3½ Questions about OERcamp

EduCamp Minden - Focus on educational innovations: Insights from Anja Lorenz (ISy Media Didactics) into the EduCamp Minden (16 to 18 March 2024)

['English'] Gruppenbild zum Internationalen Frauentag

['English'] Gruppenbild zum Internationalen Frauentag

Who are you, and what kind of event did you attend?

I'm Anja Lorenz and I joined the OERcamp 2024 for three days. OER are openly licensed educational materials (Open Educational Resources). The OERcamps have been bringing together people from different educational sectors since 2012 to discuss big and small topics related to the subject. It includes workshop formats as well as a BarCamp day on which the participants determine the programme.

What was your contribution to the event?

I've been actively involved in the field of OER for some time now, my first OERcamp was in 2014. Whenever I can manage to attend an OERcamp, I like to take the opportunity to keep up to date. Its formats allow me to contribute my own topics, and I did that easily this time, too. For instance, I was interested in the question of how we can share concepts for using our materials (e.g. online courses) with others.

What was your takeaway from the event?

A lot, but perhaps I'll just focus on one thing: I came into contact with the topic of "Open Educational Practice (OEP)" after some time. Roughly speaking, OEP refers to concepts of how teaching practices can be shared - such as usage concepts for online courses. There are some theoretical considerations, but also approaches for practical solutions (such as Patternpool or MyScripting). However, I am not yet sure whether the topic is only of academic interest or if we can use it to identify specific topics and solutions independently of the respective educational content.

Give us a highlight from the event

There were helium balloons with animal symbols at the standing tables, which could be used flexibly for smaller programme activities. For example, everyone who had problems with their internet connection was asked to go to a specific animal. A team member was waiting there to help them. That was a nice and simple idea.