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Paper published: Sustainable Approaches for Accelerated Learning

Abstract
Sustainable education does not yet have a widely accepted definition in the literature. In this work, we start from the Sustainable Development Goal of Quality Education for All (SDG4) and interpret sustainable education as increasing the quality of learning whilst conserving the resources required to produce and deliver it. From this interpretation, we argue that one path towards realising sustainable education is through the identification of teaching practices that satisfy these conditions of increased quality whilst conserving resources. We present an overview of four case studies, where the conditions for sustainable education are demonstrated through the effective use of people, processes and technologies. Each case represents an intervention that was made to improve the quality of education within an intensive three-month project, which trained immigrants to be employable in the IT industry as junior software developers. Whilst the interventions are independent and unique, they are connected by the themes of quality improvement and resource conservation. In isolation, each specific case produced improvements for both teachers and students; however, it is by combining such approaches that we can start to realise the path towards sustainable education that will help lead to a better quality of education for all. The findings of this work suggest that quality education does not come at the cost of increased resource demands; rather, approaches exist that can be considered to satisfy the conditions for sustainable education.

Open access at

https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability/special_issues/sustainable_technology_enhanced_education

Gender neutrality improved completion rate for all

picture of the first author
Maria Svedin

picture of second author
Olle Bälter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This study investigated if we could improve retention by redesigning an online programming course from a gender perspective, while maintaining the focus on preferable and sustainable learning approaches. Three principles for course material design were identified; gender neutral and nonbiased messagesemphasize the interdisciplinary approach and link to everyday examples. The probability to complete the course increased from 77% to 84% for all students. No changes were made to the assessments.

Our interpretation is that the refurbished course material made more students feel included which increased their motivation to finish.

In Swedish

Den här studien har redan beskrivits på flera ställen på svenska både som text och i pod-format.