution. Open Education Austria also assists in considering a technical infrastructure for OER at its own institution. Moreover, it explains what should be taken into account when using and producing OER, as well as other ways to find OER. Open licensing is explained and supported.
Training opportunities and materials
An overview of training opportunities and further training materials can be found on Open Education Austria’s website for people wishing to train and qualify in the OER sector. The following different training and qualification formats are offered, including a MOOC, supervised OER training, train-the-trainer training and various open resources. The plan here is to develop and introduce a procedure to demonstrate and make visible the competences of teachers and university activities in relation to OER. The Neue Medien Forum in Lehre Austria (FNMA) develops this procedure together with the Austrian Institute for Vocational Training Research (öibf) in the framework of the ‘Open Education Austria Advanced’ project.
Other OER activities
Interested parties will find out more about OER activities and opportunities for participation in and around the Austrian Higher Education Area. Those considering enshrining OER strategically within the university and developing appropriate services (archiving systems or repositories and teacher support) can contact Open Education Austria directly and will advise on the requirements and development steps. Institutional and published OER policies, publications, lectures and workshops will also be made available.
Open Education Austria Advanced
The Open Education Austria project was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) until 2018. With the further development of the project, Open Education Austria is one of the 35 successful digitisation projects of the call for tenders entitled ‘Digital and Social Transformation in Higher Education’. The project will now continue as “Open Education Austria Advanced” under the responsibility of the University of Vienna and will be strategically extended to all Austrian universities.
What makes Open Education Austria a good practice?
OEA is a good practice as it allows for joint cooperation between educational institutions and organisations promoting OER in Austria. This collaborative model contributes to the creation of a national infrastructure for OERs and promotes the visibility of high-quality educational content. In addition, OEA offers a wide range of services and skills to support teachers and learners in the effective use and production of OERs. This promotes an open and inclusive educational culture pursued by many educational institutions around the world.
