The Gaps and Strategies for Sustainable Digital Transition in Education

Abstract

The UN global sustainable development goals (SDGs) framework can guide software development strategies to achieve more sustainable solutions. From an educational perspective, this is of high importance, as software can reach millions of people worldwide, helping to spread the key messages of sustainable development. EdTech Companies can reach these goals not only by optimising their software from a resource demand perspective, allowing for equitable use and inclusion, partnering with socially responsible actors, using clean energy, and investing back in socially and environmentally impactful projects; but also, by nudging their users for more sustainable choices through designing their software solutions to trigger more sustainable behaviour.

EdTech companies, being important actors in digital transition in education, bear a responsibility to help educators embed sustainable development into teaching and learning through their digital educational solutions, thereby contributing to sustainability awareness raising among students (UNESCO, 2018). Many of the key messages of sustainable development are reported by EdTech companies in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports. Where terms such as net-zero, low carbon emissions, and carbon-offsetting often appear and used as measures of impact [1]. In contrast these reports rarely focus on how companies support sustainable development awareness raising and learning through their practices and software development.

In this working paper we explore, how EdTech providers approach sustainability through their products and in their practices and what makes the latter impactful, focusing on a specific case of Ansys Granta EduPack. This has been achieved by developing a framework for assessment of EdTech sustainability practices and using it to analyse their CSR reports. To validate this framework, we have applied it to a case study of Ansys Granta EduPack teaching software, its tools and educational resources to support sustainability teaching/learning. The next step would be to approach its users among academics and students to provide their feedback on intended versus achieved Learning Outcomes for sustainable development teaching. We aim to explore gaps, identified in the framework, which EdTech companies can fill to act truly sustainably. As a result, we are aiming to suggest further areas of research, the most impactful areas for EdTech to support teaching sustainable development.