learning moves from classroom to YouTube

Press release from Centre for Sustainable Practice

10 September 2009

Sustainable practice learning moves from classroom to YouTube and Eblackboard

A new online course teaching sustainable practice delivers timely, expert learning to course participants who don’t need to enter a classroom to complete the qualification.  

Towards Sustainable Practice is an introductory course geared towards business, organisations and individuals who are committed to sustainability and need to know how sustainability increasingly equals success.

Developed by the Otago Polytechnic’s Centre for Sustainable Practice, the course has the thumbs up from early participants.

Sean Barnes of Aurecon Group in Queenstown was one of the first to trial the course.

“There’s a huge amount of depth and the course is well connected to the outside world through links to interviews and case studies on the web.  The online learning platform is efficient and powerful making great use of multimedia applications. The course tutors are always available and there is plenty of opportunity to interact with your classmates online.” 

“An indepth case study is aligned to each part of the course which means you get to think about and apply the knowledge in a practical at every step.  It’s also surprisingly accessible, it’s not just an engineering thing, or a science thing, it’s actually an ‘everyone’ thing and generically applicable to every company or organisation. It starts with the fundamentals and cuts through the jargon and buzz words in a simple and easily applicable framework.

Dr Barnes said the course consolidated his personal and professional interest in sustainable practice and had fulfilled the course aim of training people in how to competently implement sustainable practice in a business and to make that practice contribute to business success. He is currently applying it across Aurecon Group through Asia-Pacific.

Participants will require around 150 hours to complete the course material which is all available through an internet connection.

Centre for Sustainable Practice director Steve Henry says the course and its delivery is future driven and designed to help business and other organisations become robust and prepared for a future where natural resources will be expensive and scarce.

“This course is about understanding the true meaning of sustainable practice and moving towards it positively.

“The course material includes learning from the experiences of some of the world’s leaders in sustainable practice. The subject matter is inspiring, the case studies fascinating and the opportunities arising are endless.”

The Polytechnic uses Blackboard, a technology platform, to allow participants to access course material over the internet and the submitting of assignments and tutor feedback.

“Online learning is the way of the future because it offers flexible learning hours and can be accessed from anywhere at anytime. It also has the ability to include experts and knowledge from all over the world via PowerPoint, video and over-the-net conferencing,” says Mr Henry.

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