Virtual education has unexpectedly become a global necessity these days. The open source publication "Virtual conferences in higher education: Teasing out their transformative potential for sustainable development" provides insights into this topic.
Virtual events bear a huge potential to contribute to sustainable development by bridging geographical gaps on a global scale while reducing CO2 emissions. They are more than an alternative to conventional face-to-face events and these days, they have become a necessity.
This publication is the result of a joint effort between the saguf working group Education for Sustainable Development and the COPERNICUS Alliance, which both draw on their expertise and experiences with virtual formats and transformative learning. In their introduction the authors state that "virtual conferences do not fully replace face-to-face meetings; but they offer exciting potentials to enhance transformative learning for sustainable development". Read the full article here:
► Mader, C., A. B. Zimmermann, M. Diethart & I. Mulà. 2020. Virtual conferences in higher education. Teasing out their transformative potential for sustainable development. GAIA 29/1:57–59. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14512/gaia.29.1.12
If you want to learn more about hosting and organizing virtual events, we also recommend the recently published Guidelines for Virtual Conferencing:
► Diethart, M., Zimmermann, A.B. & Mulà, I. 2020. Guidelines for Virtual Conferencing – inspired by the COPERNICUS Alliance Online Conference 2019. Bern, Switzerland: CDE and COPERNICUS Alliance. DOI: https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/139254