About Viten

Viten is a project at the Norwegian Centre for Science Education at the University of Oslo. The project develops online science learning units that are free to use. The target group is lower and upper secondary students.

What characterizes the learning units at viten.no?

In each learning unit, students explore a scientific topic such as genetic testing, climate change, or quantum physics.

All learning units are developed in close collaboration with relevant expert communities and through trials in classrooms.

Some of the learning units start with a main task that the students are to solve and/or a framing story that follows them throughout the learning unit. The scientific information is presented in different ways, for example through animations, subject texts, films, and figures. Along the way, students carry out various activities, multiple-choice tasks, drag-and-drop tasks, and writing tasks. If students log in, their answers are saved. Teachers can then give feedback on the written responses. The learning units are designed to promote inquiry-based work methods, critical thinking, use of basic skills, and formative assessment, which together are intended to support deep learning for the students.

What’s new?

A new version of the website was launched in August 2026.

The learning unit Fossils and evolution for lower secondary school was launched in May 2025.

What’s coming?

The learning unit Stars and Elements for Physics 1 will be launched in the end of 2026.

History

Viten was established by Doris Jorde and Alex Strømme in 1999 as a collaborative project between the University of Oslo (UiO) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). In the autumn of 2003, the Viten project was placed under the Norwegian Centre for Science Education. Through Viten, the Centre aims to highlight good examples of digital learning units in science.

Research

The research is related to students’ learning outcomes, teachers’ use of the resources, and the development of the learning units. See more on the Norwegian Centre for Science Education’s research and development pages.

Contact

Project leaders: Wenche Erlien and Øystein Sørborg.

Contact point (also for data processing agreements): post@viten.no