The UK's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has funded a study by the Open University (OU) - the SusTEACH project – which has found that teaching models in higher education (HE) institutions are still not green enough. Institutions are urged to look beyond greening campus buildings and teaching about sustainability, to lower their carbon-based environmental impacts.
The project found that while there are some good, sustainability programmes in operation in HE institutions, there is more to be achieved by looking at how we teach and by embracing online methods and using ICTs. The study examined the role of ICTs in HE teaching models and their effect on carbon reduction.
The research project culminated in the design of the SusTEACH toolkit – a resource available online offering tools and resources for lecturers, academic designers and students to help transform behaviour and make institutions 'greener'.
The OU is already embracing the use of ICT and online learning worldwide through its existing teaching methods and new initiatives such as OU Anywhere and OpenLearn. It is reportedly leading the way by adopting some of the SusTEACH practices to achieve greater sustainability in teaching.
As well as adopting SusTEACH findings to look at the design and delivery of teaching and learning on its full qualification programmes, the OU is widening the net to allow students to utilise a 'carbon calculator'. The general public will be provided with access to a study unit on sustainable learning via the OU's OpenLearn website.
The study is said to represent the first time complex online HE teaching models have been compared with traditional face-to-face and distance teaching methods to test their environmental sustainability.
The first major quantitative study to assess the energy consumption and carbon impacts of traditional campus-based and distance higher education systems was the Factor 10 Visions study 'Towards Sustainable Higher Education' led by Robin Roy and Stephen Potter. It found that on average, the production and delivery of distance teaching consumed nearly 90 percent less energy and produced 85 percent fewer CO2 emissions than campus-based higher education courses and modules. Building on this study, the SusTEACH project assessed some 30 higher education courses and modules in 15 UK institutions where a range of teaching models were used, including face-to-face, fully online and a range of blended teaching methods.
The study – which was shortlisted for the Green Gown Awards for best practice in the HE sector - found that the growth of ICTs is enabling more innovation and has created more teaching models and approaches, but also raises the question of whether this is environmentally better or worse than traditional teaching methods. The findings support the sustainability credentials of online teaching and learning.
