The contribution provides an overview of the current status and developments of OER activities in Austria, located in the centre of Europe. Embedded in the EU’s open science policy educational skills as part of the eight ambitions are a key factor in the further development of the Austrian higher education sector. It is recommended that research should be equipped with the appropriate skills to facilitate Open Science and Open Education practices are part of these (Directorate-General for Research and Innovation – European Commission, p. 29).
In this context, the focus of this contribution lies on „Open Education Austria Advanced“, a current project of several Austrian universities in the field of digital innovation of teaching in higher education by developing a national infrastructure for OER. Part of this infrastructure for OER in Austria is the so-called OERhub, which is a platform under development, offering access to OER from the Austrian higher education area as well as the development of local institutional OER repositories. Aims of the project also are the development and implementation of a national OER certification for lecturers in higher education and for universities, building upon criteria developed in a national whitepaper (fnma, 2017). The certification of higher education institutions focuses on the existence of an OER strategy and the offer of OER continuing education, an OER repository and a certain number of lecturers holding an OER certification. Teachers and institutions from higher education therefore get a collection of materials and/or can participate at a MOOC on OER, at the national OER MOOC platform iMooX.at. Additionally, an extra training will be provided for (future) OER trainers in HEI. As part of Open Education Austria Advanced interested universities are also consulted on the institutional establishment of OER and corresponding services such as OER repositories or the development of OER strategies or policies. With this approach and the accompanying measures of certification, an attempt is being made to further expand the infrastructures for OER and to establish attractive systems and procedures in Austria.
The team around Open Education Austria Advanced exploits the potential of cooperation between e-learning centers, central IT services and libraries of partner universities. They generate synergies between open education and open science for the establishment of open practices. Within this presentation, the aims, developments, successes, potentials for cooperations with and lessons learned from the project will be shared.
OEAA (2021). Homepage. URL:
https://www.openeducation.at/After participating in this session, attendees will be able to:
- The audience is familiar with an overview of past developments, current projects and coming trends in the context of OER in the higher education sector in Austria, Europe
- The audience can connect the concepts of open education and open science as part of the EU’s open science policy and knows about the impact the project “Open Education Austria Advanced” there
- The audience knows more about the project “Open Education Austria Advanced” which is developing a national infrastructure for OER in Austria, Europe
- The audience is aware of potentials of the initiative “Open Education Austria Advanced”, including potential for cooperations
