Marc Rittberger from the German Institute for International Educational Research presented information on open educational resources (OER) in Germany. He discussed the history and development of OER in Germany from 2011 to the present. Key developments include several OER conferences held in Germany, the establishment of an information office called OERinfo to provide information and support networking on OER, and a feasibility study on building OER infrastructures in Germany. OERinfo aims to inform all target groups about OER through its online portal and mapping of OER connections in Germany. The presentation outlined OERinfo's goals and activities in information provision, knowledge transfer, and networking to further OER adoption in Germany.

1. Marc Rittberger, German Institute for International Educational Research
(DIPF)
www.o-e-r.de
Information
Transfer
Networking
for Open Educational Resources

2. National Information Center on Education
• German Education Index : produced with 20 partners, 800.000
documents, open access
• Open Access repository for educational science, in cooperation
with 35 publishers
• Network of Research Data Centers (talk in the afternoon)
• German Education Server adresses researchers, educational
adminnistration, professionals and the interested public
• Educational resources is one branch

3. OER in Germany: the story so far
2011 2013 2015
2012 2014
Start of the German OER
discourse with the debate
about the school trojan
• First OERCamp, Bremen
• OER Whitepaper „School“
• OER-Hearing at BMBF
• Federal Coalition Agreement
recommends free licences
• OERde13: first OER
conference held by WMDE
• Several OER-Hearings on
state level
• OERde14: second OER
conference by WMDE
• Start of the OER Berlin
project
• Consultations of Working
Group OER (KMK and
BMBF)
• OER Whitepapers for Higher
and Adult Education
• Report of the Working Group
OER
• BMBF initiates OER studies
by WMDE and DIPF

4. • BMBF funding programme OERinfo is on track
• 1st strand: information office
• 2nd strand: projects concerning „fitness“ for OER –
awareness and qualification in several educational
sectors
• Both strands interact: supporting networks by
mapping of connections
OER in Germany: the story so far
2016
2017
• OERde16 Festival
• Mapping OER by WMDE: questions of quality, qualification, business models and law
• Strategies of KMK and BMBF to education in a digital world
• BMBF funding programme OERinfo is announced
• Feasibility Study for OER infrastructures by DIPF
• Outlook

5. Challenges to education in a digital world
- some answers from education politics

6. Digital education - Kultusministerkonferenz
• Educational media: „Opening out the linearity of production, allocation and usage of
media, so that each user, hence also learners as well as teachers may design and
distribute media by themselves“ [p. 30]
• Competencies for individualized and self-directed learning: „sharing“, „collaborate“,
„designing and producing (incl. publishing and sharing)“
• Chapter about OER in academia: cope with „legal uncertainty“

7. Digital education – Federal Ministry of
Education and Research
• Digital Competency: ability to search information in a goal-oriented way,
to evaluate and to provide other users with own digital content:
→ search – evaluate – distribute
• From transfering of knowledge to conveying the competency for self-
regulated learning
• Teaching and learning with digital media: → more fairness in education
(common learning goals remain)

8. Outlook
• BMBF funding programme OERinfo is on track
• 1st strand: information office
• 2nd strand: projects concerning „fitness“ for OER –
awareness and qualification in several educational
sectors
• Both strands interact: supporting networks by
mapping of connections
OER in Germany: the story so far
2016
2017
• OERde16 Festival
• Mapping OER by WMDE: questions of quality, qualification, business models and law
• Strategies of KMK and BMBF for the challenges to education in a digital world 
• BMBF funding programme OERinfo is announced and aims at extending the audience
for OER and integrating OER into structures of teacher training
• Feasibility Study for OER infrastructures by DIPF

9. Objective of the Feasibility Study*
„The study has the objective of identifying…
• sector-specific and cross-sectoral
• need, acceptance, technical and organisational requirements
• concerning a central infrastructure - for Open Educational
Resources (OER)
• or one linking distributed inventories as alternative and
• specifying the necessary system components, i.e. a repository or
a referatory or a combination of both.”
Political background: 2015 Report of the
working group on OER of
*Blees, Iet.al.:
Machbarkeitsstudie zum
Aufbau und Betrieb von
OER-Infrastrukturen in der
Bildung, Frankfurt, 2016.

10. With respect to:
• Significance of OER
• Current state of OER provision
• Need for support
• Expected added value of OER
 A central repository would not be functional and not be accepted in
communities.
Differences in the Educational Sectors*
*Heinen, R et.al. (2016)

11. Outlook
OER in Germany: the story so far
2016
2017
• OERde16 Festival
• Mapping OER by WMDE: questions of quality, qualification, business models and law
• Strategies of KMK and BMBF for the challenges to education in a digital world 
• BMBF funding programme OERinfo is announced and aims at extending the audience
for OER and integrating OER into structures of teacher training
• Feasibility Study for OER infrastructures by DIPF DIPF 
• BMBF funding programme OERinfo is on track
• 1st strand: information office
• 2nd strand: projects concerning „fitness“ for OER –
awareness and qualification in several educational
sectors
• Both strands interact: supporting networks by
mapping of connections

12. Demand for project funding in 2016
• Feasability Study
• Partners in all areas of education

13. Information office OER: seven institutions for
information, transfer and networking for
Das Team von OERinfo. Foto: Sonja Borski, CC BY 4.0

14. • Source of information on OER for all target groups including newcomers
and thereby contribute to a wider display of the topic in Germany
• Representation of the current state of knowledge concerning OER
• Portray of different initiatives and approaches as well as fostering of
collaboration between the projects
• Compiling of good practice examples
• Facilitating exchange between stakeholders, interest groups and OER
initiatives
Tasks of the information office

15. OERinfo: three pillars
Information
Transfer
Networking
for Open Educational Resources

16. Information: multimedia, social, interactive

17. Transfer: OER knowledge from educational
sectors for specialists and general public
School
Higher education
Adult education
Vocational training
• Providing of sector specific
dossiers and information
modules
• Monitoring and
documentation of good
practice examples
• Interface to target groups
through different channels
• Information about the work
of the information office

18. Networking by Mapping
• OER Germany Map: visualizing of
connections between OER-players
and their fields of activity

19. Overall activity in Germany
• Organization
• Person
• Service
• Project
• Event
• Story

21. The map The result list The data record

22. The map The result list The data record
Connected to
• Person
• Organization
• Event
• Sub-Projects

23. The map The result list The data record
Connected to
• Person
• Organization
• Event
• Sub-Projects
Navigate to this connection!

24. Frankfurt am Main: several
OER entities are located here
Tagged with
educational sectors

25. Connected to
• Organizing entities
• Persons with
different roles
• Media

26. Networking by Mapping
• OER Germany Map: visualizing of
connections between OER-players
and their fields of activity
• Better localization for the educational
system of Germany
• Systematic expansion of data pool
about Germany
• Functional integration into webportal
of OERinfo

27. 2017
• (Virtual) advisory board
• Launch of the OERinfo portal and
OER Germany map
• Information modules by transfer
partners
• Documentation of 2nd strand
projects
• Collaborating with OERCamp-Tour
2018
• Elaboration of information
modules and project
documentation
• Expansion of data pool of OER
Germany map
• Self-evaluation of OERinfo with
aid of advisory board
• Conclusion workshop of OER
funding programme
Information,
Transfer, Networking
for Open Educational
Resources
… and what comes next…
Outlook

28. Thanks for your attention
Marc.Rittberger@dipf.de
With special thanks to:
Ingo.Blees@dipf.de
Luca.Mollenhauer@dipf.de
Richard.Heinen@uni-duisburg-essen.de
www.o-e-r.de
Förderkennzeichen:01PO16015

29. References
Heinen, Richard; Kerres, Michael; Scharnberg, Gianna; Blees, Ingo; Rittberger, Marc (2016). A
Federated Reference Structure for Open Informational Ecosystems. Journal of Interactive
Media in Education, 2016(1): 13, pp. 1–6, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5334/jime.413
Blees, Ingo; Hirschmann, Doris; Kühnlenz, Axel; Rittberger, Marc; Schulte, Jolika; Heinen,
Richard; Kerres, Michael; Scharnberg, Gianna; Machbarkeitsstudie zum Aufbau und Betrieb
von OER-Infrastrukturen in der Bildung, Frankfurt, 2016. 66 S. - URN: urn:nbn:de:0111-pedocs-
117154
Dieser Text steht unter der CC BY 4.0-Lizenz. Der Name des
Urhebers soll bei einer Weiterverwendung wie folgt genannt
werden: Marc Rittberger, DIPF