V. Protonotarios, A. Katrakilis, G. Stoitsis, Y. Psochios, E. Chiodo, P. Aguado, C. Armutlieva

SPDECE-2012. Multidisciplinary symposium on the design and evaluation of digital content for education

Alicante, Spain, 14/6/2012

networks that aim to promote co-operation between European Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) of Europe & in specific thematic areas

involve all stakeholders, such as academics, students, professionals, practitioners etc.

focus on the improvement of the quality of teaching in higher education

networks focus on aspects like field mapping, quality assurance, cooperation and promotion of synergies between teaching and research

Funded by the Erasmus programme of the Lifelong Learning Programme of EC.

Innovation in the Teaching of Sustainable Development in Life Sciences in Europe◦ Agriculture, Biology, Environment, Ecology, Health

etc.

Consortium consists of 40 institutions coming from 31 countries with expertise in various fields of SD

36-months project: Oct 2010 – Sept 2013

To bring together stakeholders from Europe that either

◦have already introduced SD courses and programs in their curricula and wish to transfer their knowledge to the other partners of the network, or

◦wish to introduce the concept of SD in the curricula of their institutions.

To identify the existing situation of teaching SD in the HEIs around Europe◦develop a State of the Art report,

summarizing this information.

To identify the needs of HEIs regarding the integration of Sustainable Development courses/programs based on the report.

Adapt existing tools and materials and to develop new ones in order to meet the needs identified.

To develop a Compendium of Good Practices, which will include examples of Good Practices in the Teaching of SD, in order for them to be used as a basis for a model curriculum.

To exploit ICT tools in order to achieve the maximum penetration in the groups of stakeholders who will benefit from the project’s outcomes.

To ensure the application of the project’s outcomes through a series of professionalization events ◦ involve professional organizations, private companies

and related stakeholders, working in the field of SD. To ensure the sustainability of the project’s

outcomes through the collaboration with related initiatives, projects & networks.

1. Lack of a harmonized SD-related curriculum among different HEIs

2. Lack of basic information about SD among students

3. Weak bonds between academic and professional approach of SD topics

4. Dispersion of SD-related courses between different departments (due to multidisciplinary approach)

Identification of the current status of teaching sustainable development topics in the European HEIs of the in the field of SD at National level by sectors:

◦ Higher Education ◦ political bodies, ◦ enterprises, ◦ NGOs

1. Consortium members provided feedback through a short paper / report for each country, including

◦ SD-related Good practices followed at national level (e.g. conservation of resources) as well as possible future actions.

◦ SD-related national policies (e.g. legislation), ◦ HEIs/Universities/Research policies related to SD

(e.g. funding options) ◦ HEIs involved in the teaching of SD (including

courses, programs, activities etc.),

2. A survey was deployed on the same theme and promoted by consortium members to all stakeholders in the same country

◦ Collection of additional feedback per country

Based on:

1. State of the Art feedback (survey/questionnaires)

2. Submission of Good Practices by consortium members

Classification of Good Practices:

1. Policies: Good Practices that concern the creation of the institutional framework for HESD at National or Regional Authorities level

2. Institutional activities: Good Practices that concern the management and other non teaching activities of the Higher Education institutions directed to SD

3. Teaching: Good Practices concerning “formal learning”, i.e. “learning that occurs in an organised and structured context and follows a particular structured design

4. Practical experiences: Good Practices concerning:◦ “non-formal” (planned activities that are not explicitly designated as formal

learning, but which contain an important learning element) and ◦ “informal” or experiential learning (learning about SD as a result of daily life

activities)

Combination of data collected by ◦ the Compendium of Good Practices and ◦ additional outcomes coming from work related to

evaluation of public policies

Leads to:• Creation of a diagnostic grid for HEIs outside

the ISLE network to evaluate teaching programmes;

• Presentation of exchange curricula;• Definition of guidelines for the teaching of

sustainable development;• Development and award of a label of quality

MOLE (Multimedia Open Learning Environment)◦ initially developed by the Laboratory of Distributed Multimedia

Information Systems and Applications (TUC/MUSIC) of the Technical University of Crete

◦ adopted & adapted to meet the specific needs of the ISLE

The platform is aimed to be used for ◦ creating and delivering online courses in a defined curriculum, ◦ uploading presentations and supporting material for each

course,◦ communicating with the students etc.

It supports a wide variety of functions such as ◦ real-time delivery of presentations, ◦ user forums, ◦ chat rooms, ◦ video conference and instant messages for communication

between the members

After all Good Practices have been completed, they will ◦ be uploaded, organized and published through

the ISLE MOLE portal◦ supported with additional related material◦ Be made available to all stakeholders (through an

OAI-PMH target for harvesting)

The ISLE network is an ongoing project, aiming to support the teaching of SD topics in HEIs all over Europe

So far, results have been encouraging but still there is much to do.

Development of the “Good Practices” Compendium is expected to benefit a large number of HEIs.

email: islenetwork@gmail.com Web: www.isle-project.eu Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/islenetwork Twitter: @ISLENetwork Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/islenetwork/sets YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/islenetwork Linkedin: http://goo.gl/4iQGT

Thank you for your attention!