Step by unique step, the OpenEU alliance is taking shape, this week in the form of a job-shadowing visit to FernUni by Aitor Fernández Rodríguez, a journalist and PhD candidate at the National Distance University of Spain (UNED). UNED Media creates educational content that is broadcast on public radio throughout Spain; thus, Fernández Rodríguez had some inspiring perspectives to share about taking complex academic material, identifying the core message and relating it to a wider non-specialist albeit eager-to-learn audience.
The visit was a two-way exchange, and Fernández Rodríguez says, “It has been an incredibly fruitful week, and each item on the programme was well-chosen. It has been a great pleasure to meet my FernUni colleagues and to learn about their various roles.”
Communications and PR, the Immersive Collaboration Hub, the Centre for Digitalisation and IT (ZDI), the Centre for Learning and Innovation (ZLI), Quality & Evaluation, the University Library and the International Office all chipped in and did us proud.
No Zoom meetings could ever capture the lessons that can be garnered by experiencing first-hand how partners across the alliance go about their tasks. In job-shadowing, administrators and academics alike get to step directly into one another’s shoes—or at least professional environments—observing day‑to‑day practices, workflows and institutional cultures from the inside.
It’s a simple concept—learning by watching others do their work—yet within a transnational network like the OpenEU it helps to illustrate common ground or establish it where none previously existed. By experiencing how partner universities organise communication, support innovation or manage digital infrastructures, participants gain insights that are difficult to capture virtually.
Aitor, Prue and Nick at the International Office
Nick Quaintmere, a translator at the FernUni International Office comments, “I urge others to seize the opportunity to go on a staff exchange if the opportunity arises. It’s a nice change of pace, yet you’re learning all the time. Plus, they’re also fun.”
It turns out that in a previous incarnation, Nick spent three years working on his tan and his Spanish in Extremadura, the same autonomous community where our visitor Aitor Fernández Rodríguez has roots. The two had much to talk about, but whether it pertained to the OpenEU and the value of job-shadowing we will never know, for they were soon babbling away in an obscure Iberian dialect.
Another highlight of the week was a visit to Radio Hagen so that Fernández Rodríguez could meet his professional peers. We were warmly welcomed by Robin Hiermer a producer who also goes by Friedel Hiersenkötter, a comedic barfly well known to Hageners. However, he kept his alter ego in check and gave us a comprehensive overview of the contemporary role of local radio in a time when the media landscape is flooded with choice. With a listenership of 40 000 daily, Radio Hagen is a thriving pulse within the community, broadcasting directly for six hours a day, the rest of the time featuring content from the Oberhausen-based NRW radio. Robin and his colleague Ralf Schaepe were happy to link up with us, chit chat with our Spanish visitor and report on an aspect of the OpenEU. After all, Hagen’s official moniker is die Stadt der FernUniversität.
As the OpenEU alliance continues to grow, exchanges like this remind us that collaboration is not just a principle but a practice—one best strengthened step by unique step, and side by side.
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