Fachhochschule Dortmund is the first university of applied sciences in North Rhine-Westphalia to adopt an Open Educational Resources (OER) policy. Fachhochschule Dortmund supports digital participation with a focus on free educational materials. This makes it even easier for lecturers and students to share their own educational content and make it available to others.
Open Educational Resources (OER) can include images, graphics, lecture notes or videos, individual contributions or entire courses and exams. In contrast to copyrighted material, they are easier to use and process. The OER guideline adopted by the Rectorate encourages members of Fachhochschule Dortmund to use freely available materials themselves and at the same time to make their own educational content available under the open license "CC BY 4.0" by uploading it to the state portal ORCA.nrw(Opens in a new tab) . This means that anyone can use, edit and redistribute these materials free of charge, usually with attribution.
Responsibility for educational equality
"OER are in line with Fachhochschule Dortmund's self-image," says Dr. Sina Nitzsche, Head of Innovative Teaching at the Institute for Higher Education Didactics: "As a publicly funded university, we have a special responsibility for educational equity, participation and digital inclusion." The OER policy aims to increase quality and transparency in teaching and establish a culture of sharing. This will also facilitate the transfer of knowledge to other educational institutions and partners of Fachhochschule Dortmund, emphasizes Sina Nitzsche.
The OER guidelines oblige Fachhochschule Dortmund to support students, teaching staff and employees in the creation and use of open educational materials. To this end, the university now regularly offers a three-stage training process. "The resulting OER certification is one of the building blocks of our Institute for Higher Education Didactics, with which we want to make students and teaching staff fit for the future," explains Prof. Dr. Tamara Appel, Vice-Rector for Teaching and Studies. The coronavirus pandemic has shown that established teaching concepts need to be reconsidered and adapted for digitalization in teaching. A simple exchange of teaching content forms an important basis for this.
