Images of the Future in a Participatory Online Course – Empowering Student-Driven Projects for Higher Education Sustainability Transformation

Abstract

To empower student-driven projects for sustainability transformation in higher education structures, the project ‘Students create sustainable universities in Northrhine-Westphalia’ by German NGO netzwerk n e. V. has developed an innovative digital program ( https://kurs.netzwerk-n.org/ ) using transdisciplinary and transformative learning elements in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). Core objective of the 8-week massive open online course is to encourage and connect student promoters for sustainable university transformation. Its transdisciplinary learning methods encourage creation and reflexive discourse about alternative images of the future of sustainable institutions, processes and education, as well as human-nature-interaction and more-than-human futures. The integrated digital future workshop based on the participatory workshop method explores a novel approach to assess images of the future individually and collectively in digital space. This paper presents the conceptual background and methodological premises used for design and implementation of the online course as innovative method for student project development. Participants’ structured critique, utopia envisioning and specific project development provide valuable insights into the use of images of the future for higher education sustainability discourse and transformative action in student-driven sustainability projects.

Will AI Become a Threat to Higher Education Sustainability? A Study of Students’ Views

“…In Germany (L. Weh and L. Kinne [6]), students implemented the student project "Students create sustainable universities in North Rhine-Westphalia" as part of an open and massive online course. The transdisciplinary teaching methods that organize the course "encourage creativity and reflective discourse about alternative images of the future of sustainable institutions, processes and education" [6]. Indeed, teachers have the opportunity and desire to implement educational projects on sustainable development and conduct research with students on the sustainability of HE institutions [8].…”

“…Despite the vast geography and wide range of research areas, the authors of scientific works still need to include the issues of threats and security to the sustainability of higher education [6,8,[10][11][12][13]15,19]. The authors of the works mentioned above describe educational programs, pedagogical approaches and methods, course projects, and events.…”

“…Sustainability of universities and "green" universities [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]; • Curriculums for students who form "sustainable" thinking [6,[11][12][13][14][15]]; • The impact of higher education on sustainability [4,7,[11][12][13][16][17][18][19][20].…”

“…These three areas have points of intersection in papers [4,6,7,[11][12][13]. Researchers J. Michel, A. Killion, and E. Smith highlight that higher education for sustainable development is underrepresented in the media [21].…”