Design precepts for online experiential learning programs to address wicked sustainability problems

ABSTRACT

There are increasing pressures within the higher education sector to incorporate digital pedagogies into teaching and learning, a trend amplified by recent extensive recourse to online delivery within the sector. This trend carries with it both opportunities and challenges in effectively fostering those graduate competences that a converging consensus identifies as essential for sustainability education to nurture. The challenge for educators is to design programs capable of fostering a range of competences fit for wicked sustainability problems. The principal objective of this paper is to review the literature regarding the competences that would adequately equip graduates of sustainability coursework programs with substantial online delivery components for a professional environment of uncertainty, complexity, and wicked problems. From the review of scholarship focused on competences for online experiential learning, sustainability education and wicked problems solving, we assemble a set of precepts to guide the design of effective learning outcomes, settings and pedagogies for an approach to sustainability education that better prepares students for such a challenging environment. While the precepts apply to sustainability education generally, we argue that they provide particular guidance for educators concerned with e-learning. We also present educational, social and technological enablers to underpin design, development and delivery processes.

KEYWORDS:

• e-learning
• blended learning
• problem-based learning
• experiential learning
• sustainability education
• wicked problems

Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge our colleague, Michael Lockwood for his valuable contribution in developing the ideas for this paper. We also extend our sincere thanks to two anonymous reviewers for their considered input and thoughtful suggestions for improving the paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors have no conflict of interest.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. For a more detailed discussion of both enabling and constraining affordances, see Davidson et al. (2016).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Tasmania [University of Tasmania Learning and Teaching Grant No. 107247].