Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials—both print and digital—that are freely available worldwide. They are licensed under Creative Commons licenses, which make it easier for new users to create, share, and adapt them. In this way, OER contribute to a culture of sharing and to the democratization of knowledge and education.
The ORCA.nrw State Portal—The OER Ecosystem in North Rhine-Westphalia
On the ORCA.nrw(Opens in a new tab) online platform, lecturers can find openly licensed and quality-assured teaching and learning materials to use in their own courses. They can also upload materials they have created themselves and share them with others around the world. The portal also offers attractive resources for students and prospective students: Through online courses and self-assessment tools, they can test and refresh their high school knowledge and basic academic skills. In addition, a team of tutors provides personalized support.
ORCA.nrw – A Strong Network for Teaching
ORCA stands for Open Resources Campus and serves as the central portal for digitally supported teaching and learning at many universities in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), organized under the umbrella of the Digital University NRW (DH.NRW) cooperation network. With a wide range of offerings, presentations, and its own events, ORCA actively contributes to funding for OER and the networking of stakeholders, for example through
- open office hours for OER counseling,
- open office hours for OER legal advice,
- a podcast on AI topics,
- workshops on OER topics,
- the ORCAthon format for creating your own open-source materials, and co-organizing academic conferences.
For more information and contact details, visit www.orca.nrw (Opens in a new tab)