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)

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)

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

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

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!