Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
OER-Certification	for	
Higher	Education		
SIG	Participants:		
Ebner,	M.,	Kopp,	M.,	Hafner,	R.,	Budroni,	P.,	Buschbeck,	V.,	
Enkhbayar,	A.,	Ferus,	A.,	Freisleben-Teutscher,	C.	F.,	Gröblinger,	
O.,	Matt,	I.,	Ofner,	S.,	Schmitt,	F.,	Schön,	S.,	Seissl,	M.,	Seitz,	P.,	
Skokan,	E.,	Vogt,	E.,	Waller,	D.	&	Zwiauer,	C.	
Results	of	the	Austrian	SIG	
„Open	Educational	Resources“	
Martin	Ebner	
Association	„Forum	Neue	Medien	in	der	Lehre	Austria“	
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License.
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Goal	
§  Content	of	the	recommendations	for	the	Austrian	higher	
education	landscape	with	regard	to	the	sustainable	
integration	of	OER	in	the	education	landscape:		
"Creation	and	establishment	of	national	OER	labels".	
§  Concept	for	OER-Certification	at	Austrian	universities	and	
further	academic	teaching	institutions
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Assumption	
The	proposal	is	based	on	certification	of	the	processes	of	
creating	and	providing	Open	Educational	Resources	(OER).	
However,	the	quality	of	the	content	itself	and	legal	certainty	of	
the	learning	objects	should	not	be	certified.	This	would	not	be	
possible	for	legal,	organisational	and	ultimately	also	financial	
reasons.
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	institutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommendations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Open	Educational	Resources	
Open	Educational	Resources	(OERs)	are	any	type	of	
educational	materials	that	are	in	the	public	domain	or	
introduced	with	an	open	license.	The	nature	of	these	
open	materials	means	that	anyone	can	legally	and	
freely	copy,	use,	adapt	and	re-share	them.	OERs	
range	from	textbooks	to	curricula,	syllabi,	lecture	
notes,	assignments,	tests,	projects,	audio,	video	and	
animation	
(UNESCO, 2012)
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	institutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommendations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
OER-Certification	of	Austrian	
	Higher	Education	institutions	
The	certification	of	OER	is	divided	into	two	areas:	
certification	of	the	lecturers	on	the	one	hand	and	
certification	of	the	higher	education	institution	itself	on	
the	other.	As	a	certification	body,	a	central	nationwide	
office	is	proposed,	which	should	be	composed	of	
representatives	of	the	universities	in	order	to	ensure	not	
only	an	objective	assessment	but	also	sufficient	expertise.
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	instiutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommandations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  Part	1:	The	first	part	is	fulfilled	if	a	lecturer	has	
verifiably	created	and	published	a	total	of	three	
OER-objects.	
	
§  Part	2:	For	the	second	part,	the	lecturers	must	prove	
that	they	have	completed	an	OER	training.		
Proposal	for	a	two-stage	process:
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
§  The	personal	certificates	should	apply	to	all	university	
lecturers.		
§  They	remain	valid	even	if	you	change	employer	and	
therefore	have	no	expiry	date.	
§  In	order	to	prove	that	OERs	have	been	created,	it	is	
proposed	that	they	be	stored	in	repositories	offered	by	
universities	or	named	by	them	as	suitable.	
§  The	use	of	a	CC-0-,	CC-BY-	or	CC-BY-SA	license	or	a	
comparable	free	license	is	required	to	license	the	OER.	
OER-Certification	of	lecturers
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
§  The	qualification	measure	required	for	Part	2	should	be	
offered	and	implemented	by	all	HEIs	in	a	comparable	form	
or	at	least	with	the	same	workload.	
§  For	the	completion	of	Part	2,	a	qualification	measure	to	the	
extent	of	one	European	Credit	(i.e.	a	total	of	25	working	
hours)	is	proposed.	
§  As	part	of	the	"Open	Education	Austria"	project,	a	proposal	
was	developed	and	tested	for	this	purpose:	a	blended	
learning	approach	with	an	introductory	and	final	event	in	
combination	with	a	MOOC.	
OER-Certification	of	lecturers
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	institutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommendations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	
institutions	
§  Part	1:	The	higher	education	institution	has	a	
corresponding	OER-qualification-measure	(training)	
and	publicly	commits	itself	strategically	to	using	
Open	Educational	Resources.	
§  Part	2:	The	higher	education	institution	has	a	
defined	number	of	OER-certified	level	2	lecturers.	
§  Part	3:	The	higher	education	institution	offers	its	
own	repository	(or	a	suitable	joint	solution	in	
cooperation	with	other	universities)	for	its	lecturers	
in	which	OER-objects	can	be	stored.		
Proposal	of	a	three-stage	concept:
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
§  Only	one	of	the	three	parts	must	be	provided	by	the	higher	
education	institution	in	order	to	achieve	level	1.	To	achieve	
level	2,	two	of	the	three	parts	must	be	verified	and	to	
achieve	level	3,	all	three	parts	must	be	verified.	
	
§  The	issued	certificate	is	valid	for	a	period	of	three	years	and	
will	then	be	re-evaluated	accordingly.	If	a	new	stage	is	
reached	in	the	meantime,	the	term	begins	anew	with	the	
submission	of	the	new	stage.		
OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	
institutions
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
§  Higher	education	institution	with	a	total	of	less	than	
1000	students:	5	certified	lecturers	
§  Higher	education	institution	with	1000	-	3000	
students:	10	certified	lecturers	
§  Higher	education	institution	with	3000	-	5000	
students:	20	certified	lecturers	
§  Higher	education	institution	with	>5000	students:	40	
certified	lecturers		
The	number	of	OER-certified	level	2	lecturers	required	is	
determined	by	the	number	of	students	and	is	defined	as	
follows:	
OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	
institutions
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	institutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommendations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Open	Badges	
Open	Badges	are	verifiable,	portable	and	digital	badges	
that	are	standardized	(i.	e.	have	a	uniform	specification;	
currently	version	2.0)	and	have	an	associated	digital	
ecosystem.
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
License by https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Onboarding-Issuer
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
License by https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Onboarding-Issuer
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
License by https://wiki.mozilla.org/Badges/Onboarding-Issuer
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Overview	
§  Define	OER?	
§  OER-Certification	
§  OER-Certification	of	lecturers	
§  OER-Certification	of	Higher	Education	institutions	
§  Open	Badges	
§  Recommendations
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
Recommendations	
§  Creation	of	a	national	unit	in	consultation	with	the	
BM	
§  Cooperation	with	the	national	projects	"Open	
Education	Austria"	and	"e-Infrastructure".	
§  Recommendation	of	calls	for	proposals	for	relevant	
Higher	Education	Funds	projects	to	support	
implementation	by	higher	education	institutions	(on	
content,	administrative	and	technical	levels).
Martin	Ebner	
Amsterdam,	June	2018	
http://www.fnm-austria.at		
Association	„Forum	Neue	Medien	
in	der	Lehre	Austria	
(fnm-austria)“

OER-Certification for Higher Education