The Federal Ministry for Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (Bundesministerium für Bildung, Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend, BMBFSFJ) announced the Open Educational Resources (OER) strategy in July 2022. This strategy focuses on developing and implementing a sustainable OER-promoting ecosystem that includes and re-combines technologies, services, and networking opportunities.
The BMBFSFJ is responding to changing needs and requirements in a digitalized world, affecting learning and labor. OER plays an important role as a source of inspiration for an open teaching and learning culture by supporting communication, collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
The upcoming OER ecosystem will improve the conditions of the pedagogical, organizational, and technical frameworks for OER use and dissemination. To achive all this, the OER strategy is using a broadly diversified approach and includes all stakeholders in the German education structure.
The „Hintergrund“ subpage contains detailed information on the OER strategy, including objectives and target groups.
Numerous projects from different focus areas are being funded. For example, in 2023, the Ministry of Education published a funding guideline “OE_COM” focusing on strengthening, expanding, and connecting existing OER communities. A total of 12 projects are being funded as part of this funding guideline.
The „Fördern“ subpage contains information on current and future funding activities, including content and formal requirements e.g. guidelines, deadlines, dates, and assistance in securing funding.
Networking and exchange are at the core of promoting OER. Therefore, various initiatives in Germany organize “OER Camps” and “OER Information Centre”, with the BMBFSFJ offering platforms for cooperation among these initiatives.
The „Vernetzen“ subpage contains cross-references to projects and initiatives that promote the dissemination of OER in German education, regardless of their source of funding.
To make the OER strategy a learning strategy, the BMBFSFJ constantly adapts its measures for the implementation of the OER strategy to current needs and topics. In doing so, it is supported by broad expertise e.g.. by the “OER-Beirat”. Its members focus on OER-specific topics and advise, how frameworks need to be adapted to improve the use and dissemination of OER in Germany. Also artificial intelligence was being identified as an important challenge in German education and is intensively being discussed, just like Open Educational Practices (OEP) as a potential framework for OER.
The „Fortentwickeln“ subpage covers more details on activities that ensure, that funding measures meet current requirements and the continuous development of the OER strategy.
The annual conference „OER im Blick: Fördern – Vernetzen – Fortentwickeln“ is obligatory to all groups and individuals being funded, and also open to OER enthusiasts. The goal of this conference is to promote exchange and networking among the project participants and provide opportunities for open exchange.
We endeavor to find so far “hidden” locations for our conferences, which inspire learning, networking, and collaborative work.
The „Konferenz“ subpage shows impressions from the former conferences and provides details on the upcoming ones.
Were we able to raise your interest in the OER strategy and our programme?
Feel invited to contact us if you have any specific questions or suggestions: oer@dlr.de