Green Gown Awards 2021: Next Generation Learning and Skills - The University of Liverpool - Finalist

Sustainability in Action: A short interactive online course designed by students for students introducing the UN’s SDGs

Sustainability in Action is a short course designed by students for students at the University of Liverpool introducing the UN’s SDGs. It formed a component part of a revised 2020/21 Foundation Week of online activities accessible and open to new and returning students. The course was designed to enable students to make connections, create friendships and embrace new opportunities.

As a collaborative project between the University’s Careers and Employability and Centre for Innovation in Education, the project started with the recruitment of a small team of student interns to develop the course over six weeks in the summer of 2020 ensuring we had an active student voice in the course development. The course was designed to be asynchronous, sit within the University’s VLE, and be flexible, interactive, and fun. The interns developed multimedia content with input from academic and professional services staff, city region partners and online resources.

Top 3 learnings:

1. Utilising foundation weeks for new and returning students can provide an engaging and accessible opportunity for students from every subject area to be introduced to the UN’s SDGs. 
2. Student interns with appropriate support from professional service and academic staff can produce creative and practical course designs that are engaging for their peers. 
3. A co-creation approach can provide student interns with valuable employability skills and experience.