A growing interest in the open sharing of educational materials and a national initiative have led to increased attention to Open Education in recent years. At Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR), more investments are being made in this area through various initiatives and collaborations. This article highlights two projects: opening up development offerings for teachers and sharing virtual patient cases.
The context
Open Education is a movement focused on broad and inclusive education, where knowledge is openly shared and existing ideas are complemented. For Lucinda Jones, the director of the University Library (UB), Open Education is of great importance. This theme seamlessly aligns with the focus of the new EUR strategy (Strategy 2030) on engagement and societal impact. A key component of Open Education is making educational materials as freely available and shareable as possible to remove barriers during the learning process and to increase engagement and impact with societal actors. Lucinda explains that there are already various collaborations within EUR to make this possible. For example, the UB collaborates with faculty ambassadors, Academic Affairs (AZ), and the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI).
National collaboration
Open Education is also high on the agenda at the national level. Universities of the Netherlands (UNL) view Open Education as part of the Open Science agenda UNL, says Lucinda. This agenda is being worked on through Npuls: the National Growth Fund programme in which all public universities, universities of applied sciences, and vocational colleges collaborate on a future-proof education sector. Lucinda indicates that Npuls has set various goals for the education sector, known as 'sector goals'. One of these goals (Making learning more personal and effective) focuses on Open Education.
Edusources
To facilitate Open Education, EUR uses tools such as Edusources. Lucinda explains that this is a digital sector facility from SURF where education professionals can share, find, and use materials, and collaborate to enrich their education.
Example 1: sharing professional development offerings for teachers
An example that highlights the importance of Open Education comes from Tanisha Bachasing, project manager at the Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI). Education is rapidly changing due to digitalisation, artificial intelligence (AI), and the way students interact with these technologies. To support teachers in this, universities offer trainings and courses. However, this offering is fragmented, and the same material is being developed in many places. To improve this, Tanisha leads working groups at the national and regional level. In these groups, collaboration is focused on creating an accessible and organised development offer for all teachers in higher education.
An important example of such collaboration is the Professional Development Exchange Hub (PDEH), where 12 Dutch universities share their expertise and training offerings with each other. Within this partnership, efforts are also being made towards the joint development of training programmes. Currently, the focus is on developing an AI learning pathway, combining the best offerings on this subject from all universities. Tanisha is also seeking connections with universities of applied sciences and vocational institutions through Npuls, so that all offerings and insights can be combined into this learning pathway via online modules that will be published through Edusources.
By combining these insights and trainings on AI from both the PDEH and Npuls contexts, they work towards a future-oriented and scalable ecosystem that provides teachers with clarity about the available opportunities. The goal is to publish the AI learning pathway in February 2026, marking an important milestone for Open Education. Tanisha emphasizes that collaboration is crucial in this endeavor and quotes Harvard professor Linda Hill: “Innovation is not about solo genius, it’s about collective genius.”
Example 2: sharing virtual patient cases in medical education
Another example comes from Mathijs Doets, ICT & education advisor at Erasmus MC. Medical students learn 'clinical reasoning' during their studies. This is the process by which healthcare professionals systematically analyse information to arrive at a diagnosis and treatment plan. To allow every student to practice this important skill sufficiently, a large number of patient cases are needed. Mathijs explains that it is impossible to employ enough actors for all students, and that you don't want to unnecessarily burden real patients. Therefore, they use virtual patient cases.
However, creating good virtual cases takes a lot of time. To make this more efficient, Erasmus MC is collaborating with Radboud UMC on a shared offering through the website MedischOnderwijs.nl. Because this website was outdated, they applied for the Boost your collection grant from Npuls, which was awarded. Now, all patient cases are offered via Edusources, and there is interest from new partners such as UMC Utrecht and Amsterdam UMC. In this way, they are building a future-proof collection with sufficient practice opportunities for students.
Read more: Changemakers speaking - Boost your collection | Npuls
Want to know more about Open Education?
Are you interested in Open Education or would you like to start working with Edusources? The EUR University Library is ready to support you. On the UB website, you will find extensive information, inspiring videos with best practices, and a contact form to request help directly.
Would you like to know more about the joint course offer? Then visit this page. More information about the AI learning pathway will also be shared here soon.
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