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At the end of the year, we completely revised and updated our international OER dossier. The OER movement can now look back on several years of activity. Many projects have now expired. But many new ones have also been created, building on the knowledge gained from older projects ("lessons learned"). Networks and repositories with OER material have emerged. Much literature has also been published on OER, including critical voices. You can find all of this in our new web dossier on international perspectives on OER. We hope you enjoy reading!

On the occasion of the 59th presidential election in the USA, we present a little insight into how the topic of education was negotiated in the election campaign. You will find the respective election programmes of the candidates Donald Trump (Republicans) and Joe Biden (Democrats) on education; also some articles that draw comparisons between Trump's and Biden's plans for the education in the US. We also offer you a few other sources that deal with the topic of education in the US election campaign in 2020.

A new webdossier has been published in our series "Inclusion in an international perspective". This time we take a look at inclusion in South America. The webdossier presents websites giving an overview & introductions into the topic, websites on the Political Frame, Networks & Organisations, Research on Inclusion, Literature & Journals, Events & Conferences, Inclusion in Latin America in other areas of society (other than the issue of disability)

Since the German Education Report 2014 was published, Education Worldwide has been gradually creating webdossiers on inclusion on all continents and in individual countries. The occasion was the focus topic "People with Disabilities" in the Education Report 2014. So far, the following webdossiers on inclusion have been published: in Europe, North, Central and South America, as well as Africa. Additionally, sections on inclusion can be found in the country dossiers of the following countries: Finland, Greece, Indonesia, Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, United Kingdom. They can all be found in the superordinate webdossier "Inclusion in an international perspective".

In autumn 2020, the European cultural channel ARTE  focusses on schools in different countries. There are both feature films and documentaries from and about the following countries: France, Belgium, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Canada, Singapore, Finland, Sweden, Germany, Afghanistan, Nepal. The reason for this focus is, among other things, that school - and digitisation - has become an important and much-discussed topic of conversation around the world in times of Corona / Covid-19. Unfortunately, the films and documentaries in the ARTE media library are only available online for a relatively short time (approx. until mid-November) - the topic of "School in times of Corona" will certainly be with us for a longer time. Unfortunately, there is no special page for the focus theme in English. But some of the films and documentaries have English subtitles and are available on the website as such. For our international users, we therefore linked to a search result for the keyword "school" in the English ARTE media library.

The "Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research" (SIETAR Europa) has launched a Learning Series on Anti-Racism starting on 1st July 2020. The first event was a panel discussion on "Anti-Racism for Interculturalists" Following this discussion, there will be two presentations on "Whiteness, Fragility and the Culture of niceness" and "Taking Another Look in the Rear-View Mirror". You can either take part virtually in the live event via Zoom or watch the series later on via youtube.

The new Unesco World Education Report was presented on 23 June 2020. The focus this time is on inclusion in education. The report has been published since 2002. Until 2015 it was known as the "Education for All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report". Since 2016 its name has changed to "Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report". It accompanies and documents the implementation of the goals set by Unesco for certain periods: the Millennium Development Goals from 2000-2015; and from 2016 onwards, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The full report is available in 6 languages including English. Summaries are available in some more languages. You will also find an easy-to-read version.

The Planipolis portal collects and links special regulations and similar documents from all over the world that were necessary in connection with the coronavirus pandemic in the field of education. This mainly concerns day-care center and school closures, but also other measures, e.g. budget, digital learning. Planipolis is a portal run by Unesco.

The European Schoolnet offers links to resources related to digital education and teaching. You will find strategies for online teaching, platforms for sharing e-resources, the European Schoolnet Academy Blog, webinars and much more. The compilation of links originated in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, in which school closings around the world are forcing students to teach and learn digitally from home.

The organisation "Inclusion in Europe" explains the Coronavirus in easy language.

The Coronavirus spreads quickly. The Coronavirus is very contagious.

The organisation "Inclusion in Europe"  explains how you should behave. The organisation gives an easy explanation in many languages. For example in English, Italian, Spanish or French.

The links to the easy explanation are below the picture.

The German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) has made available online all of its country studies, updates and specialist articles from the International Handbook of Vocational Education and Training (IHBB). New studies had already been freely accessible online since 2014 (Open Access). Meanwhile, all older studies since their first publication in 1995 have also been digitized and are now available online.

The chapters of the respective volumes have changed slightly over the years, but all in all provide a similar and comparable overview of the VET systems of different countries worldwide.

The most recent issues include the following chapters:
1. Country specific context
2. Typical VET trajectories or training courses
3. An overview of the education system
4. Vocational education and training
5. Important framework conditions and determinants of VET

The country studies are only avalable in German - with one exception made so far for the country study on India, which is available in German and English.

The 10th Learning Analytics Conference (LAK20) took place from March 25-27, 2020. Due to the current corona pandemic, the anniversary edition took place entirely online for the first time in LAK history. It was organised by our colleagues in the "Educational Technology" department of the DIPF. 

On this occasion, we want to take a look at this still relatively new field of activity in educational research. Our dossier deals with the application of Learning Analytics (LA) in schools and Higher Education in Germany (in German) as well as with the international development of LA (Engl+Ger).

In our dossier you will find definitions, basics, literature tips, and further information on research projects, specialist societies, application areas, journals, conferences as well as critical thoughts related to the field of "Learning Analytics".

The coronavirus epidemic of 2020 has an impact on education worldwide, as Unesco reports.

Meanwhile, 850 million students (as of March 18th, 2020) cannot go to school due to school closures due to the corona virus. On its website, Unesco provides a world map showing in which countries schools are closed either nationwide or at a regional level.

In order to remedy this situation, Unesco recommends the use of distance learning and digital learning programmes and platforms. For this purpose, an extra page with lists of e-learning platforms, apps and more is provided.

The links to the Unesco pages can be found here:

Super Tuesday is the colloquial appellation for a specific Tuesday in March in the United States on which presidential primaries are held in most states. Scoring well on Super Tuesday increases a candidate's chances of later being nominated as a presidential candidate by their party.

In principle, the parties and the states can set their election dates independently. In practice, however, Democrats and Republicans as well as many states generally vote on the same day. This is especially the case on Super Tuesday. However, it is not always the same states that hold their elections on Super Tuesday. As of March 2020, these are: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, and Virginia.

Please follow the two links provided here to find out what the candidates of the different parties have to say about education:

As part of the “Initiative to Support, Promote and Integrate Researchers at Risk in Europe -  InSPIREurope ” , The European University Association (EUA) is conducting two surveys.

One survey addresses higher education and research institutions and the practices and challenges  they face when hosting researchers at risk in Europe.

The other survey addresses researchers at risk and their awareness of European and national research funding and other support mechanisms, and the challenges they meet in accessing them. 

InSPIREurope is a project by the "Scholars at Risk" network.

"Finland has abolished subject teaching!" - This claim has often been made by the media worldwide since about 2015. Is this really true? We checked this for you.