Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms

This paper explores the experiences of three academic members of the University of Nottingham Open Online Course (NOOC) and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) team, comprising an engineer (tutor), an engineering education specialist (facilitator) and a specialist in higher education pedagogy (conveno...

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Main Authors: Sivapalan, Subarna, Clifford, Michael J., Speight, Sarah
Format: Article
Published: Taylor & Francis 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41851/
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author Sivapalan, Subarna
Clifford, Michael J.
Speight, Sarah
author_facet Sivapalan, Subarna
Clifford, Michael J.
Speight, Sarah
author_sort Sivapalan, Subarna
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper explores the experiences of three academic members of the University of Nottingham Open Online Course (NOOC) and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) team, comprising an engineer (tutor), an engineering education specialist (facilitator) and a specialist in higher education pedagogy (convenor). The paper explores notions of what makes for effective teaching of sustainability within a multidisciplinary online context, and the extent to which this experience has impacted upon personal behaviours and attitudes to sustainability, from an Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) perspective. Team members’ experiences are further supported by findings from student and learner evaluations of the NOOC and MOOC courses. Key findings of the research include (a) Interdisciplinarity is a strength of the course (b) The course can lead to genuine change in the understanding of sustainability; (c) Teaching sustainability online is different; (d) Involvement in the course impacts upon teaching practices; (e) Cultural and disciplinary diversity within both the course team and the student cohort is a major contributor to the overall sustainable development learning experience in the NOOC/MOOC. It is hoped that the findings of the study will pave the way for engineering and non-engineering educators to explore the potential of integrating sustainability within the modules they teach, via online teaching and learning means.
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spelling nottingham-418512020-05-04T18:40:56Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41851/ Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms Sivapalan, Subarna Clifford, Michael J. Speight, Sarah This paper explores the experiences of three academic members of the University of Nottingham Open Online Course (NOOC) and Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) team, comprising an engineer (tutor), an engineering education specialist (facilitator) and a specialist in higher education pedagogy (convenor). The paper explores notions of what makes for effective teaching of sustainability within a multidisciplinary online context, and the extent to which this experience has impacted upon personal behaviours and attitudes to sustainability, from an Engineering Education for Sustainable Development (EESD) perspective. Team members’ experiences are further supported by findings from student and learner evaluations of the NOOC and MOOC courses. Key findings of the research include (a) Interdisciplinarity is a strength of the course (b) The course can lead to genuine change in the understanding of sustainability; (c) Teaching sustainability online is different; (d) Involvement in the course impacts upon teaching practices; (e) Cultural and disciplinary diversity within both the course team and the student cohort is a major contributor to the overall sustainable development learning experience in the NOOC/MOOC. It is hoped that the findings of the study will pave the way for engineering and non-engineering educators to explore the potential of integrating sustainability within the modules they teach, via online teaching and learning means. Taylor & Francis 2017-04-03 Article PeerReviewed Sivapalan, Subarna, Clifford, Michael J. and Speight, Sarah (2017) Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education . pp. 1-13. ISSN 2205-4952 Engineering education for sustainable development (EESD) interdisciplinarity teaching and learning sustainability online MOOCs higher education for sustainability in the United Kingdom http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/22054952.2017.1307592 doi:10.1080/22054952.2017.1307592 doi:10.1080/22054952.2017.1307592
spellingShingle Engineering education for sustainable development (EESD)
interdisciplinarity
teaching and learning sustainability online
MOOCs
higher education for sustainability in the United Kingdom
Sivapalan, Subarna
Clifford, Michael J.
Speight, Sarah
Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title_full Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title_fullStr Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title_full_unstemmed Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title_short Engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
title_sort engineering education for sustainable development: using online learning to support the new paradigms
topic Engineering education for sustainable development (EESD)
interdisciplinarity
teaching and learning sustainability online
MOOCs
higher education for sustainability in the United Kingdom
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41851/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41851/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/41851/