Landscape Education for Democracy Erasmus Project

Project Title

Landscape Education for Democracy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Open and distance learning; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses

Project Summary

a) Context/background of the project
The LED (Landscape Education for Democracy) programme was conceptualized and implemented as an interdisciplinary, international course unit training conceptual thinking, diversity management and intercultural communication for building leadership competence in spatial planning. Inspired by the 2000 European Landscape Convention (ELC) and European Water Framework Directive (WFD), it aimed to increase transparency, public awareness, social learning and participation in landscape change.The project partners aimed to change design and planning education to teach future practitioners how to design and implement democratic decision-making processes in landscape planning.
b) Objectives
The LED course gave students foundational intellectual and professional tools necessary to take an active role in planning and design processes that are democratically-determined, socially-sustainable and inclusive of diverse populations. The LED partners co-designed and implemented through action-research a 15 ECTS study-module that included a blended learning course for students in environmental planning that combined both traditional and virtual learning environments. The consortium offered 10 ECTS as a blended learning model. Nürtingen-Geislingen University have offered 15 students of their ‘Planning and Design Methods II’ module between 5 and 15 ECTS in exchange for focusing their master theses, studio or research paper on LED-related topics. On-site intensive programmes in Italy, Germany, and Hungary complemented the online seminar. During the intensive, students formulated solutions in partnership with local municipalities and NGOs.
c) Number and profile of participating organisations.
The project was implemented by a consortium of universities (University of Kassel and Nürtinger in Germany, St. Itzvan in Hungary, the University of Bologna in Italy) and an NGO (the LE:NOTRE institute in the Netherlands) operating according to the detailed work plan included in the application, which outlined the deliverables and responsibilities of each partner.
d) Description of undertaken main activities.
The LED partner carried out the following activities: (i) development of online course materials on theory, methods, tools and case studies in landscape democracy as a blended course, (ii) implementation of summer intensive workshops organised by three of the consortium partners, and (iii) the envisioning and implementation LED recognition model to certify and certify knowledge, training, and practices that can help promote landscape democracy.
After a rapid development phase in the Fall of 2015, the course was offered in the Spring semesters of 2016, 2017 and 2018. The testing has been accompanied by a rigorous evaluation and subsequent improvements.
The programme attracted approximately 242 students, evenly distributed across the five academic partners and an equal number and auditors from other world universities. 45, 60, and 65 students enrolled in the online course in 2016, 2017 and 2018. The July 2016, July 2017 and June 2018 Intensives attracted 22, 20 and 30 students respectively, with a consistent presence of 10 staff members. All of the activities were documented and made available publicly through the project’s wiki page.
e) Results and impact attained
• increase of students’ confidence in their ability to identify and act upon landscape democracy challenges;
• increase of internet-based course delivery and increased cross-institutional cooperation among all partners
• professional development opportunities for LED staff to use online learning as a pedagogical tool.
The LED project aimed to be transformative of both academics practitioners and municipalities we engaged through the programmer’s activities. In addition to the project partners, many scholars and practitioners from around the world have participated in the LED project activities either as lecturers, tutors during the intensive programmes, or as guests in one of the many dissemination events. The project’s adoption by the partner universities was mixed. While Bologna and HfWU integrated the course into their curricula, other partners will offer it as an elective. The impact of the course activities on the participating students and faculty was measured through pre-post exposure surveys measuring perceptions, values, and knowledge of landscape democratic theories and method. The LED partners also created a cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural European certification system to recognize professionals and citizens involved in Landscape Democratic processes. The LE:NOTRE partner Anna Szilagy-Nagy is currently leading the efforts to formalize the certificate.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 301902 Eur

Project Coordinator

NORGES MILJO-OG BIOVITENSKAPLIGE UNIVERSITET & Country: NO

Project Partners

• ALMA MATER STUDIORUM – UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
• UNIVERSITAET KASSEL
• HOCHSCHULE FUER WIRTSCHAFT UND UMWELT NUERTINGEN-GEISLINGEN
• STICHTING LE:NOTRE INSTITUTE
• SZENT ISTVAN UNIVERSITY