Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) - Vorprojekt 2015/16
The project idea
The Hamburg Open Online University (HOOU) stands for the idea of a cross-university online learning programme with academic standards for people with an interest in academic education. The aim is to enable learning arrangements in which the learners themselves take centre stage alongside the actual content. The plan is to consistently provide free learning resources (Open Educational Resources, OER) and embed these in meaningful didactic concepts for joint online learning and blended learning. An online platform is being developed specifically for the HOOU, which will be further expanded in line with the content and didactic requirements.
The project background
The project is based on an initiative launched at the beginning of 2014 by the First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Olaf Scholz, to digitalise university teaching with the participation of all state universities in Hamburg. The cross-university steering group "Digital Teaching and Learning" was set up under the leadership of the Ministry of Science and Research. Under this umbrella, the HOOU concept is being further developed and concretised in three cross-university expert groups (Open Educational Resources, Digital Qualification and Concept & Platform). The preliminary project for the HOOU was launched on 1 April 2015 with a total funding volume of 3.7 million euros and will run for two years.
The HOOU at the University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is one of the six state universities in Hamburg involved in the project. A separate university-wide working group was set up in February 2015. This includes the Vice President for Studies and Teaching, the academic director of the Digitalisation of Teaching and Learning (DLL) focus area at the Hamburg Centre for University Teaching and Learning (HUL) as well as the directors of the Regional Computing Centre (RRZ), the Office for Academic Continuing Education (AWW), the eLearning offices of the faculties and representatives of the faculties, technical administrative staff and students at Universität Hamburg. The task of the working group is to critically and constructively support the development process for the HOOU at Universität Hamburg and to coordinate the procedure for awarding funding.
In spring 2015, the first call for project funding was issued at the University of Hamburg, followed by the second call in autumn. A total of 19 projects are currently being realised as part of the HOOU at the University of Hamburg.