Presentation titled "Innovation in the Teaching of Sustainable Development in Europe: The Case of ISLE Erasmus Network". SPDECE 2012 Symposium, Alicante, Spain, 14/6/2012 (http://transducens.dlsi.ua.es/congress/spdece2012)
Presentation of the ISLE Network @ the SPDECE 2012 Symposium
1. SPDECE-2012. Multidisciplinary symposium on the design and evaluation of
digital content for education
V. Protonotarios, A. Katrakilis, G. Stoitsis,
Y. Psochios, E. Chiodo, P. Aguado, C. Armutlieva
Alicante, Spain, 14/6/2012
2. 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
3. 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.
4. 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
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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)
10.
11. 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
12. 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.),
1. 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
13. Based on:
1. State of the Art feedback
(survey/questionnaires)
2. Submission of Good Practices by consortium
members
14. 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)
15. 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
16.
17. 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
18.
19. 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)
20. 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.
21. 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!