Be The Change: Innovative Higher Education for Environmental Sustainability

The aim was to address the need for climate change education within the higher education (HE) sector. BTheChange identified gaps in educational methodologies around climate change: while scientific literacy is necessary and required, research showed that higher scientific knowledge alone does not necessarily increase climate awareness or provoke pro-environmental behaviour (Kahan et al., 2012). As such, we applied to address this need, by creating an engaging, adaptive, and interactive educational program. BTheChange aimed to encourage awareness, critical thinking, and environmental behaviour change among HE students by tailoring content and methodology to individual demographic characteristics. To do this, we have integrated video-based learning and analytics to match educational content with user characteristics, in a way to enhance engagement and interaction. Also, BTheChange addressed the need for educational innovations that move beyond steer information delivery, while encouraging transformation of behaviour through the implementation of educational activities. Our approach aligned with global priorities from leading international bodies like the UN and WHO, which stress the role of education in climate action.

The primary objective was to enhance awareness, deepen knowledge, and promote an environmentally friendly behaviour among HE students. Through the IEP, we aimed to provide HE students and by extension educators with innovative and effective methodologies to engage students alternatively and in a more interactive way with environmental and climate issues. In addition, the project aimed to generate teaching and learning practices and methodologies which are innovative by creating a customized educational content to meet the diverse and specific needs of HE students. By identifying effective video characteristics for climate education and developing a machine learning matching system to connect students with content that suits their preferences, learning styles, and specific characteristics, we have aimed to validate and introduce new teaching methods. This was aimed to be done with the advancement of digital education in alignment with environmental and sectoral priorities. Another objective of the project was the contribution to education to advance sustainability on the urgent issue of climate change, thus preparing students, educators, and institutional leaders to adopt and equip more sustainable attitudes and practices.

The project outputs are: Identification of key video characteristics that make climate change content both appealing and effective for social media users and university students. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202458504002, https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202343606009 Identification and testing of educational activities that successfully support knowledge acquisition and behaviour change for higher education students, and/or that promotes the enrichment of students’ beliefs about actions to mitigate climate change and their understanding of the complexity of socio-scientific issues related to climate change. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202458510001 Identification and testing of video presentation formats (e.g., monologue, dialogue, Q&A) in order to successfully support knowledge acquisition and behaviour change for higher education students. Development of an Interactive Educational Platform (IEP) powered by machine learning to match users with videos that correspond to their preferences. Pilot-tests of the platform in order to validate its functionality and effectiveness within our target audience. Production of nine educational videos focused on various aspects of the climate crisis, providing engaging content.