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In line with the objectives of the State of Lower Saxony and Leibniz ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ's open science strategy, ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ aims to firmly establish open educational resources (OER) in university culture.

Open educational resources can be used freely and flexibly adapted to specific teaching and learning contexts as well as the individual needs of learning groups. Furthermore, their availability offers learners the opportunity for independent study. The systematic creation of such OER can thus contribute to improving the quality of studies and teaching and is intended to strengthen the academic exchange of subject-specific knowledge among teachers within the university.

In addition, OER are suitable for helping staff and teachers prepare and conduct courses and for supporting learners in their independent study. The establishment of a common OER practice across educational institutions and national borders is intended to promote cooperation and expand didactic possibilities. Members of universities and colleges can make their teaching expertise visible regionally and internationally by publishing and disseminating (their own) OER. Against this background, the aim of this policy is to promote open access to high-quality education through the dissemination of OER.

According to UNESCO, 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 eligibility to apply, use, editing and redistribution by third parties with no or minimal restrictions. ... The creators themselves determine which usage rights they grant and which rights they reserve.’

Open licences are standardised contracts that explicitly grant the general public certain usage rights to the work free of charge, depending on the type of licence. The contract is automatically concluded when the work is used. Licensees must comply with a number of prescribed conditions. If the licence conditions are violated, the licence expires. The licence model used is based on the Creative Commons Standard (see section 3).

The respective usage rights include, among other things, the use, editing, modification, and republication of teaching and learning materials. Open educational resources include, for example, teaching texts, scripts, explanatory videos, lesson plans, podcasts, graphics, slide sets, worksheets, quizzes, portfolio assignments, mock exams, ILIAS courses and individual ILIAS objects, as well as teaching materials created and made available in Stud.IP.

In order to establish OER in the higher education context in a sustainable manner, ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ pursues the following principles:

• It is expressly desired that educational materials developed by teachers be made available as OER under an open licence and published in a suitable location.
• Higher education and media teaching materials developed by Leibniz ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ institutions should be placed under an open licence and published in a suitable location.
• Educational materials developed for teaching purposes that have been or are being created as part of publicly funded projects should be placed under an open licence and published as OER.
• Educational materials created for teaching purposes with the participation of Leibniz ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ institutions as part of internal university events and programmes should be made available as OER under an open licence and published.
• The OER Campus in Stud.IP and the OER portal twillo are recommended as publication locations for digital educational materials. Videos and audio contributions can also be published worldwide via Leibniz ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ's Flowcasts service or the TIB's AV portal and made available for download.

In order to comply with these principles and enable teachers and other staff to publish OER on their own responsibility, the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover Public Law Foundation grants its teachers and staff the necessary usage rights for this purpose and authorises them to attach the corresponding licence notices.

Teachers and employees of Leibniz ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ are responsible for complying with legal and licensing requirements when creating, using and publishing OER.

When publishing open (educational) materials, employees who are bound by instructions must consult with their superiors in advance regarding the content and choice of licence. The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover Public Law Foundation should be mentioned when attaching the licence notice.

Licences based on the globally established Creative Commons standard are suitable for licensing. It is recommended that independently developed and copyright-compliant educational materials and handouts be placed under the CC-BY 4.0 licence.

The licence notice should be accompanied by the following name:

• CC-BY 4.0, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover Public Law Foundation – Name of the lecturer/university employee

The teaching staff and employees of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ strive to ensure the quality of open educational resources through professional exchange within the department. In the course of implementation, ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ will ensure that its members receive appropriate support in matters relating to the use, creation and publication of openly licensed educational materials. This will be achieved by providing relevant information on websites and through specialist service facilities at the university or its cooperation partners. Details of these can be found on the websites containing information on OER.

This policy shall enter into force on the day after its publication in the official bulletin of ¾ÅÉ«ÊÓƵ.

• Deutsche UNESCO-Kommission, „Open Educational Ressources“ (last updated: 19. May 2025):
• Creative Commons Germany: „Was ist CC?“ (last updated: 28 May 2025):