Digital Sustainable Skills and Training in Education Partnership

DIGI-Step improved the course content and digital skills of higher education teachers in delivering sustainable development courses. It addressed the deficits in participation in sustainable development studies from students across a range of disciplines, whilst also strengthening and enhancing institutional capabilities, capacities and expertise in providing online and distance learning in a manner that is comparable to traditional, face-to-face studies. We created an online course named Sustainable Development & Entrepreneur Approach to support higher education institutions and students who wish to enrich their existing studies with sustainable development teaching components which may not usually be offered as part of their existing programme of studies.

PR1: Developed the Sustainable Development & Entrepreneur Approach e-learning course components using innovative participatory tools and digital pedagogies to provide an online learning experience that fosters a collaborative and participatory experience and opens the possibility (through ECTS accreditation) of students integrating sustainable development components into their existing course of study PR2: Designed editable training materials in Word, PDF, and SCORM format ready to be uploaded to any learning management system, which supports faculty staff to deliver online courses and utilise the e-learning tools to provide an engaging, rounded, participative learning experience for students PR3: Produced the Handbook for Digital Course Implementation which provides a blueprint for others looking to replicate elements of the Training Programme and course development which enables the widening training of faculty staff for creation and delivery of online courses and digitalization of existing courses DIGI-Step also wanted to created an evaluation and feedback framework and implemented a dissemination strategy that raises awareness on the importance of offering sustainable development teaching to a range of student disciplines.

The Technical University of Dresden, the University of Lodz, the West University of Timișoara and the South East European Research Centre took part in the development of the course content, the creation of e-learning materials, and the production of the handbook. Our technical partner and digital training specialist ISQe was a crucial part of digitising the course materials. DIGI-Step consisted of 3 project results (PR), 3 work packages (WP), a training school and 4 multiplier events. The consortium also collaborated on a conference presentation and an academic paper entitled “Making e-learning on sustainability serviceable using design thinking concept”. PR1: Sustainable Development Components for Digitalisation PR2: E-Learning Course Development PR3: Handbook for Digital Course Implementation WP1: Project Management WP2: Quality Assurance and Evaluation WP3: Dissemination A 3-day staff training school in Dresden 4 dissemination events in Germany, Poland, Romania and Greece 1 conference presentation and 1 academic paper submitted on SSRN

Beyond academic beneficiaries directly engaged in the project, DIGI-Step is of benefit to organisations interested in CSR and sustainability, as well as Higher Education teachers and professional trainers who can benefit through engagement with the digitalization and e-learning components of the course. We delivered three intellectual outputs: - The Sustainable Development & Entrepreneur Approach e-learning course using innovative participatory tools and digital pedagogies to provide an online learning experience that fosters a collaborative and participatory experience and opens the possibility (through ECTS accreditation) of students integrating sustainable development components into their existing course of study - Training materials in Word, PDF, and SCORM format ready to be uploaded to any learning management system, which supports faculty staff to deliver online courses and utilize the e-learning tools to provide an engaging, rounded, participative learning experience for students - The Handbook for Digital Course Implementation which provides a blueprint for others looking to replicate elements of the Training Programme and course development which enables the widening training of faculty staff for creation and delivery of online courses and digitalization of existing courses