Minutes of Meetings for WP7/8, Oct 19-20

Participants: Joan Martinez Alier, Hali Healy, Leah Temper, Mariana Walter, Johannes Fruehmann

  1. Draft Lecture Plan
  2. Cordillera del Condor – Introductory Lecture -  Economy as subsystem of the env.?

Renewable resources v. non-renewables. Conflicts & political ecology. (Joan and Mariana)

  1. Nicobar –Social Metabolism and Socio-ecological transitions (Simron and Willi)
  2. Tana – EROI, Virtual water and HANPP (Leah & Annabella)
  3. Cameroon – Unequal trade, forest economics (UAB)
  4. Campania – Waste, Externalities and Consumption (Tom)
  5. Umicore – Ecological Debt and environmental justice, PNS (Tom)
  6. Mendha Lekha – Property rights, public goods, stock-flow, fund resources. (IFF)
  7. REDD & PES – Payment for environmental services (Peter)
  8. SUNCE – Economic policy Instruments (Paula)
  9. TAV – CBA v. Multicriteria, Strong v. Weak Sustainability (Paula)
  10. Endemit – Demography, Dams (CBA), Scenarios (Joan, Bilijana)
  11. Hiware Bazar – institutions, environmental investments, greening the gdp (IFF)
  12. Manta-Manaos - ??
  1. Course Structure:

Lectures will be based around concepts found within the individual case studies. Each week, students (Ss) will read a case study and answer questions for reflection on the Moodle, perhaps with a final “preparatory” question on an open discussion board (Opening). This activity will be followed by a conceptual lecture (informing), designed by tutors (T). The lecture is then followed by a task on the Moodle that could be either a short essay, quiz, group work, or online debate-discussion (Feedback). The type of task could vary with each weekly topic, and should be not only interesting and relevant to CSO participants, but appropriate to the concepts that are being focused on each week. Links to relevant resources should also be provided.

  1. Access / Format

 CEECEC Moodle will have two areas: (1) the already existing platform for internal communication and (2) the e-learning course for Ecological Economics. Students will land on the login page, log on with their own password and username, then click on a link to the course. On the main course page in the Moodle will be a Flash presentation with audio. The Flash will introduce the course instructions and flow, and also outline the contents of each unit of study, with abstract, keywords and photos.  The case studies will be available for download in pdf from the Moodle, where the lectures (using Powerpoint/slideshare ) and feedback tasks will also be uploaded to.  The Moodle will also host student profiles, news etc. The course should be open for public viewing but not participation, so we will look into having a second “guest” course or creating a guest account for use after the pilot phase.

  1. Evaluation

Students and tutors should fill in separately designed evaluation questionnaires in the month following completion of the course. These will form the basis of a report that could also be made into an academic article. 1 month for the evaluation period should be sufficient and a preliminary report could be presented at ISEE 2010 in Bremen.

  1. Next steps

A good template needs to be developed for the first unit of work to guide Ts in the design of their lecture materials. The CU will do this for the Cameroon case study and send to Johannes by mid –December. This concept note will help ICTA/SERI to design such a template. Also, we need to work out details of how to use audio with slides (timing).  When this is done the CU will send instructions to tutors to begin designing lectures/materials, and questions/activities. All course materials should be sent to Johannes by early February for the online component of the course.
Timeline for course development as follows:

    1. Edit case studies (by end of Nov)
    2. Write /edit glossary and lecture materials (end of Jan) (Note: The glossary will also be linked to the case studies on the website)
    3. Online formatting / Translation (Feb-March)
    4. Run course (April, May, June)
    5. Evaluation by researchers/participants (July, for presentation in August)

The website will be developed to host the electronic version of the handbook (case studies and glossary) as a stand-alone tool. The glossary can also be developed for the website in a blogging style, with categories and a tagcloud as filter options. This will be explored further once more glossary entries have been submitted.