Title: Enhancing online climate change education: distance and conventional university collaboration for a Master's curriculum

Authors: Dina Abbott

Addresses: Faculty of Education, Health and Sciences, University of Derby, Kedleston Road, Derby DE22 1GB, UK

Abstract: This paper analyses the different ways in which both distance and conventional universities engage with learning and teaching. It argues that rather than seeing their roles as institutionally compartmentalised, there is much benefit in delivering online education through an institutional collaboration which develops synergies with a potential to contribute to citizen and professional practitioner empowerment, in this case, for debates about climate change. The example the paper draws on is that of a European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (Erasmus) project 'The Lived experience of climate change (LECH-e): interdisciplinary e-module development and virtual mobility'. The project brings together five distance and three conventional universities across six EU countries, plus the European Association of Distance Teaching Universities (EADTU), to create a Master's curriculum in the area of climate change. It argues that universities across Europe have complementary strengths, both in terms of their disciplinary expertise and the ways in which they engage with students. Understanding the complex, real-world challenge of climate change requires a holistic approach which draws on these complementary strengths through collaborative work.

Keywords: conventional universities; distance learning; Masters courses; climate change education; university collaboration; higher education; lived experience; multidisciplinary curriculum; interdisciplinarity.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2012.046055

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2012 Vol.6 No.1, pp.78 - 89

Published online: 30 Oct 2014 *

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