An interesting report about the landscape of open educational resources in Germany has been recently published. It can be translated as “Mapping OER. Analysis of the current state of open educational resources (OER) in Germany. The situation of open educational resources (OER) in Germany in schools, universities, vocational education and training in June 2015.”

Wikimedia Germany led on compiling this report, with funds provided by Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research, thus showcasing an interesting cooperation. The report aims to analyse the reach and the role of OER at different educational levels (School, University, Hochschule (Other Tertiary Education Providers) and Vocational education) emphasising and addressing four key aspects: Quality assurance, Licensing and legal certainty, qualification models and business models.

This report is one of the outcomes of the “Mapping OER” project, which allowed the exploration of the use and production of OER in Germany, considering that there has been a systematic growth in the development, creation and usage of OER in the last years in Germany.

One of the interesting aspects of this report is that it highlights the positive potential impact of OER, on individual and collective learning approaches and activities, and relates its success in ensuring a more effective organisation of teaching by sharing the production of teaching and learning resources; however, the report also presents a series of challenges, concerns and questions regarding quality assurance, though intending to address these by proposing sustainable solutions.

Also, this report reflects, within the German context, on issues regarding technical requirements for OER development and support, showcasing best practices and considering in its analysis more traditional education materials such as textbooks, thus describing and debating the current situation of OER in a comprehensive manner.

The report can be accessed from http://l3t.eu/oer/images/band10.pdf

We welcome comments from experts and practitioners in Germany.