2009, Volume 12, Issue 3
EDITORIAL
E-Learning is Green Learning
Enhanced distance learning opportunities can help sustainability efforts over the short and long term.
The schism between globalization and sustainable growth continues to widen. One strategy for helping to ameliorate this chasm is the delivery of "green-based" higher education. Universities can contribute to developing long-term, balanced solutions to globalization by incorporating sustainability as an integral part of the curriculum.[1]
Photo: Lightkeeper
Institutions of higher learning are significant consumers of both direct and indirect energy and natural resources. Sustainable growth solutions for two indirect areas of energy consumption—the inefficient use of fossil fuel in commuting to and from campus and the considerable resources and energy associated with the production and delivery of print books—can be found under the rubric of e-learning.
Campus Sustainability Efforts Gaining Traction
Universities have begun to address the sustainability challenge with the founding of the American College & University Presidents Climate Committee (ACUPCC) and the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). The mission of AASHE is to advance the efforts of the entire campus sustainability community by uniting diverse initiatives and connecting practitioners to resources and professional development opportunities.
Student commuting, in particular, is an issue that both organizations are paying increased attention. The dramatic rise in gasoline prices in 2008 helped bring this energy-consuming and polluting activity to the forefront of the sustainability discussion.
Proponents of green-based education have also noted that the print book industry emits over 12.4 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year, or approximately 8.85 pounds of carbon for the average book, with most of the impact connected to forest carbon loss.[4] Electronic books (e-books) represent an alternative to the traditional print book (p-book), and can be easily distributed via distance learning networks, which also helps in conserving energy otherwise lost through product distribution.
Conclusion
As the debate on what constitutes sustainable growth continues, so too does the demand for students who can compete in the expanding global marketplace. One approach that universities, in general, and business schools, in particular, are employing to meet this rapidly rising demand is increased Internet use. Here, the traditional method of knowledge transfer—with its constraints of fixed location, time, and learning pace—is being replaced with more user-friendly, customized, Internet-based learning environments.
Providing enhanced, distance-learning educational opportunities that include a focus on sustainability throughout the business curriculum represents a powerful approach to helping achieve sustainable growth in a globalized economy. In addition, many students who have been exposed to web-supported learning tend to favor this delivery method over the traditional classroom-centric model. Along these lines, one promising approach involves blended learning, which combines traditional classroom with Internet-based content delivery. The overarching goal of the blended paradigm is to improve learning outcomes, enhance resource sustainability, and provide increased convenience.
The search for balance between globalization and sustainable growth is picking up speed, and for globalization to be "win-win" in the long run, it must be based on both ecological and human sustainability.[5] Higher educational institutions have a constructive role to play in this regard. Universities can serve as a vehicle for shaping globalization plans around sustainability in the short and long term by educating the next generation of leaders through enhanced e-learning that includes strong sustainability components within the curricula.
[1] Richard Cooper, "Global Imbalances: Globalization, Demography, and Sustainability," The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22, i3 (2008): 93.
[2] Robert Forrant, and Jean Pyle, "Globalization, Universities, and Sustainable Human Development," Development, 45, i3 (2002): 102.
[3] Martin Haigh, "Internationalisation, Planetary Citizenship, and Higher Education, Inc." Compare, 38, i4 (2008): 427.
[4] Robert Wharton and Albert Greco, Eds., Book Industry Trends, (Book Industry Study Group, 2008).
[5] Phil Clegg, "Creativity and Critical Thinking in the Globalised University," Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 45, i3 (2008): 219.
Comments (4)
I would be interested in learning about Pepperdine's plans to broaden their learning delivery platforms to include distance or "e-learning"... ...Scott 7/23/2009 3:43:04 PM
Hi Scott,
Thanks for your comment and interest in what we're doing here at the Graziadio School with regards to e-learning and sustainability. In addition to enhancing all our courses, student teamwork and faculty research with e-learning technologies, we are currently forging a blended learning initiative that not only addresses energy consumption issues, but also optimizes our pedagogical models that enhance students' learning experience and scheduling flexibility. Currently, we have over a dozen faculty in nine out of ten disciplines offering at least one course in a blended learning format. This will expand within the next few years as we build new models for each program we offer within the school.
So what exactly is blended learning you may ask? Good question. Some institutions prefer the term 'hybrid', but here at the Graziadio School we are focusing on a custom blend of modalities in which students engage with their professors, classmates, course material, invited industry experts, and more. Our blended model includes four distinct modalities:
1) Face-to-Face: as we traditionally do but with a particular emphasis on face-to-face interactions, discussions, and collaborative activities.
2) Multi-Campus: using high definition video-conferencing enabling students to attend a class from the campus center closest to where the live and/or work, while other students attend the same class from other campus centers at the same time. Student teams are generally based on location so they may capitalize on meeting face-to-face, while the professor rotates locations from week to week.
3) Remote Online: using desktop VOIP (voice-over-IP), phone, and/or video conferencing alongside a shared whiteboard and applications, students, professor, and sometimes guest speakers can all meet online in real time. While everyone is together online, everyone is physically in a different space, at home, at work, on the road, anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Using these collaborative tools, the class engages with each other in both large and small groups.
4) Self-Paced Online: using a wide array of technologies and forms of content -- including e-books, video simulations, interactive modules, assessments, and intelligent tutors for example -- students engage most deeply with course materials, their assigned projects and their project teams instead of 'having class.'
While each program, discipline, course, and professor will call for a different type of blend, there are a set of principles that guide the entire initiative. These are: 1) aligning the learning experience with our school's mission and values, 2) enhancing students' interpersonal connections with faculty, industry leaders, and other students 3) increasing student convenience and flexibility, 4) reducing our direct and indirect consumption of energy and natural resources and 5) fostering life-long and professional skill development for the 21st century.
From a technological perspective, our e-learning initiatives are increasingly focused on Web 2.0 and rich media tools and collaborative practices. Without a doubt, many of our students in all our programs are highly proficient and happy using these tools in both their personal and professional lives. Our strategy is to tap into and augment this wealth of talent that comes to us each day. For example, in the last few years many of our students started using Google tools such as Google Docs, Gmail, Sites, Calendars, and Groups to collaborate with with their team mates. These are fantastic tools. So, working with Pepperdine's IT division, we recently partnered with Google. This summer hundreds of fully employed students are piloting Google Apps @ Pepperdine and it is proving to be a huge success. In the Fall, all students will be invited to use all these tools and more using their Pepperdine account. Likewise, all students and faculty will have 1Gb of "anywhere storage" powered by Xythos to store, access, and share files securely at anytime, from anywhere. Cloud computing is here and increasingly our students and student teams are heavy users.
Students are also expanding their team collaboration opportunities through the use of their Graziadio e-Conference Rooms powered by Elluminate Live! Here, students and their collaborators have 24/7 access to their own personalized meeting room with voice over IP (VOIP), shared whiteboard and applications, and video. Starting this Fall, many of our executive students will be piloting a high quality desktop videoconferencing system where up to 10 people can meet together and really see each other online with their laptop computer and webcam. This same technology, alongside Camtasia Relay recording software, will be used by faculty who wish record their live face-to-face classes so students can review at a later time on the web, smartphone, or other mobile media device. Students use their smartphones and even simpler phones with text messaging in classes where faculty integrate real-time polls into their curriculum, while faculty conducting blended learning courses are recording mini-lectures and presentations using Voicethreads. Starting in the Fall, all Graziadio students will be able to use their Pepperdine account to create and share Voicethread presentations or to participate in asynchronous voice-based discussion threads. In our full-time program, some student groups such as our Net Impact chapter are using a social networking tool, Ning, to collaborate with other chapters internationally.
As Prof. Hall noted in his article, business schools, and particularly the Graziadio School, are embracing e-learning models and tools to meet the rapidly rising demand for students who can compete in the expanding global marketplace. But we know these are just first steps to address our global sustainability challenges. Without a doubt, these initiatives will evolve and grow at a pace that many will find daunting. But our sights are on the broader goal of incorporating sustainability as an integral part of our curriculum and educational operations so that we may be leaders in the development of long-term, sustainable solutions to globalization.
Thanks Scott for your question and we appreciate your continued interest.
Warm Regards,
Susan
Susan Gautsch
Director of e-Learning
Practitioner Faculty: Information Systems
Graziadio School of Business and Management
Pepperdine University Los Angeles CA
310 568 5663 susan.gautsch@pepperdine.edu
...Susan Gautsch 7/29/2009 3:27:54 PM
I am a student in the fully-employed MBA program at Pepperdine. I agree that Pepperdine has a great opportunity to provide students with more e-learning opportunities. Currently, there are only a few courses being offered online. Additionally, even traditional courses like accounting and marketing rely too heavily on paperwork rather than learning how to use the online systems used in the business world today. If professors start teaching the courses using programs being used in the business world, they will make their graduates more competitive and reduce the carbon footprint noted in this article. ...Michael 7/31/2009 10:22:49 AM
Thank you for the detailed explanation - that is wonderful news to hear! I'm also hoping that the course offerings can be expanded to "post-MBA" tune-up or refresher courses. For example, I just ordered a three-class Statistics review course from Statistics.com that would have been nice to have taken from Pepperdine, as well as would have been an additional revenue stream for the University! Looking forward to future developments! Scott - Graziadio MBA '98 ...Scott 8/7/2009 10:57:16 AM
