January 28, 2014, by Helen Whitehead

Greening the Academy through E-learning

Sarah Speight writes: Nottingham’s first foray into the world of MOOCs, ‘Sustainability, Society and You’ foregrounds three elements of the university’s teaching and learning strategy. The first is Sustainability itself – Nottingham is committed to integrating sustainability values and knowledge into the experience of its own students and staff. We do this via our courses, our research, and via the numerous initiatives and projects that consistently enhance the ‘green credentials’ of our campuses.

The second element is online learning. We are committed to exploring the potential of this, both in standalone courses, and as a means of enhancing face to face teaching. Prior to running the MOOC, we ran a ‘Nottingham Open Online Course’ on Sustainability for our students and staff in the UK, China and Malaysia. This has provided deeper insights into how we learn across timezones and contexts.

The third element is our commitment to knowledge sharing and transfer. We have been active in the world of ‘Open Educational Resources’ since 2007 and it was an easy decision to licence ‘Sustainability, Society and You’ in a way that would enable others to make best long-term use of its rich materials (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/).

We are bringing these three elements together in a seminar on March 5^th at the University Park campus in Nottingham. Supported by the HEA, we will share the related learning arising from our NOOC/MOOC and OER experiences so far. We will be looking at pedagogy and practice, evaluation evidence, and the challenge of developing and delivering large-scale online courses.  The seminar is free but places are limited. It is aimed at academics and others developing course designs including sustainability. To book your place, please visit:

Online and open: modelling sustainability and ‘greening the academy’ through E-learning

Wednesday 5th March, Nottingham

http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/events/detail/2014/Seminars/Themes/GEN967_nottingham

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