Educating towards the Sustainable Development Goals

How can online teaching be harnessed to help drive progress towards achieving the 17 SDGs?

Advice on embedding the sustainable development goals into your online teaching

The UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals set out to address the greatest challenges facing humanity. Universities, as centres of teaching and research, are uniquely placed to lead the charge in achieving the goals, and the move to more online education has created new opportunities to further this work. These resources explore ways that universities and academics can leverage educational technology to drive progress towards the SDGs.

Using tech to connect refugees with pathways to higher education: an emerging case study

Kate Symons and Georgia Cole share key lessons from a pilot project aiming to support refugees and learners from disadvantaged communities in Uganda into higher education

Kate Symons, Georgia Cole, Foundations for All team

The University of Edinburgh, Foundations for All

Using digital education to improve teaching of sustainability

How to teach through the lens of the Sustainable Development Goals

Terry Sunderland offers insight on how the Sustainable Development Goals can provide a useful framework to guide students’ learning across multiple disciplines

Terry Sunderland

University of British Columbia

How to ensure online education is a clear win for the SDGs

Online teaching offers many opportunities to drive education and awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals. Ellen Touchstone explains how

Ellen Touchstone

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Advice on using online tools to teach students about sustainability

We are not alone: using participatory group activities to engage students in sustainability

Natalie Kopytko and Susannah Sallu detail how participatory activities used for stakeholder engagement can help motivate students to learn about sustainability online

Natalie Kopytko, Susannah Sallu

University of Leeds

Using digital technology to assist the spread of knowledge and ideas about the SDGs

Gisela Loehlein on how digital communications can assist in spreading knowledge and awareness of the Sustainable Development Goals, through virtual global events and building connections between experts and institutions all over the world

Gisela Loehlein

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Supporting access to education for all

Promoting community and inclusivity to dispersed and diverse students through your online teaching

Promoting community and inclusiveness to diverse and dispersed students

Three psychology lecturers share insight into how to create inclusive learning communities and courses that work for dispersed and diverse students

Chiara Horlin, Emily Nordmann, Heather Cleland-Woods

University of Glasgow

Using the Jedi framework to drive the diversity agenda in online teaching

May the force be with you: driving diversity in online teaching

Pardis Mahdavi explains how academics can ensure they support and enhance diversity work in their online teaching through her Jedi – justice, equity, diversity and inclusion – framework

Pardis Mahdavi

Arizona State University

Designing online courses with accessibility and inclusivity in mind

Online alone is not the answer – how to design remote courses with accessibility and inclusivity in mind

Digital accessibility is crucial in online teaching, says Amy Low. Here, she outlines what universities need to consider when designing inclusive online courses

Amy Low

AbilityNet

How universities can take steps to reduce their own environmental footprint using educational technology

Greener assessment: transitioning to online marking

Universities should lead by example on sustainability issues, looking at what they can do to shrink their environmental impact. Here, Ling Xia and Yao Wu outline a project that could herald a major reduction in their institution’s paper consumption

Ling Angela Xia , Yao Wu

Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University

Using digital scholarship to enhance public engagement

Having been pushed to the sidelines of academia for too long, public engagement projects can take a central role in digital courses, furthering students’ learning and reaching wider audiences, explains Warren Stanislaus

Warren Stanislaus

Rikkyo University

Building global communities

Virtual exchange: enabling online group work that benefits all learners

Virtual exchange: supporting online collaboration to benefit all learners

Virtual exchanges enable group work between students in different locations, but studies show varied learning gains. Irina Rets and Bart Rienties use research to examine how instructors can manage virtual exchanges to ensure everyone benefits

Irina Rets, Bart Rienties

Lancaster University, The Open University

Advice on reaching remote students with limited access to learning technology

How to reach remote students with limited access to technology

Angela Owusu-Ansah of Ashesi University in Ghana explains how her institution has tackled this problem to ensure all students can access teaching online

Angela Owusu-Ansah

Ashesi University

Steps to running online masters courses that cater for international students

Developing online master’s courses for an international audience

Lauren Johnston-Smith describes steps to create a quality learning experience for students enrolled on online postgraduate courses from all over the world

Lauren Johnston-Smith

The University of Edinburgh

Wellbeing pedagogies to boost the student experience online

Supporting students with Covid-related anxiety when teaching online

Helping students manage their anxieties is good pedagogy as it helps them learn. Alexandra Dufresne shares her tips for making students feel supported in the online learning environment

Alexandra Dufresne

Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW)

Supporting academia’s well-being during and beyond Covid-19

With an unprecedented global mental health crisis and rising stress among university staff, six academics come together to propose how best to support faculty and new ways of working now and well beyond the pandemic

June Gruber, Lisa Miracchi, Sabrina Marques, Kirk Ambrose, Becca Ciancanelli, Paulo Boggio

University of Colorado Boulder, University of Pennsylvania, Western Connecticut State University, Mackenzie Presbyterian University