Leveraging open educational resources to foster sustainable educational development in Switzerland

Abstract

Open Educational Resources (OER) are defined by UNESCO as “teaching, learning and research materials in any medium, digital or otherwise, that reside in the public domain or have been released under an open license that permits no-cost access, use, adaptation and redistribution by others with no or limited restrictions” (UNESCO 2012, 1). OER are closely linked to the United Nations seventeen SDGs (United Nations n.d.a), especially to SDG 4, Quality education: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. At Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften/Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), the OER team is based in the Hochschulbibliothek/University Library and has established an OER Policy and an OER community. An innovative approach to OER was taken in a project Students4OER, funded by the University’s Sustainable Impact Program. Students were invited to create materials, videos, blog posts, interviews, quizzes, podcasts, or posters, in connection with at least one of the SDGs for publication as OER for worldwide visibility. In a subsequent project, Students4OER II, a collaborative project between the ZHAW University Library and the teaching staff of the ZHAW School for Life Sciences and Facility Management, the creation of OER with and by students became part of a master’s degree module. This chapter explores the nature of OER and their connection to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and the seventeen SDGs and examines how openness in education goes beyond mere access to free resources to link with new, and more open didactic approaches like open pedagogy. The role of the Library and its services related to the creation of OER as well as the implementation of open pedagogy is explored through presenting the outcomes of the OER projects