Online Meeting 2025

Following the 22nd Strategic Seminar in Ljubljana (May 2025), this online meeting provided EdReNe members with an opportunity to discuss further key issues affecting educational repository owners and practitioners.

The discussion focused on policies and guidelines for acquiring digital educational content, with particular attention to Open Educational Resources (OER) and the growing role of AI-generated content. Key questions included whether established quality standards exist to ensure accessibility, pedagogical design, and the effective use of high-quality digital resources in teaching and learning.

The meeting opened with a welcome from Anna Laghigna and Tommaso Dalla Vecchia of European Schoolnet, who stressed the importance of these exchanges for driving educational innovation. Since 2024, European Schoolnet has coordinated this network of experts in educational resources and repositories to ensure continued opportunities for sharing ideas and best practices.

Discussions on OER and digital resources are also relevant to the Future Classroom Lab initiative, which aims to systematise educational innovation across Europe—particularly in formal primary and secondary education—by connecting research, ICT integration, and innovative teaching practices essential for advancing modern learning environments.

 

Announcing the publication of Guidelines for Digital Education Content (DEC)

The first presentation introduced the upcoming Guidelines for Digital Education Content, a new publication by the European Commission, developed by an Expert Group throughout 2025. Eugenia Casariego Artola from European Schoolnet explained that the document is still confidential and will be officially launched in January 2026.

The guidelines aim to support teachers, school leaders, content creators, publishers, and education authorities in selecting and using high-quality digital content. They include:

  • Three core sections:
  1. What is digital education content?
  2. How to use it effectively?
  3. Why bring it into the classroom?
  • Eight quality criteria for selecting, using, and reviewing content, focusing on reliability, pedagogical value, accessibility, inclusion, and technical interoperability.
  • Practical tips and case studies to guide implementation.

A strong emphasis is placed on accessibility and inclusion, as well as ensuring content works seamlessly with existing school platforms. These guidelines are expected to become a key reference for improving the quality and relevance of digital learning resources across Europe.

 

Curating OER within MUNDO, Germany’s National Media Portal for Schools

In her presentation, Dr Susanne Friz from FWU Institut für Film und Bild, Germany, introduced MUNDO, the educational media portal developed for all 16 German federal states. Implemented as part of the SODIX project and financed through the DigitalPakt Schule, MUNDO was launched during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the shortage of digital learning materials. Today, it serves learners, teachers, and guardians by providing freely accessible, quality-assured educational resources.

How MUNDO Works

FWU curates and reviews freely available digital media according to strict educational and legal standards, ensuring that materials are suitable for classroom use and compliant with copyright and licensing requirements. Approved resources are integrated into MUNDO’s central portal and distributed via a shared content pool to state-level platforms, allowing each federal state to customise access. Registered users can also submit their own OER, which undergoes editorial review before publication.

Key Features and Services

  • Decentralised Access: MUNDO feeds curated content into state portals, enabling local customisation.
  • Collaborative Editorial Process: Media providers, broadcasters, and teachers contribute materials, which are reviewed for quality, relevance, and legal compliance.
  • OER Focus: Teachers can upload only resources under CC BY, CC BY-SA, CC0, or public domain licenses.
  • Content Criteria: Materials must be educationally relevant, interactive, modular, free of charge, and technically compatible. Strict exclusions apply to advertising, extremist content, outdated resources, and platforms like YouTube due to ads.
  • Legal Requirements: Valid copyright labelling and age-appropriate classification for films are mandatory.

AI-Generated Content
MUNDO accepts AI-generated materials if they are clearly tagged, licensed under CC0 or the public domain, and include transparency on the AI tool used.

Impact and Scale
Currently, MUNDO hosts around 70,000 records from 1,700 sources, including broadcasters, foundations, universities, and teachers. It also offers tools for creating and sharing modular learning resources, promoting creativity and media competence in schools.

 

Building Institutional Support and Policies for Sustainable OER in Higher Education – Insights from Austria

Mag. Claudia Hackl-Mayerhofer from the Shared OER Services for the Austrian Higher Education Sector, led by the University of Vienna, presented Austria’s comprehensive strategy to foster Open Educational Resources (OER) through coordinated policies, certification schemes, and shared infrastructure. This approach is firmly anchored in national and EU frameworks, aligning with Sustainable Development Goal #4 (Quality Education) and the EU Open Science Policy, where open education is recognised as a key component of the broader open science movement.

Austria’s Open Science Policy includes eight priority areas, one of which focuses on skills and education—placing OER at the centre. Efforts primarily target the higher education sector, engaging researchers, teaching staff, and support staff. A major initiative, Open Education Austria Advanced (2020-2024), has driven the development of OER infrastructures such as repositories, search engines, and collaborative platforms, encouraging universities to adopt and share resources widely. Since 2025 the Shared OER Services operate to support Austrian Higher Education Institutions in knowledge transfer, Massive Open Online Courses and with a national meta-search engine for OER. More info here.

Key elements of this national strategy include:

  • OER Certification Framework: Institutions and individuals can be certified for having OER policies, repositories, and trained practitioners. Currently, five institutions and 246 practitioners are certified.
  • National OER Platforms: Services such as OERhub and iMooX support sustainable creation, dissemination, and reuse of open content.
  • National MOOC platform: iMooX hosts over 200 open-licensed courses and is connected to European MOOC networks.
  • National Search Engine for OER: OERhub.at facilitates discovery of resources within the Austrian higher education sector.
  • Shared OER Services: Centralised support for OER production workflows, legal guidance, policy development, and knowledge transfer across Austrian higher education institutions.

A key focus is structured knowledge transfer, enabling collaboration, exchange of best practices, and capacity building across all Austrian universities. These initiatives rely on interdisciplinary cooperation among e-learning centres, libraries, IT services, and teaching units, ensuring quality, interoperability, and long-term accessibility.

By embedding OER within national policy and linking it to open science strategies, Austria is creating sustainable services and strengthening institutional capacities for open education.

Round table discussion – Key Points

The final discussion centred on policies and guidelines for digital education content, examining current frameworks and implementation strategies. It also explored future perspectives and shared concerns, anticipating challenges and shaping a common vision for the responsible and effective use of digital resources in education.

Common themes emerging from the discussion included the need for effective moderation and strategies to engage teachers, while maintaining a balance between ready-made resources and opportunities for creative freedom. Participants also highlighted the growing importance of AI integration, ethical considerations, and ensuring interoperability across platforms. Finally, the value of sharing experiences to address challenges collectively was widely recognised as essential for progress.

 

EdReNe Upcoming Events

The 23rd EdReNe Strategic Seminar will be held at the Future Learning Lab in Vienna on 21–22 May 2026. The theme, “AI in Education: Ethical Pathways and System Readiness,” will build on previous discussions and focus on ethical challenges and system-level preparedness for integrating AI in schools. The seminar will also explore how policies and guidelines can support the responsible and effective use of AI in teaching and learning.

 

Programme & Presentations

For more information, visit: EdReNe