E-learning modules supporting education for sustainable development - State of the art and future research directions

Abstract

In today’s era, global issues such as climate change and overexploitation of natural resources have made impacts in our daily lives. To address these problems, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is an essential component to consider. One important element is to address economic, environmental and social aspects that are interlinked and mutually dependent. Thus, ESD aims to promote not only the fundamental environmental knowledge, but to empower people to deal with such dilemmas. Therefore, individuals need competences for sustainability. These can be learnt but hardly be taught. Hence, learning environments for ESD should enable individuals to develop these competences and think interdisciplinary. E-learning addresses these challenges and offers opportunities to design effective learning environments for ESD. For instance, with the help of information and communication technologies (ICTs), e-learning can represent the mutual influence of the different dimensions of sustainability. Simulations can offer learner-centered learning scenarios, in which individuals can apply their skills in an authentic situation. This is the basis to gain competences for sustainability. Thus, we expect e-learning modules to increase the quality of the learning process. However, prior research on e-learning modules supporting ESD is limited. A systematic approach of categorising e-learning modules into an instruction model is missing. Thus, the main goal of this paper is to present the state of the art of e-learning usage in ESD. Therefore, we conducted a literature review by analysing eleven databases, selected 35 articles and classified them according to the Analysis Design Development Implementation Evaluation (ADDIE) instruction model. Afterwards, we used this model to categorize the research methods and e-learning tools used by the selected articles accordingly. Based on this, we elaborated research gaps and future research directions. The results show that most of the articles primarily focus on the evaluation phase of the ADDIE model. Consequently, they do not provide a complete picture of the ADDIE process of e-learning modules to support ESD. Moreover, current research does not show how to create competences as an outcome for ESD. Further research should try to give a complete picture of the e-learning modules for ESD from the analysis phase to the evaluation phase. In addition, further research should also focus on how to design learning environments for the development of competences and how to measure them.