SOUVER@N – Digital Teaching and Learning
Guided by the motto "New Paths for Lower Saxony’s Universities," the Lower Saxony consortium project SOUVER@N – Digital Teaching and Learning in Lower Saxony commenced its work in August 2021.
On December 31, 2025, the project successfully concluded after receiving five million euros in funding from the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education.
The Mission
To promote sovereign digital teaching and learning – this was the shared mission of eight smaller and medium-sized universities in Lower Saxony and the ELAN e.V., as they set out to strengthen digitalization in higher education. The project was driven by the growing use of digital teaching and learning technologies in universities, alongside increasing demands for technical implementation, didactic quality, and reliable support services. The goal was to respond swiftly, agilely, and flexibly to the major challenges of digital and hybrid teaching by pooling expertise. The focus was on building comprehensive technical, didactic, and legal knowledge as the foundation for sovereign digital teaching and learning.
In this context, digital sovereignty meant three key aspects:
Sovereign, i.e., competent and learning-goal-oriented use of digital tools by teachers and students (Digital Literacy)
Professional development of high-quality, digitally enhanced teaching and learning concepts and content
Strengthened digital sovereignty of universities as institutions (secure IT infrastructure, open-source services, and digital frameworks)
Development Fields and Work Packages
SOUVER@N addressed the resulting opportunities and challenges across three interconnected development fields: IT Infrastructure, Services, and Content / OER (Open Educational Resources).
Based on these fields, four work packages implemented concrete measures. These were framed by three cross-cutting teams that conducted regular quality conferences, organized diverse exchange formats, and ensured smooth project communication.
Work Package 1: Agile Innovation Network
Work Package 2: Shared Teaching and Learning Materials
Work Package 3: Clarification of the Legal Framework
Work Package 4: IT Infrastructure
What Was Achieved?
Cross-institutional teams jointly developed innovative, future-oriented concepts and sustainable solutions to improve and simplify digital processes in higher education across campuses. The resulting portfolio of products is highly diverse.
In the field of didactics, numerous freely available resources are now available, including: Good practice examples, Practical tips, Teaching and learning ideas, Modular teaching and learning components. These materials support the design of digital or digitally enhanced university teaching. Academic staff and support personnel from service units can greatly benefit from sharing existing materials as OER and supporting each other. As a result, Open Educational Resources (OER) played a central role in the consortium project. In the OER materials section, you’ll find a wide range of resources for reuse, adaptation, and further development, along with guides, legal information, and helpful explanatory videos on OER creation.
The Digital Tools category provides an overview of established digital tools for use in higher education, including guidance on potential application scenarios and valuable support in selecting appropriate tools for digital or digitally supported teaching.
Additionally, this section includes ideas for improved cross-institutional collaboration in the development and further enhancement of digital tools.
The Legal Framework category informs about legal challenges arising from the digitalization of higher education, affecting both staff and students. A broad range of topics relevant to digital teaching and learning are addressed.
With the goal of offering academic staff, students, and support personnel across institutions added value through cross-campus formats, measures, and services, SOUVER@N developed and tested a wide variety of networking activities. All offerings, initiatives, and outcomes are compiled in the Networks & Continuing Education section.
Lastly, we invite you to explore our project’s own podcast series: "Ideas from Lower Saxony – SOUVER@N in Digital Teaching." In these episodes, we discuss developments, proven practices, and positive experiences in the field of digital education.
What comes next?
One of the most sustainable insights from SOUVER@N is that cooperation and shared responsibility across institutional boundaries are not only possible but highly effective.
Many of the developed products and outcomes are being adopted and further developed by follow-up projects. Coordination and handover activities—such as those with the consortium project "Digital Teaching Hub Lower Saxony" (DLHN)—have already been completed. A video produced in summer 2025 provides an overview of the planned continued use of the products developed within SOUVER@N.
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Thank You!The SOUVER@N consortium project enabled the development and testing of cross-institutional solutions to central challenges in digital teaching. By pooling existing expertise and establishing sustainable structures, all participating universities benefited significantly.
We extend our heartfelt thanks to all partners and contributors who made the success and realization of this project possible. Together, we have made a valuable contribution to strengthening digital sovereignty in Lower Saxony’s higher education landscape.
