Opening up conferencing! Mainstreaming open education through barcamps
Since 2012 OERcamps have provided an opportunity for community building as well as learning about and creating OER in an radically open setting. The innovation of the format is simple but compelling: It is an open format in every sense of the word – open to a diverse audience and oriented to their needs. Being open to participants from all educational fields is one of OERcamps’ trademarks and helped the event to be a success both for individuals and the OER community. It helped spread the concept of openness and knowledge about legal aspects to audiences from all educational sectors and fields.
OERcamps open up new and contemporary formats for learning based on openness, sharing, personal meaning, participation and equality. The focus on peer-to-peer-learning is the appropriate format of education for a time in which we are depending on not only transferring fixed knowledge but also co-creating new knowledge. OERcamps are about sharing, discussing and negotiating solutions for a world in change.
In the last years OERcamps have grown to more than 10 events per year, several formats, a book, a collection of CC BY licensed materials created by a community of practitioners and in times of COVID-19 a series of webtalks, instructional videos and a SummOERschool online.
Responding to challenges of the COVID-19 crisis OERcamp went online with a series of 50 (!) daily webtalks resulting in a collection of recorded talks about topics such as tools, sources and formats for creating OER that are ready for use and remix on YouTube.
The OERcamps are organised by Agentur J&K – Jöran und Konsorten, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and under the patronage of German Commission for UNESCO. The most important part of the OERcamps are their participants who so far have provided 780+ sessions and workshops, created countless materials and have built a strong community.
For more information visit: https://www.oercamp.de/about-oercamps-in-english/.
