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Reflection of an Online Climate Change Course and Its Pedagogies: Retrospection and Prospect

Author(s): Kuok Ho Daniel Tang 1 , 2 ,
Author(s) information:
1 Department of Environmental Science, University of Arizona at Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi Province, China
2 Environmental Science Programme, BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China

Corresponding author

The impetus to raise awareness and impart positive attitude change toward climate action as one of the sustainability goals has catalyzed the introduction of climate change courses in universities, particularly in developing countries. An online climate change course has been developed and delivered as an elective to the first-year students of a university in China. A reflection of the course in terms of its teaching and learning and assessment was conducted based on the Gibbs’ Reflective Cycle with SWOT employed for evaluation and analysis of the experience. The course has the strength of incorporating abundant audio-visual elements, highlighting important points in slides, employing gamification, and simulating community projects in assignments. However, online teaching could be more time-consuming than face-to-face teaching in certain aspects, such as preparation of activities and games, and responding to students after office hours. Despite this, students felt that more interactions could be integrated, and teamwork might lead to advantage-taking and unequal task distribution in certain groups. This reflection calls for further improvement with the greater use of online interactive platforms and databases; interactions with experts and scientists in the field; delivery of community projects or talks to a real audience; and cross-varsity and cross-regional collaborations.
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About this article

SUBMITTED: 03 July 2022
ACCEPTED: 17 August 2022
PUBLISHED: 23 August 2022
SUBMITTED to ACCEPTED: 46 days
DOI: https://doi.org/10.53623/apga.v2i1.104

Cite this article
Tang, K. H. D. (2022). Reflection of an Online Climate Change Course and Its Pedagogies: Retrospection and Prospect. Acta Pedagogia Asiana, 2(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.53623/apga.v2i1.104
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