Legal Issues in Digital Teaching

Find Open Educational Resources (OER)

With the OpenLearnWare platform, on which teaching materials are made freely available under an open Creative Commons (CC) licence, the TU Darmstadt is part of the worldwide educational initiative "Open Educational Resources (OER)." In addition, there are many other providers and initiatives worldwide through which OER materials can be found.

Learn more about the OpenLearnWare platform at the TU Darmstadt

“Open Educational Resources (OER) are educational materials of any kind and in any medium that are licensed under an open licence. Such a licence allows free access and free use, adaptation and redistribution by others with little or no restriction. […]
Open Educational Resources can include individual materials, but also complete courses or books. […] Curricula, course materials, textbooks, streaming videos, multimedia applications, podcasts – all these resources are OER if they are published under an open licence.”

Source: UNESCO Definition

Further Explanations on OER

Picture: Titelbild OER-Leitfaden

Guide on OER in Higher Education

Recommendations for policy-makers, higher education institutions, teachers, and students from the German UNESCO Commission

To the guide (in German language) (opens in new tab)

Selecting individual sources to find educational contents

ZUM Wiki Open platform for teaching content and learning processes; under CC licence or public domain
Elixier Search engine for educational media on the German Education Server
Wikibooks Library of educational, technical and non-fiction books written collaboratively by many authors – including non-specialists – according to the wiki principle; all books under CC-BY-SA licence
OER Commons Platform to search for OER and make them available yourself;
all contents under CC licence
Portal PhET from the University of Colorado; interactive simulations for physics, biology, chemistry and mathematics from primary school to university level;
all contents under CC-BY licence
Khan Academy Videos (embedded in entire courses) on the topics of mathematics, computer science and programming
Videothek Algorithmik Youtube channel with various videos/ lecture recordings on the subject of algorithms, compiled at the TU Darmstadt Computer Science Department
Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung Extensive annotated link list to find OER offers
OERinfo Compilation of OER directories and services

Closely Related to OER:

Interesting facts on jointly on the use of CC licences for OER

Five Tips for Good OER Licensing

Combine, Edit, Remix – Using OER Correctly

OER and the Problem of Non-Commercial Licences

Online course to learn more about OER

Access to the online course: