UCD Sustainable Action: Collaborative Mapping and Learning

Dr Ainhoa González; Lena Turner; Luka Stojanovic; Matthew Kirwan; Ciara Murray; Ella Cheney; Maasa Ali; Siofra Handibode; Caroline Mangan; John Fahey; Kirsten Southard; Professor Tasman Crowe; Arlene Crampsie; Tobi Morakinyo

Submitted Case Studies

90 UCD Sustainable Action: Collaborative Mapping and Learning

Dr Ainhoa González; Lena Turner; Luka Stojanovic; Matthew Kirwan; Ciara Murray; Ella Cheney; Maasa Ali; Siofra Handibode; Caroline Mangan; John Fahey; Kirsten Southard; Professor Tasman Crowe; Arlene Crampsie; and Tobi Morakinyo

Institution

University College Dublin

Outline

The project was inspired by the SATLE call theme 3 ‘Education for Sustainable Development’, the need to take stock of what UCD is currently doing to promote sustainability within campus, and the opportunity to raise awareness and encourage student/staff engagement with such initiatives. The power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to spatially gather and visualise data as well as to develop interactive online maps shaped the project idea further. Overall, these considerations contributed to the ultimate aim of the project: co-creating an interactive GIS-based online dashboard that brings together information on available campus infrastructure, activities and services, thus providing curricular innovation for sustainability and informed citizenship.

Intended Learning Outcomes

The dashboard is intended to provide a robust teaching and learning platform for undergraduate and graduate students across a range of disciplines. Through the co-creation, updating and direct use of the tool, the project contributes to pathways for individual and group student agency in local sustainability.

Impact and Outcomes

Short-term impacts of the dashboard include students and staff awareness raising on sustainability infrastructure, activities and initiatives within UCD. Anecdotally, some students have already indicated that the dashboard has promoted engagement with certain infrastructure and initiatives (e.g. water fountains and societies) and inspired research ideas (e.g. on waste management policies and existing segregation bins). Estates and Services have also indicated that the dashboard has enabled digitising and centralising, as well as making publicly available, some relevant information pertaining campus operations (e.g. bicycle parking, EV charging points, green roofs, etc.). Two module coordinators have applied the dashboard in the classroom to support their teaching and have reporting it to be of benefit to them by showcasing types of sustainability efforts within higher level institutions, and by illustrating pragmatic approaches to online mapping and public engagement.

Collaboration, Partnerships & Student Participation

This project was envisioned as a student-staff collaboration from the outset. The project proposal was co-developed with undergraduate and postgraduate students. These and additional students from a range of undergraduate and graduate programmes formed a robust student team of seven people to support the co-creation of the dashboard. Key representatives from the Sustainability Office, UCD Global, Estates and Services and the School of Geography formed the core staff team, with contributions from a range of Schools. The wider UCD student community was also given the opportunity to contribute to the project through a campus-wide survey. 1369 students and staff responded to this survey and their feedback on the types of information they would find useful to be mapped for UCD, and key functionalities required of the dashboard shaped its development.

Student Enagagement

Seven students formed the core student team in the project, with direct contributions from another three. 815 students responded to the campus-wide survey (see details below), and the dashboard has already been used in three modules (engaging approximately 250 students) and is regularly referred to by the Sustainability Student Society.

Disciplines

Education
Information and Communication Technologies
Social Sciences, Journalism and Information
Teaching and Learning

Best Practices & Resources

Top Tips

Co-creation approaches foster mutual learning between students and staff
Visualising the location of sustainable infrastructure, services and activities, and providing easy to access details on how to contact/access these, facilitates awareness and engagement.

Useful Resources

The dashboard is publicly available here: https://cms.ucd.ie/sustainability/resources/
The report with the results of the campus-wide survey can be found here: https://ucdireland.maps.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/76f7a057036f42229b24be988524bd18/data

Funding Details

Higher Education Authority, Strategic Alignment for Teaching and Learning Enhancement (SATLE) Funding, administered by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.