The Center for Open Education Research, established in 2018 at the University of Oldenburg, builds upon research projects and activities conducted since 2010 by the research group headed by Prof. Dr. Olaf Zawacki-Richter in the areas of open education, educational technology, lifelong learning, and international education. COER brings together leading scholars and researchers from around the world, in order to increase collaborative and interdisciplinary research activities, and further scholarship in educational research.

The goals of the research center include, but are not limited to:

• increasing and supporting collaborative and interdisciplinary research activities;

• obtaining increased external grant funding;

• performing quality, cutting-edge international research and scholarship;

• addressing problems recognized as having important societal impact;

• creating an intellectually stimulating environment for internal and external fellows;

• attracting world-class research faculty and scientists, and the highest quality graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; and

• offering an international, interdisciplinary Master's program to translate research and scholarship into teaching, knowledge transfer, and practice.

Emphasis is placed on international research projects in the context of open education on the level of global educational systems (macro level research), on the level of educational institutions (meso level research) and on aspects related to individual learning and teaching (micro level research)[1]. Three broad lines of research are followed in the fields of:

• educational technology & learning design

• open and distance learning

• international education