Open Science in Education: helping teachers work with open materials

With support from Npuls OpenUp funding, UM Library stepped up its existing support programme that helps teachers and students find, reuse, create and publish digital open learning materials. The Open Science in Education team (Scientific Information Specialist OER & OA and Specialist Open Science in Education) works closely with EDLAB, BKO/UTQ coordinators, educational developers, digital literacy colleagues and other library teams. The idea is simple: bring policy, tools and daily teaching practice closer together so that open pedagogy, digital literacy, AI guidance and Creative Commons support are all in one place.

Why bring this into BKO/UTQ?

Although open practices are part of UM’s Open Science vision, they’re not yet part of everyday course design. Students have voiced that they still face high textbook costs and often experience limited access to course materials, even though many prefer digital open resources and are eager to co-create.

By including digital literacy and Open Science in the BKO/UTQ, teachers become aware from an early stage on how to create and share their materials, reuse or adapt existing open resources, engage students as partners in the process and achieve learning and teaching goals with technology. Over time, this should make it more natural to choose and design course materials with a Creative Commons license, making education at UM: “As open as possible and as closed as necessary.”

Pilot at FSE: small changes, real impact

In 2024, the UM Library and the Faculty of Science and Engineering (FSE) set up a pilot to explore how this would work in practice. The team kept the existing BKO/UTQ structure and added clear reflections, prompts, examples and links to open practices to raise awareness of digital literacy skills and competences. At FSE, most changes were small text edits, no extra workload, no new modules.

In essence, the pilot exemplifies that these small adjustments help raise awareness and empower teachers with practical ways to get started.

What’s next

The next step is to work with other faculties to adapt their BKO/UTQ and CPD routes in the same way. Meanwhile, the library is strengthening its support by rolling out the AI-based OER Discovery Tool, updating toolkits for course and assessment design, working on the UM digital literacy competence framework for students and teachers, and exploring an OER ambassador role in each faculty. The aim is to make it easier for teachers to act on what they learn, create and design more accessible, open and future-ready learning experiences.

Digital literacy: a shared baseline for all UTQ/BKO participants

UM is also integrating core digital literacy competencies into the BKO/UTQ, following the new UM-wide Digital Literacy Vision for Educators. This work is part of the national Npuls programme on digital transformation. The vision sets out the practical skills and attitudes educators need to support students in a world shaped by AI, data use, online collaboration and rapidly changing digital tools.

The integration means that digital literacy becomes part of how we prepare new teachers, not an optional extra.

Why this matters

Today’s teaching relies on digital tools in one way or another. To help students learn confidently, teachers need to be able to:

  • choose and use digital tools in a pedagogically meaningful way
  • support students in developing digital and information literacy
  • make ethical, inclusive decisions about technology
  • understand how digital tools change assessment, feedback and academic integrity
  • help shape a digitally confident teaching culture

What we expect to see

  • More consistency across faculties, while keeping space for disciplinary differences
  • Clearer guidance for students, especially around digital learning and collaboration
  • Digital literacy as part of everyday teaching, not a one-off workshop
  • Better preparation for emerging tools, including responsible use of AI

More information

Dr. Lonneke Bevers – Senior Academic Teacher, FSE UTQ and CPD coordinator  – Faculty of Science and Engineering, University College Maastricht
Katja Shcherbakova – Project Leader Digital Literacy and AI – UM Library
Akorshi Sengupta – Specialist Open Science in Education – UM Library
Michel Saive – Scientific Information Specialist OER & OA – UM Library

Would you like to learn more about digital open learning materials or digital literacy? Please contact us via Ask Your Librarian.