Promotional image of the Unite! Seed Fund with screen that displays an interactive online course and a text that reads "Unite! OER courses – An open education initiative to develop open science competencies within the Unite! Alliance "
Promotional image of the Unite! Seed Fund with screen that displays an interactive online course and a text that reads "Unite! OER courses – An open education initiative to develop open science competencies within the Unite! Alliance "
21 December 2023
Unite! pioneers open science and multilingual OER courses
Promotional image of the Unite! Seed Fund with screen that displays an interactive online course and a text that reads "Unite! OER courses – An open education initiative to develop open science competencies within the Unite! Alliance "
A Unite! project team aims to lead the charge in building OER-courses for student and teachers to pave the way for a future Unite! Open Science Academy.

In the fast-evolving landscape of higher education, the convergence of Open Science and Open Educational Resources (OER) is proving to be a transformative force. Unite! is taking a bold step forward by adopting the UNESCO recommendations on OER and Open Science to enhance the quality and accessibility of education.

 
As part of the “Unite! Open Science and innovation strategic roadmap”, this Unite! seed funded project with scientists from all nine Unite! partner universities has set five objectives to enhance open Science competencies within its member institutions: 

  1. Developing and implementing a Unite! -wide OER competence initiative for students and lecturers. This initiative will be delivered through an OER MOOC and an international OER course. 
  2. Creating a multilingual MOOC about OER in all languages of the Unite! partner universities. 
  3. Offering an OER-course in English at TU Graz (Austria) for all Unite! students at the Unite! Metacampus (Unite!’s digital campus for all partners), incorporating the Austrian OER certification scheme by offering 1 ECTS and a comprehensive OER competence profile. 
  4. Providing OER capacity training for lecturers. The goal is to equip them with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement OER courses within the nine member universities, using the developed MOOC and materials. 
  5. Generating a report from the lessons learned and paving the way to a pilot project for a future “Unite! Open Science Academy”.  

Documentation and Knowledge Sharing 

Beyond the funded project's timeframe, the project team aims to establish the foundation, materials, and knowledge required to roll out joint and institution-wide OER courses across all member universities. This will also incorporate a standardized Unite! OER certification. Evaluation and the insights gathered from this pilot will be instrumental in guiding and supporting the development of the Unite! Open Science Academy, including the preparation of a future Erasmus+ proposal. 
The Unite! alliance's commitment to Open Science and OER signifies a progressive approach to higher education that emphasizes openness, collaboration, and the fostering of future-ready competencies among students and educators. The outcomes of this seed funded project will undoubtedly influence the future of higher education within the alliance and beyond. 

Practical information

Learn how to use OERs for your higher educational purposes and how you can benefit from it. 
For more information and pre-registration go to: 
OER MOOC: https://imoox.at/course/OERinHE?lang=en (registration open for everyone) 
OER lecture “Unite! Open Educational Resources in Higher Education”:  https://metacampus.unite-university.eu/course/info.php?id=95 (available for all Unite!rs)