CliVEx: Climate Action Project

When generating Climate Action Project ideas students are given three potential project ‘tracks’ to help them focus their efforts. These tracks are:

• Social Action – projects that affect people’s behaviour to be more sustainable, and use ‘people power’ to enact change for the good of the community and the climate. They are concerned with educating, influencing, promoting understanding, motivating, or building relationships. 
• Political Action – projects that influence people in power to take action for the planet. They are concerned with leveraging institutions and authorities to make concrete action in terms of political leadership, laws, policies, or institutional norms.
• Environmental Action – projects that directly improve the local environment. They are concerned with making observable differences in community or natural spaces, and encouraging people in the community to get involved in caring for nature.

Students refine their ideas and form teams with others who share the same interests. Each team submits a detailed project plan, and receives constructive feedback from course staff. They continuously communicate and meet throughout the project to collaborate on shared tasks and support each other in individual implementation. At the end of the course, they deliver a presentation about their Climate Action Project that includes what they achieved and evidence of impact. 

The first two semesters of the CliVEx Climate Justice Virtual Exchange have led to impressive outputs from student teams. Collectively, students have designed and implemented 109 different Climate Action Projects. They include: 

• A podcast that “makes climate issues accessible and engaging for a young audience by connecting them to trending topics, current events, and the zeitgeist.”
• A youtube video titled Rising Temperatures, Rising Injustice: Women in the Climate Crisis, which tells the ‘herstory’ of climate change and educates audiences about the unique situations faced by women in both their experience of climate change and in climate activism.
• A series of community dialogues in Palestine, Kazakhstan and Italy that achieved high levels of growth within their participants in regard to knowledge of climate change and climate justice, concern for the environment, and reduction of eco-anxiety. 
• A series of coordinated clean-ups in France, Italy and Palestine and a research project on how the war in Lebanon is affecting the environment.

Outcomes of the CAP assignment have included:

• Concrete measures taken in the areas of sustainability and youth-led climate action.
• The improvement of local environments across Europe, Southwest Asia and North Africa, including trash clean-ups, planting olive trees, and rehabilitating natural areas of cultural importance. 
• The exposure of citizens around the world to accurate and compelling information on climate change and what manageable steps they can take to combat it, which many CAP presentations have demonstrated has led to significant changes in knowledge of and attitudes towards climate change and climate action. 
• Cross-border cooperation, which has the potential to build the foundation for future ties between them and their institutions or communities, as well as a model they can draw on to enhance any future coordinated endeavours they take part in with people from other countries. 
• The continued implementation of several projects beyond the end of the course, which magnifies the long-term outputs of the projects.  

Throughout the duration of the CAP assignment, students have also shown improvement in the following values and competencies: 

• The ability to brainstorm, communicate and work effectively in remote multicultural teams, which sets them up to excel in online, English speaking, or international/intercultural team environments. This gives students advantages in many areas including academic achievement and employability.  
• The value and practice of active citizenship, brought about by active participation in their communities, regional governments and local/national institutions. 
• The value and practice of acting for sustainability, brought about by participation in action on climate change and getting others involved.
• Leadership, communication and interpersonal skills.
• Project planning and management skills. 
• Teamwork and team building skills.
• Digital skills, which can lead to improvement in closing the digital skills gap.
• Strong improvements on sustainability competences measured through the Greencomp: European sustainability competence framework. See more about these developments in our blog on Climate Justice in 2024. 

CliVEx: Climate Justice in 2024

Participation

“A completion rate of 39% / 70% is high for an online course. Regular online courses have completion rates between 5-15%.“

Over the first two iterations, we had 806 students who registered for the course, of which 318 (39%), successfully completed the programme, achieving the minimal participation requirements of attending 8 out of 10 dialogue sessions and obtaining at least 40 points. If we look at the completion rate of only the students who attended at least one synchronous meeting, the completion rate jumps to 70%.

A completion rate of 39% / 70% is high for an online course, offered at no cost to the participant. Regular online courses have completion rates between 5-15%. Climate Justice has elements that are proven to increase completion rates, such as a paced structure, deadlines and moments for required attendance, synchronous with asynchronous learning elements, and teamwork between participants. That said, the virtual exchange course bears no cost to the participant and there is not an application process participants need to complete in order to be admitted, two mechanisms known to be the most effective to increase participation and completion rates of online courses. A 70% completion rate of students who actually start the course is thus to be considered a great score, even considering the format of the virtual exchange. 

Besides a limited number of students who are not affiliated to any of our partner institutions, most students (97%) in the Climate Justice virtual exchange participate through one of our partner universities. Our partners have actively supported the climate justice programme by integrating the learning experience into their curricula and offering credits to students who successfully complete the programme. The list of participating partners and corresponding number of students they recruited in the Climate Justice virtual exchange are presented in the table below. 

“It is remarkable to note that in 2024 our Palestinian partners Bethlehem University and An-Najah University score 2nd and 3rd respectively as partners with the highest the completion rates.”

In the table above, we observe variations in completion rates between universities. Based on last year’s experience, and previous virtual exchanges we organised, we know that retention and completion of our programme is positively impacted by the way universities integrate the course into their curricula. 

Elements that boost engagement are:

• Number of credits offered.
• Whether the host-course for the virtual exchange is a mandatory / elective course (as opposed to the virtual exchange being a stand-alone course).
• Amount of  regular check-ins by local teachers with their students about their experience in the virtual exchange.
• English proficiency of students who are offered the opportunity to participate in the virtual exchange.

2024 will be remembered as the year in which a genocide in Gaza took place. Our partner the Islamic University of Gaza was therefore not able to participate in the course. However, it is remarkable to note that our Palestinian partners Bethlehem University and An-Najah University score 2nd and 3rd respectively with the highest completion rates of their students. This shows that our virtual exchange programmes are able to engage students who face barriers to international travel and/or exposure, or who are located in (protracted) conflict areas. 

See our course syllabus for more details on points matrix and corresponding assignments. For more details of the demographic of participants and their participation in the two iterations, see our Engagement reports for Climate Justice Spring and Fall 2024. For information about participation in the upcoming cycle, view the course page for Spring 2025.

Climate Action Projects

“In 2024, participants in the Climate Justice virtual exchange developed 109 Climate Action Projects.”

Unique to this Climate Justice virtual exchange is the Climate Action Project (CAP). A CAP is a project aimed at combating climate change, which is designed and developed by a multicultural team of students who then implement the project simultaneously in their local communities and assess its impact. The assignment is completed over the course of seven weeks, and students are supported in their endeavours by facilitators, course staff, and helpful resources and toolkits.

When generating CAP ideas, students are given three potential project ‘tracks’ to help them focus their efforts. These tracks are:

• Social Action – projects that affect people’s behaviour to be more sustainable, and use ‘people power’ to enact change for the good of the community and the climate. They are concerned with educating, influencing, promoting understanding, motivating, or building relationships. 
• Political Action – projects that influence people in power to take action for the planet. They are concerned with leveraging institutions and authorities to make concrete action in terms of political leadership, laws, policies, or institutional norms.
• Environmental Action – projects that directly improve the local environment. They are concerned with making observable differences in community or natural spaces, and encouraging people in the community to get involved in caring for nature.

Students refine their ideas and form teams with others who share the same interests. Each team submits a detailed project plan, and receives constructive feedback from course staff. They continuously communicate and meet throughout the project to collaborate on shared tasks and support each other in individual implementation. At the end of the course, they deliver a presentation about their CAP that includes what they achieved and evidence of impact. 

In 2024, participants in the Climate Justice virtual exchange developed 109 Climate Action Projects. The projects vary in type, geographic spread and impact. We have highlighted some of the projects that have led to impressive outputs from student teams in a different blogpost.

Impact

“Participants made significant strides in embodying environmental values and taking action based on what they learned during the course.”

The Climate Justice virtual exchange aims to facilitate intercultural dialogue on issues surrounding climate change and finding just and inclusive ways to respond to the climate crisis. This raises the question, did participants develop competences that foster environmentally responsible behaviours and attitudes? To answer this, we have evaluated the impact of the Climate Justice virtual exchange on changes in participants’ learning and engagement over the course of the programme on four key sustainability scales: Embody, Embrace, Envision, and Acting. These scales have been developed based on the Greencomp: European sustainability competence framework. The specific questions asked to participants to measure the four sustainability scales are listed in the Evaluation Guide of the CliVEx project. 

The four scales have the following definitions:

The competence area ‘Embodying sustainability values’ encourages learners to reflect on and challenge their own personal values and world-views in terms of sustainability. This area advocates equity and justice for current and future generations, while supporting the view that humans are a part of nature.

The competence area ‘Embracing complexity in sustainability’ is about:

• empowering learners with systemic and critical thinking, and encouraging them to reflect on how to better assess information and challenge unsustainability.
• Scanning systems by identifying interconnections and feedback. 
• Framing challenges as sustainability problems, which helps us learn about the scale of a situation while identifying everyone involved.

The competence area ‘Envisioning sustainability futures’ enables learners to visualise alternative future scenarios and identify actions to achieve a sustainable future. It is essential that learners acquire the competence of ‘adaptability’ while coping with uncertainty about the futures and trade-offs in sustainability. Applying creative and transdisciplinary approaches to our way of thinking can foster a circular society and encourage learners to use their imagination when thinking about the future.

‘Acting for sustainability’ encourages learners to take action at individual and collective level to shape sustainable futures, to the extent possible. It also invites learners to demand action from those responsible to make change happen.

“We have evaluated each iteration separately, but the results of both programmes are very much alligned, suggesting a consistent effect of our programme on the participants.”

For both programmes we observe significant positive differences on three of the four scales: Embody, Embrace and Acting. Both Embody and Acting show moderate large effect sizes (d = 0.74 and d= 0.69 for Spring and d = 0.64 and d = 0.69 for Fall respectively) while for Embrace we see a smaller moderate effect size (d = 0.43 for Spring and d = 0.33 for Fall). No significant effect was found for Envision. 

The differences observed in the Embody and Acting scales suggest that participants made significant strides in embodying environmental values and taking action based on what they learned during the course. The difference in the Embrace scale suggests that participants improve their systemic and critical thinking towards issues surrounding climate change, better enabling them to identify its interconnectedness. These results highlight the programme’s positive impact on fostering environmentally responsible behaviours and attitudes among participants.

For more details about the evaluation we conducted, and the process of data gathering and analysis, please review the Impact Reports of the Spring and Fall iterations.

Satisfaction

“Satisfaction of various dimensions of the programme is very high.”

In addition to the impact of our programme on participants, we evaluated participant satisfaction levels with several aspects of the programme. This shows us that satisfaction with various dimensions of the programme is very high. We asked participants to rate their satisfaction on a five-point Likert scale from “Very Dissatisfied” to “Very Satisfied”. Below is a table showing the percentages of participants indicating “Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” on the different dimensions of the programme.

The above satisfaction levels are based on the post-programme evaluation survey. During the programme’s implementation, students were offered the chance to evaluate their experience directly after each online dialogue session in so-called “30-second feedback forms”. These results largely confirm the satisfaction levels shown in the post-programme survey, as can be seen in the table below. 

For more detailed information about the evaluation on satisfaction and methods of data collection, we refer to the Impact reports of both programmes linked above.

Participant testimonials

“This experience has been very enriching and has given me a lot as a person. I’ve gained self-confidence and I’ve grown as a person. I was already very aware of current climate issues, but hearing the concrete testimonies of other students like me, but whose situations are so different, really opened my eyes and gave me the desire to take more action and get more involved in the fight against climate change.”

Participant, 21, France

“It made me more aware of the interconnectedness of environmental issues and human rights, encouraging me to be more proactive in my actions towards climate justice. Additionally, I noticed an improvement in my English skills and my ability to interact with people from different cultures.”

Participant, 22, Palestine

“I noticed I took a lot more initiative than I would normally do in my own classes. This has impacted me to make more decisions and be more straightforward. I also became more open-minded towards certain topics and opinions.”

Participant, 22, The Netherlands

Like, Comment, Discriminate: Racist Discourse on Dutch Instagram

The Sharing Perspectives Foundation and Build Up believe the answer lies in dialogue. By engaging in open and honest conversations and by posting alternative, unifying narratives, we can foster empathy and understanding while dismantling harmful beliefs and stereotypes. This theory forms the foundation on which we build The Digital Us: an online training program designed to empower young people to intervene in racist discourse on social media.

The Digital Us brings together people who have experienced racism online with those who have not. It offers young people a safe online space to engage in conversations around topics such as ethnicity, representation and privilege. Together, they learn how to best intervene in racist discourse. Bystanders become upstanders, and the burden of addressing online racism is no longer solely on the shoulders of its victims.

This week is an exciting week for The Digital Us as the first group of participants will embark on their learning journey. To be able to guide them not only on how to intervene but also on where to intervene, we carried out a social media analysis. The findings of this research, which focused on Dutch Instagram, unequivocally reaffirms the relevance and importance of The Digital Us, with nearly 4% of the 309,083 comments in our dataset found to be likely racist.

The social media analysis also provides us with valuable insights, including:
– National news media attract the largest number of racist comments;
– News reports about crime are the most common and also attract the most racist comments;
– A disproportionate number of racist comments are posted under messages about Islam;
– Each type of racist commentary follows specific discursive patterns.
For more findings, check out the full report.

Drie keer nieuw met ‘The Digital Us’

Met enthousiasme kunnen we delen dat we in samenwerking met Build Up een nieuw initiatief lanceren voor Nederlandse deelnemers: The Digital Us. Dit project heeft tot doel social media te transformeren tot een meer inclusieve en toegankelijke omgeving voor jongeren in Nederland die geconfronteerd worden met racisme online. In een tijd waarin online vijandigheid en verharding van discussies toenemen, is het van cruciaal belang om een veilige ruimte te creëren voor jongeren om zich vrijelijk te uiten.

Achtergrond 

Jongeren die zich (publiekelijk) uitspreken over sociaal-maatschappelijke kwesties worden vaak geconfronteerd met haat en racisme, wat een ernstige bedreiging vormt voor hun welzijn en de vrijheid van meningsuiting. The Digital Us streeft ernaar deze situatie te veranderen door mensen die online racisme ervaren, samen te brengen met degenen die dat niet doen, maar wel willen leren hoe ze effectieve bondgenoten kunnen zijn om online interacties inclusiever en veiliger te maken.

Drie Kernactiviteiten

The Digital Us bestaat uit drie kernactiviteiten. In all deze activiteiten staan peer-learning, dialoog en activering centraal. 

1. Virtuele Uitwisseling: Onder begeleiding van facilitators zullen de deelnemers in online sessies het gesprek aan gaan met elkaar over onderwerpen zoals culturele afkomst, etniciteit, privilege en (on)veiligheid online. 

2. Trainingssessies: Na de uitwisseling worden de jongeren getraind in effectieve manieren om social media veiliger en inclusiever te maken, zodat ze als bondgenoten kunnen optreden. De training richt zich directe interventies op sociale media, waarbij gebruik wordt gemaakt van geweldloze technieken. Lees hier meer over de ervaring van Build Up op dit vlak, wereldwijd.

3. ‘Praktijkperiode’: Deelnemers zullen gezamenlijk online interventies uitvoeren om racisme tegen te gaan, onder begeleiding van ervaren coaches. 

Inclusieve Benadering

The Digital Us zet de kennis en ervaringen van jongeren centraal en garandeert dat de inhoud van de uitwisseling, de training en de ‘praktijkperiode’ nauw aansluit bij hun leefwereld. Om ervoor te zorgen dat het project optimaal aansluit bij de doelgroep, wordt een Adviesgroep van 10 deelnemers betrokken bij de start van. Daarnaast wordt er een innovatieve social media-analyse uitgevoerd om de verdere activiteiten doelgericht en betekenisvol te maken. 

Word Lid van de Adviesgroep

Wordt jij persoonlijk geconfronteerd met racisme online, heb je ervaring met racisme online vanuit je werk of ben je maatschappelijk betrokken en wil je iets doen tegen racisme online, meld je dan aan voor de Adviesgroep The Digital Us. Ben jij actief op sociale media en ben je tussen november 2023 en februari 2024 zo’n 10 uur beschikbaar voor korte (digitale) activiteiten en online sessies? Ben je bereid om mee te denken met het projectteam om dit project tot een succes te maken? Dan horen we graag van je!
Lees hier meer over de geplande activiteiten, vergoeding en aanmelding. 

Nieuwe Samenwerking, Nieuwe Focus

Stichting Sharing Perspectives  en Build Up zijn twee organisaties die zich inzetten voor een inclusievere samenleving door gebruik te maken van digitale middelen. Ondanks dat er al jaren spraken was van informele kennisdeling en onderlinge connecties is dit de eerste keer dat dat beide organisaties van start tot finish samen zullen optrekken. Het projectteam is enthousiast om van elkaar te leren en nieuwe ervaringen op te doen. Ter aanvulling van het team wordt er nog een parttime projectmedewerker gezocht. Bekijk hier de vacature. 

Voor Stichting Sharing Perspectives betekent dit ook een nieuwe uitdagende stap, waarbij de volledige focus van het project gericht is op ontwikkelingen in Nederland. We hopen op een succesvol project met impact dat in de toekomst ook als model kan dienen voor andere landen.

Blijf op hoogte over dit project; meld je nu aan voor The Digital Us mailinglijst  > 

The Digital Us wordt  mede mogelijk gemaakt met financiële steun van Fonds 21, Stichting Democratie & Media, VSBfonds en vfonds  (Nationaal Fonds voor Vrede, Vrijheid en Veteranenzorg).

FRAMES conference

During the event, we will reflect on the lessons learned and the achievements of this EU-funded project.  The keynote speaker will be Francesca Helm, a leading expert in the field, who will share insights on the impact of Virtual Exchange on student learning and engagement. The event will include panel discussions and working groups on various topics related to strategic coordination, resources, quality, accreditation, recognition and sustainability of Virtual Exchange and blended mobility, as well as opportunities for networking and sharing of experiences among attendees.

The event addresses academic staff interested in VE, officers in charge of mobility and internationalization, IT staff, as well as top management, senior staff with internationalization roles, and anyone interested in exploring the opportunities VE can offer to innovate mobility in Higher Education.

The one-day event will be held at the University of Siena (Italy) on 30 March 2023 

Please visit this website, for all details and registration: http://www.congressi.unisi.it/frames/

FRAMES is an EU-funded project working on the integration and accreditation of blended mobility and Virtual Exchange in Higher Education. The project is implemented by UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union, UNICollaboration, Sharing Perspective, University of Girona, University of Limerick, University of Siena.

Stimulating virtual international collaboration in education, ‘the Dutch way’

The subsidy granted to institutions is intended as a contribution to freeing up the necessary hours for a lecturer and/or educationalist to design or revise and implement a virtual collaborative project. Any institution that has been granted this specific subsidy is also offered a range of activities to build capacity for designing effective and successful virtual projects; from facilitated intervision meetings, to various training courses, online information sessions, an in-person conference, an online helpdesk and a community platform. 

To be honest, we’re not only sharing this information here to show our enthusiasm for such an initiative – as it strengthens the mainstreaming of quality virtual intercultural collaboration and learning in higher education sector. But we can also announce that the Sharing Perspectives Foundation has joined forces with experts from CINOP, University of Groningen, University of Applied Sciences Utrecht and UNICollaboration as the implementing consortium of this pioneering initiative from the Dutch ministry!

Since the conception of this programme, we’ve been dedicating quite some time towards initiating activities, developing the VIS website, building relationships within the consortium and implementing the first rounds of training for educators. Our involvement in this programme is already proving to be a great learning experience on the current needs and challenges of educators and other HEI professionals in developing and facilitating international oriented virtual learning experiences. Working closely with VIS practitioners in our virtual trainings and following our quality assurance methods has already led to great improvements of our training materials and instructional approach.

So even if the activities under this support programme are only offered strictly to Higher Educational Institutions in the Netherlands, we certainly take everything we learn from this initiative on board to refine our methods in our other projects. Whether that is in our consulting activities, Virtual Exchange programme development for third parties, training organizations in virtual teaching or collaboration, or how to support partner organizations in our flagship VE programme. 

And off course, we hope to activate all higher education professionals in the Netherlands to learn more  and apply for the specific subsidy, to make this government funded programme a successful example for other countries to follow.

Learn more about Virtual International Collaboration projects on the website www.visinhetho.nl

Toolkit for Integrating Virtual Exchange in Higher Education

To support educational professionals with this mission, we are excited to present the ‘Toolkit for Integrating Virtual Exchange in Higher Education’. This one-stop-shop provides key information, inspiration, tools and case examples of the approaches that Higher Education Institutions can take to integrate and accredit Virtual Exchange. Whether you are an administrative officer curious to explore what Virtual Exchange integration can bring to your institution, or a teacher willing to find ways to accredit and sustain your Virtual Exchange activities in the curriculum; this product will help you with essential tools, activities and best practices. Visit this website to download the digital or the printer-friendly version of the toolkit, and explore additional multimedia assets like the FRAMES podcast .

“The Toolkit … has every chance of serving the purpose it was designed for and to live up to the expectations of both the project authors and prospective users. [T]he toolkit is a good, effective means of devising ways for integration and accreditation of virtual exchange in the institution of the user.”

– External project reviewer Professor Anna Turula,  Head of the Technology Enhanced Language Education Department at the Pedagogical University of Krakow, 

The Toolkit has been created in the framework of the FRAMES project, a Strategic Partnership funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union spanning over 2 years (March 2021 – February 2023). The project is implemented by a consortium composed of UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union (coordinator), UNICollaboration, Sharing Perspectives Foundation, Universitat de Girona, University of Limerick, and Università di Siena.

Innovating European Higher Education with Virtual Exchange

The FRAMES project (Fostering resilience through Accredited Mobility for European Sustainable Higher Education innovation) aims to make the European Higher Education Area more innovative, intercultural, and resilient. Implemented by a consortium composed of UNIMED, UNICollaboration, Sharing Perspectives Foundation, University of Girona, University of Limerick, University of Siena, the project will last two years with the support of the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union.

The first activity of the project is to map existing experiences of Virtual Exchange that are integrated, and possibly accredited in the university curriculum. This will lead to scenarios and best practices for VE implementation to be promoted across European universities. Subsequently, a training series is designed for Higher Education staff focussing on how to to integrate VE as an integral and accredited part of their mobility approaches. The project will end with the publication and dissemination of a toolkit for VE integration, accreditation, and a strategic framework for Virtual Exchange as a mobility approach at an institutional level. 

We are excited to bring our expertise on Virtual Exchange into this project and to support the further integration and accreditation of Virtual Exchange into Higher Education Institutions across the European Higher Education Area. 

‘Designing and implementing virtual exchange – a collection of case studies’

Access the full publication ‘ Designing and implementing virtual exchange – a collection of case studies’, edited by Francesca Helm and Anna Beaven, here > 

How to adapt core learning elements to be effective online

In three sessions of 45 minutes on 3, 4, 5 November, we will provide step-by-step techniques, practical tips and unique exercises modelling online interactivity and student engagement. These interactive sessions are designed for professionals learning how to move their teaching practices into an online environment in an effective and engaging way. 

• Dates: 3, 4, 5 November 2020
• Time: 13:00 -13:45 CET
• Costs: FREE OF CHARGE

*UPDATE: the workshops on 3,4,5 November are full! You can express your interest in this form to get notified on next rounds.*

Agenda

Building Relationships: Overcome the barriers of technology-mediated communication to build meaningful relationships through discovery and dialogue.

→ 3 November 2020, 13:00-13:45CET 

→ Learn about the role of identity in relationship building and get introduced to a learner-led, dialogue approach.

Engaging Content: Optimise technology to present your content in an engaging way. 

→ 4 November 2020, 13:00-13:45CET

→ What are the key distinctions between on and offline teaching? How can you use technology to optimize learning? Discuss these subjects and learn how to adapt your content to be suitable for an online setting. 

Interactive Assignments: Design interactive assignments to strengthen reflective, collaborative and digital skills.

→ 5 November 2020, 13:00-13:45CET

→ Learn about designs and assessments around skill development. We will touch on different methods and keys to success.

Interested but not available on these specific dates? Show your interest for future sessions here >