1. Template Sections for completion:
Case Study Title:
EducaNext
Case Study Country:
Austria
Type of organisation described by the case study, address of organisation,
hyperlink to organisation, hyperlink to case study source:
HE
http://www.educanext.org
Case Study Contributed by:
Ulf Ehlers
Sections 1-10
1. Mandatory - A brief summary of the institution to be used as a case study
About 500 words please on a description of the institution, its OER history
and approach.
EducaNext, developed by Vienna University of Economics and Business, is a
portal service to enable exchange of electronic learning resources on
academic level. It is available to every member and researcher in the
academic world (registration is necessary for utilization). The catalogue
provides the option to search for content by categories, additionally there is
an unrestricted search box. Major innovations of EducaNext are:
• Support of exchange processes of scientific resources while
maintaining rights of intellectual property
• Community of more than one thousand European academic teachers
• Supply of Open Content Licenses
• User friendly software tool including open interfaces to learning
management systems and e-content networks
• Multi-level, cost-efficient approach to Quality assurance of learning
content
The goal of the EducaNext portal is to contribute to academies’ improvement
and completion of teaching content. By means of the portal, the operating
institutions provide a higher quality in learning opportunities while
simultaneously lowering preparatory efforts for courses. EducaNext creates

2. new means for academies’ cooperation with their strategic partners. In
addition, the web-based distributive channel for scientific resources is an
effective medium to raise an institution’s public level of awareness.
The portal offers the following options:
• Exchange of content such as electronic lecture notes and textbooks,
recorded lectures and presentations, case-studies, collections of
questions etc
• Supply of and access to trans-institutional events such as guest-
lectures or joint courses
• Communication with members of respective research communities
• Channel of distribution and promotion for teaching material and
research papers
• Collaborative environment for projects in content-development
Quality assurance of content is carried out by the portal’s community. Users
can comment on published content or even run a complete course
evaluation. Experience up to this point shows that EducaNext is used
predominantly to provide resources such as tutorials, lecture notes,
transparencies and case-studies. These are being used amongst others as
promotional means for textbooks. Rarely are there complete courses in the
portal as very often copyright issues would have to be solved, mostly causing
an un-accomplishable amount of extra effort. Especially scientists such as
assistant professors make use of EducaNext in order to establish themselves
in the community.
2. Quality – OER/OEP
How does the institution approach quality in OER? Is there any current
indication of a quality concept or process? Does the institution perceive
quality from the perspective of the quality of open educational resources or
the quality of open educational practice? How does the institution show
quality through OEP versus quality of OEP? What methods, concepts and
practices are used to enhance the quality of OEP?
Quality assurance of content is carried out by the portal’s community. Users
can comment on published content or even run a complete course
evaluation.
3. Innovation
How can OER/OEP innovate educational practices? What current innovative
practices are there in the institution? Please do not regard innovation from
just a technology perspective!
Option of exchange with other users by so-called communities. Experts on
several topics are brought together within these communities.

3. 4. Policy
What are the current OER/OEP policy arrangements at institutional and
national level across Europe/the World?
5. Actors
What actors are involved in OER/OEP? Is there any evidence to show that
OER actors do not always promote OEP but “only” access to OER?
6. Initiatives
What OER/OEP initiatives can be evidenced? Is there any evidence to show
that OER initiatives do not always promote OEP but “only” access to OER?
7. Open Educational Practices
Can you identify some case studies/ descriptions which form the illustrative
base for a more general model of OEP?
8. Tools and Repositories
What tools and repositories are being used to deliver OER/OEP? For example
GLOW, Connexions.
Are there any other special tools for OER/OEP? e.g. Cloudworks, in
which practices can be discussed and validated?
Are there any tools for Visualisation? e.g. CompendiumLD
Are there any tools for Argumentation? e.g. Cohere
9. Strategies
Can you identify any strategies for organisations to use OER/OEP? Can you
identify any business models that promote OER/OEP?
Access and Exchange.
10. Current barriers and enablers
What are the barriers to the use of OER/OEP? Is there any evidence to how
these barriers have been overcome? What are the enablers to the use of OER/
OEP?