Open Educational Resources (OER)

Educational resources refer to those media, materials, and tools used in the planning, implementing and evaluating teaching and learning:

• Lecture videos, scripts
• Digital or printed textbooks
• Lectures, parts of lectures, presentations
• Course materials for learners and/or instructors
• Courses—packaged through an OER repository or made "ready-to-use" in a course portal, with or without supplementary teaching materials
• As a curated online course (example) or as lecture notes
• Textbooks, videos, idea sketches, instructions, worksheets, graphics, photos, simulations, project reports, question pools …
• Tools

The "Open" in OER

Open Educational Resources (OER) are any educational materials available under an open license. Open licenses form the foundation of OER and ensure that they can be used, modified, mixed, shared, and distributed with only minimal restrictions. A central issue is copyright: Open publishing ultimately means that you cannot rely on educational and scientific exceptions in copyright law.

Openness benefits both those who create materials for their own use and those who build something new from these materials.

Think Openness from the Start! Consider legal and technical aspects of "Open" from the start of the planning process. In addition to a brief preliminary consultation, which we recommend in any case, here is information you need for creating your teaching materials.

We are also happy to review existing materials as needed and assess the effort required for making them "open."

You’ve already worked with OER but are now stuck? Are you uncertain about which materials you can use or how to correctly publish your own materials? Feel free to contact us—ideally as early as possible to keep the effort manageable.

Potential Topics:

• Where can I find suitable resources to build my own materials on?
• What should I consider when selecting materials?
• How should I document things?
• How can I avoid confusion and manage my OER project properly?
• Are the materials I found formally suitable?
• What level of effort is needed to make existing materials “open”?

For larger projects that may involve many participants, we offer support tailored to your OER development process. Beyond situational advice, we can also provide continuous guidance throughout the entire project, as far as our availability allows.

Together, we develop support tools and processes adapted to your timeline, personnel, and content requirements. For example, if you plan to systematically integrate Open Educational Resources into teaching,

• we can work with you to assess your needs,
• research materials and best practices in your field,
• find a "home" for your newly created resources,
• provide training for you and your staff as needed,
• and offer quick, targeted, and low-barrier consultation, as we are involved from the start of the process.

The earlier we are brought into the process, the more efficiently and smoothly teaching and learning materials can be developed into OER. Feel free to reach out to us if needed.

• Contact and Support  - Neon lettering "Open":
  Florian Hagen (2020). Without title. On: 2, 71, 90 – Nachbericht zum OERCamp 2020 in Hamburg. License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 international (CC BY 4.0).

Die Inhalte der OER-Seiten der Universitätsbibliothek Stuttgart stehen, soweit nicht anders vermerkt, unter einer Creative Commons Namensnennung 4.0 international (CC BY 4.0)-Lizenz. Ausgenommen sind Logos und Wort-/Bildmarken.