Rewarding Sustainability with Green Teaching Badges II

Brief Description


The project is aimed to continue developing the 2013 LTDF Green Teaching Badges (GTB) project, which is to use an online course to achieve the dual goals of promoting awareness of the environmental effects of higher education and maximizing the use of Blackboard tools in teaching. It rewards the academics for teaching sustainably with a series of green open badges, as well as a Certified Green Course (CGC) logo displayed with the related course title in Blackboard. The Achievement Toolkit embedded in Blackboard will be used to advance the process and criteria for participants to achieve a series of green badges.

As academics, we should have a role as critic and conscience of society and are uniquely positioned to generate greater awareness of sustainability and to implement sustainable practices. The greater use of non-printed online resources and online course components will potentially provide greater flexibility to students and opportunities for interaction and collaboration. There is strong evidence that AUT students are embracing online and mobile technologies, and this GTB project will support the LATENT strategy. Moreover, the program will assist in reducing the overall costs of teaching without compromising quality, and strengthen engagement with learning and maintaining high levels of satisfaction. It is also aligned with the AUT strategic plan 2012-2016 (5th theme, goal of sustainability) and SCMS 2013-2018 strategic plan (7th theme, goal of sustainability).

Team members, their areas and roles

  1. William Liu (project leader) – development of the online course structure, learning and teaching resources, assessment criteria and presenting findings.
  2. Stephen Thorpe (project co-leader) – assistance with the above development and advisor on the use of online-based learning.
  3. Mark Northover – academic advisor from the Centre for Learning and Teaching.
  4. Steve Lord – Blackboard support and advisor from the Centre for Learning and Teaching.
  5. Shen Zhang – Blackboard support and advisor from the Centre for Learning and Teaching.


Funding

Supported by a grant from AUT's Learning and Teaching Development Fund.  

Contact

Project leader – Dr William Liu william.liu@aut.ac.nz