Open Educational Resources in Austria

Abstract

In Austria, located in the center of Europe, when compared earlier in relation to other German-speaking countries in Europe, individuals and groups started to develop and work on the idea of freely available and usable learning content on the Internet. A first Austrian milestone was the coordination of an international conference on open educational content in 2007 as the final activity of the first European project that was focused on OER (olcos.org). Within the contribution an overview of current state and developments of OER activities in Austria is given, also describing its infrastructure, policy, existing resources, curriculum and teaching methodologies, outcome, stakeholders and impact for education. The chapter gives a comprehensive overview of all OER activities in Austria and outlines the benefits for the educational system as well. It can be summarized that the Austrian way seems to be successful even though the steps forward are often small.