With participation from nearly all providers of Bachelor of Nursing education in the Netherlands, a program for Open Education Resources (OER) has become nationwide in just a few years. The program was initiated in 2017 – so, well before the current COVID-19 outbreak. However, the epidemic has obviously increased the interest in digital educational tools for the health sector even further.
Of the 17 institutions in the Netherlands providing Bachelor of Nursing programs, 15 are onboard the project. According to Marja Versantvoort, heading the project, the key to the success has been flexibility:
“Many instructors feel that putting together their own learning materials is a part of the teaching profession. They want to deal with the material in their own unique way. And that is only possible if they start working with the learning material themselves, they think. So, the OER we provide can be seen as all kinds of little dishes, to which teachers can add their own sauce.”
Submitted by Jane Gifford