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J. Joachims and K. Lingenau
hand, this serves to ensure that all students regardless of previous knowledge can
attend the courses (reaching as many of them as possible) and that universities
can integrate this type of courses well into their own curricula in the form of
elective courses without displacing their own teaching.
(b) The VAS operates its own learning platform to manage a large number of online
courses and to ensure the supervision of these and the students. On this platform, all organisational aspects of each course are recorded and students receive
further learning materials. The registration for the examination dates at the
different locations is also managed completely online on this platform. In addition to administrative matters, the learning platform also provides various tools
(e.g. blog posts, essay assignments, etc.) for the design of online courses.
(c) Supervising a nationwide course offering with a small team requires not only
questions about the design of courses but also new ideas for the examination.
These should also be able to be taken nationwide, have to meet the same standards at every location and while also being manageable in terms of effort. The
VAS has opted for electronic examinations. By means of an examination software, these are available at any location, even if they are hosted and conducted
from the University of Bremen. Closed questions and different variants enable
an automated evaluation.
5.2 The Didactical Concept
Besides the conceptual requirements of the online courses of the VAS that are outlined
above, the offering of the VAS is also based on a didactical concept for the (a) online
courses, (b) the learning platform and (c) the assessment. As mentioned in some
sections before, the teaching of ESD itself and especially the online teaching of ESD
is quite challenging.
• produced for higher education
• lectured from experts in a field of sustainability
• freely available
• designed for a basic level
Since (a) all courses of the VAS are designed as self-study courses, a good didactic
structure is needed to accompany the students. All courses are structured according
to a uniform structure so that the students can easily orientate themselves. In addition,
each episode of the VAS learning videos contains didactically relevant content: an
outline, the listing of learning objectives, an integration into the overall context of
the lecture and tasks for in-depth self-study.
(b) On the learning platform, students will find, in addition to the lecture slides,
further learning materials such as quizzes, pre-structured learning diaries or a demo
exam. Here they can also contact other students or the VAS team.
(c) The electronic exams also follow a didactic approach. For each exam question,
students are shown which episode of learning videos the question refers to. Each
J. Joachims and K. Lingenau
hand, this serves to ensure that all students regardless of previous knowledge can
attend the courses (reaching as many of them as possible) and that universities
can integrate this type of courses well into their own curricula in the form of
elective courses without displacing their own teaching.
(b) The VAS operates its own learning platform to manage a large number of online
courses and to ensure the supervision of these and the students. On this platform, all organisational aspects of each course are recorded and students receive
further learning materials. The registration for the examination dates at the
different locations is also managed completely online on this platform. In addition to administrative matters, the learning platform also provides various tools
(e.g. blog posts, essay assignments, etc.) for the design of online courses.
(c) Supervising a nationwide course offering with a small team requires not only
questions about the design of courses but also new ideas for the examination.
These should also be able to be taken nationwide, have to meet the same standards at every location and while also being manageable in terms of effort. The
VAS has opted for electronic examinations. By means of an examination software, these are available at any location, even if they are hosted and conducted
from the University of Bremen. Closed questions and different variants enable
an automated evaluation.
5.2 The Didactical Concept
Besides the conceptual requirements of the online courses of the VAS that are outlined
above, the offering of the VAS is also based on a didactical concept for the (a) online
courses, (b) the learning platform and (c) the assessment. As mentioned in some
sections before, the teaching of ESD itself and especially the online teaching of ESD
is quite challenging.
• produced for higher education
• lectured from experts in a field of sustainability
• freely available
• designed for a basic level
Since (a) all courses of the VAS are designed as self-study courses, a good didactic
structure is needed to accompany the students. All courses are structured according
to a uniform structure so that the students can easily orientate themselves. In addition,
each episode of the VAS learning videos contains didactically relevant content: an
outline, the listing of learning objectives, an integration into the overall context of
the lecture and tasks for in-depth self-study.
(b) On the learning platform, students will find, in addition to the lecture slides,
further learning materials such as quizzes, pre-structured learning diaries or a demo
exam. Here they can also contact other students or the VAS team.
(c) The electronic exams also follow a didactic approach. For each exam question,
students are shown which episode of learning videos the question refers to. Each