Exploring the living learning laboratory

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 939-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina Safitri Zen
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Sustainability Science ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Operational Mechanism ◽  
Science Approach ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives

Purpose The paper aims to explore and analyse the potential of campus living learning laboratory (LLL) as an integrated mechanism to provide the innovative and creative teaching and learning experiences, robust research output and strengthening the campus sustainability initiatives by using the sustainability science approach. Design/methodology/approach The challenge to adopt sustainability science as an interdisciplinary approach juxtaposed against the structure, teaching and learning of single disciplinary approach in institution of higher education (IHE). The LLL approach can be one of the options on how the integrative teaching and learning, combination fundamental and applied research and campus operations should conduct to strengthen the implementation of campus sustainability. Findings The review of application of LLL from several campus sustainability and combining with the experiences in conducting the UTM Campus sustainability results the strategic operational mechanism of the integration process. Research limitations/implications The LLL approach which applies the sustainability science approach did not cover the challenges and issue related to the inter-, inter- and trans-disciplinary during the campus LLL application. Further study needs to be conducted to strengthen the fundamental approach to developing campus LLL as one approach to operationalizing the Sustainable Development agenda in IHE. Practical implications The experiences and findings produces from this study help other campus sustainability to articulate the benefits of campus LLL initiatives, anticipate implementation challenges in teaching and learning, research output and the operation. The problem-solving nature of sustainability science provides a platform for implementing campus sustainability initiatives which allow inter-, inter- and trans-disciplinary approach for a more synergize effort of a real case study and project based approach. Social implications Furthermore, the implementation of LLL challenges the researcher/academia to provide prompt response as part of societal learning process in strengthening applied-based research as well as to contribute to the fundamental research. Successful LLL approach require both top-down commitments from the top management of the university and bottom-up drive from interested faculty, core research themes, operations and students. Originality/value The integrative framework and operational mechanism to operate LLL in campus sustainability which resulted from the analysis taken from several universities that implement campus sustainability is the origin values of significant contribution from this study.

Campus sustainability initiatives and performance: do they correlate?

2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 474-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Lang
Keyword(s):  
Best Practices ◽  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Performance Metrics ◽  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Linear Regression Models ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Institutional Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesis that there are correlations between campus sustainability initiatives and environmental performance, as measured by resource consumption and waste generation performance metrics. Institutions of higher education would like to imply that their campus sustainability initiatives are good proxies for their environmental performance. Design/methodology/approach – Using data reported through the Association for the Advancement in Higher Education’s Sustainability Tracking and Rating System (AASHE STARS) framework, a series of univariate multiple linear regression models were constructed to test for correlations between energy, greenhouse gas (GHG), water and waste performance metrics, and credit points awarded to institutions for various campus sustainability initiatives. Findings – There are very limited correlations between institutional environmental performance and adoption of campus sustainability initiatives, be they targeted operational or coordination and planning best practices, or curricular, co-curricular or research activities. Conversely, there are strong correlations between environmental performance and campus characteristics, namely, institution type and climate zone. Practical implications – Institutional decision makers should not assume that implementing best practices given credit by AASHE STARS will lead to improved environmental performance. Those assessing institutional sustainability should be wary of institutions who cite initiatives to imply a certain level of environmental performance or performance improvement. Originality/value – This is the first paper to use data reported through the AASHE STARS framework to assess correlations between campus initiatives and environmental performance. It extends beyond previous research by considering energy, water and waste performance metrics in addition to GHG emissions, and it considers campus sustainability initiatives in addition to campus characteristics.

Collective action competence: an asset to campus sustainability

2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 559-578 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte R. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Social Settings ◽  
Collective Competence ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives ◽  
Free Choice Learning ◽  
Action Competence

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to operationalize theories of social learning and collective action for campus sustainability practitioners at higher education instititions (IHEs) to enhance their work, and to introduce the concept of collective action competence as a practical tool. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a theoretical argument based on the concepts of learning and collective action for stronger consideration of social learning, action competence and voluntary collective action in campus sustainability initiatives. Findings Many important sustainability outcomes depend heavily on voluntary behaviors by groups of campus stakeholders, making voluntary collective action an important, although underused, tool for campus sustainability practitioners. The term “collective action competence” is introduced and defined as the capability of a group of people to direct their behavior toward a common goal based on a collective literacy, a collective competence, and a collective need or goal. Originality/value The term “collective action competence” is introduced as a novel unifying concept that articulates a critical capability needed for collective behavior change in social settings such as HEIs. Collective action competence is based on the theories of collective action and of social and free-choice learning and on the concepts of action competence and strategic competence.

Mapping sustainability efforts at the Claremont colleges

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (7) ◽  
pp. 1230-1243
Author(s):  
Tanja Srebotnjak ◽  
Lee Michelle Norgaard
Keyword(s):  
Large Data ◽  
Online Surveys ◽  
Single Node ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Network Characteristics ◽  
Sustainability Planning ◽  
Comprehensive Information ◽  
Network Vulnerabilities ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives

Purpose The purpose of this study is to map and analyze sustainability activities and relationships at the seven Claremont Colleges and graduate institutions using social network analysis (SNA) to inform sustainability planning and programming. Design/methodology/approach Online surveys and interviews were conducted among faculty, staff and students, and a network map was created and analyzed using network statistics to identify network characteristics. Findings The mapped sustainability network has 291 one- and bi-directional connections but with substantial differences among institutions. Pomona and Pitzer colleges have the highest number of sustainability-related courses because of their popular Environmental Analysis programs. The two graduate schools and Scripps College are comparatively isolated. Scripps’ network is small but highly interconnected and resilient. Pomona’s network is extensive but concentrated on a single node. Several other key actors were identified based on the number of nodes extending from or connecting to them. Several new sustainability initiatives were recently launched in response to the study. Practical implications SNA and mapping for campus sustainability can highlight network gaps and network vulnerabilities. To increase completeness, a representative and sufficiently large data sample is needed, requiring multiple, coordinated forms of contact. Interviews yield more detailed and comprehensive information than online surveys but are more time-consuming. Thus, the combination of electronic surveys and in-person interviews can be a successful strategy for maximizing information collection. Originality/value The case study was the first of its kind conducted at the Claremont Colleges and one of the first in higher education. It informs sustainability planning, coordination and integration efforts.

Financing university sustainability initiatives in China: actors and processes

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Liguang Liu ◽  
Lianhong Gao
Keyword(s):  
National Policy ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Discretionary Power ◽  
Sustainability Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Campus Sustainability ◽  
Routine Manner ◽  
Barriers And Challenges ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives

Purpose This paper aims to study the mechanism of how the public universities have funded the campus sustainability projects in China, by identifying key actors and examining the processes. Design/methodology/approach Besides a review of campus sustainability initiatives at higher education institutions in China, the case of Central University of Finance and Economics (CUFE) is selected to provide an empirical understanding of the campus sustainability management in a typical university. Findings The paper points to dominant roles played by the state ministries in financing university conservation programs and the absence of a national policy framework and low sustainability proactiveness in a majority of higher educational institutions. It argues that more discretionary power and more policy deliberations are needed for the transformation. Research limitations/implications Universities in China vary distinctively in status, operations and performance. In terms of campus sustainability management, the case of CUFE is highly representative as it shares more common features with universities that develop in a routine manner. Practical implications With the financial support from government agencies, the campus conservation-oriented projects have been conducted and financially supported in hundreds of pilot universities, but failed in diffusing to more universities. This study identifies the barriers and challenges. Social implications An in-depth understanding of the working mechanism in financing university sustainability initiatives will promote a discussion on China’s policymaking process and will provide useful insights regarding its future policy options. Originality/value China has conducted nationwide conservation-oriented campus constriction for almost a decade and many universities increase their investment in campus facilities and their operations; however, there is a lack of understanding of the rationale of the funding models and how they have been implemented.

Community needs and interests in university–community partnerships for sustainable development

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Groulx ◽  
Nadia Nowak ◽  
Kristin Levy ◽  
Annie Booth
Keyword(s):  
British Columbia ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Community Partnerships ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Community Needs ◽  
Community Stakeholders ◽  
Broad Concept ◽  
Sustainability Initiatives ◽  
University Community

Purpose This paper aims to examine the broad concept of university–community partnerships as it applies to creating sustainability initiatives. The benefits of university–community partnerships are increasingly recognized, and this paper offers direct insights from community stakeholders on the principles, functions and activities they see as foundational to effective university–community partnerships in northern British Columbia. Design/methodology/approach CommunityStudio was a co-learning partnership that sought to place students into the community and region to collaborate with community/government partners on interdisciplinary projects identified by the city, regional district or other community stakeholders. Through key informant interviews and a thematic analysis, the authors examine the expressed needs that CommunityStudio partners identified as key to ensuring such collaborations are mutually beneficial. Findings Within the community/regional development context of northern British Columbia, community experience highlights the importance of equity and inclusion, flexible programme design and an institutional culture that supports risk taking in teaching and learning as keys to the success of university–community partnerships. Originality/value This work contributes to calls for knowledge-based institutions such as universities to act as catalysts for social innovation within regional contexts outside of major metropolitan urban centres.

scholarly journals The changing demands of academic life in Ireland

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-151 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Dowling-Hetherington
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Routine Administration ◽  
Compliance Requirements ◽  
The University

Purpose – The consequences of institutional change for faculty is an under-researched aspect of the higher education (HE) sector in Ireland. The purpose of this paper is to report on the changing demands of academic life in Ireland. Design/methodology/approach – A case study of the School of Business at the largest university in Ireland, University College Dublin, set out to determine the extent to which HE change is impacting on faculty. The research, involving 28 interviews with faculty and manager-academics, covered the five-year period since the appointment of a new President in 2004. Findings – The research provides evidence of an increasing focus on more explicit research output requirements; the growth of routine administration and teaching and learning compliance requirements; and the greater intensification of work and working hours. Research limitations/implications – While the university was at the forefront in implementing large-scale institutional change in Ireland, further research is needed to explore the issues raised in this paper in the context of other schools and the remaining six Irish universities. Originality/value – Few empirical research studies have been conducted in Ireland on how institutional change is impacting on the working lives of faculty. This paper serves to shine a light, for the first time, on the perspectives of faculty regarding the changing demands of academic life in Ireland.

Resource-sharing through an inter-institutional repository

2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 730-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Abrizah ◽  
Mohd Hilmi ◽  
Norliya Ahmad Kassim
Keyword(s):  
Resource Sharing ◽  
Information Science ◽  
Research Output ◽  
Academic Community ◽  
Open Access Publishing ◽  
Institutional Repository ◽  
Teaching Resources ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Institutional Repositories ◽  
Digital Repositories

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to be concerned with the motivations and resistance among an institutional repository (IR) stakeholder – the Library and Information Science (LIS) academicians – with respect to Green Road open access publishing in an inter-institutional repository. Design/methodology/approach – The answers were identified from 47 LIS faculty from three library schools in Malaysia who reported awareness of what an IR is and having had experience in contributing resources to digital repositories. Data were collected using survey and interviews. Findings – The results highlighted the LIS faculty on their motivation to share their intellectual profile, research and teaching resources in an inter-institutional repositories and why the reluctance in contributing. The study reveals that the major motivation to share resources for those practicing self-archiving is related to performance expectancy, social influence, visible and authoritative advantage, career benefit and quality work. The major resistance to share scholarly research output through self-archiving in institutional repositories for those practicing self-archiving is concern on plagiarism, time and effort, technical infrastructure, lack of self-efficacy and insularity. Practical implications – Knowing what conditions predict motivation and resistance to contribute to IRs would allow IR administrators to ensure greater and more effective participation in resource-sharing among LIS academic community. If this resistance is addressed aptly, IRs can be of real benefit to their teaching, scholarship, collaborations, and publishing and to the community that they serve. Originality/value – The first study that has explored the ways LIS academics respond to a situation where knowledge sharing in academe has now been made mandatory through an IR and what makes them resist to do so.

scholarly journals Influence in Technological Innovation Spaces: A Network Science Approach to Understand Innovation for Sustainability in the Global South

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 1858
Author(s):  
Daniel Schmitt ◽  
Chisenga Muyoya
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Network Science ◽  
Research Output ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Global South ◽  
Production Environment ◽  
Science Approach ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Sustainability Challenges

The number of scholars working on transition concepts in the Global South is rapidly increasing. In this context, a substantial amount of research output particularly focusses on niches and how they affect transition towards sustainability in a wider framework of the multi-level-perspective. At the same time, there is a growing interest in digital technology and its effect on sustainability challenges. In this article, we combine the two fields, and by utilizing social media data, we create an innovative network science approach to analyze the production environment of digital innovations in Africa. We focus on three innovation hubs that we conceptualize as niches and innovation intermediaries that not only create communities to develop, test and implement new technology but also function as networks to discuss and form new ideas around innovations. Our key findings show how local communities are embedded in larger innovation structures. The connections between local stakeholders and global actors are predominantly created through bridge actors, who hold key positions in their communities. With tools from network science, we demonstrate that these linking elements can regulate and steer discussions and therefore, strongly influence digital niche environments. Utilizing geographical location data, we can also see that the online space of technological innovations in Africa is heavily cantered in urban areas.

Which journal ranking list? A case study in business and economics

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayana Jaafar ◽  
Vijay Pereira ◽  
Samer S. Saab ◽  
Abdul-Nasser El-Kassar
Keyword(s):  
Research Output ◽  
Citation Count ◽  
Google Scholar ◽  
Journal Ranking ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Journal Quality ◽  
Hard Time ◽  
Yearly Average ◽  
The University

PurposeWith over 3,000 academic journals in the fields of Business and Economics, most academics face a hard time selecting an adequate journal to submit their work to. In today's demanding academic environment and with the presence of different journal ranking lists (JRLs), the selection becomes more difficult when considering employment, promotion and funding. The purpose of this paper is to explore key differences among multiple JRLs pertinent to the latter common objectives. An extensive analysis is conducted to compare the content of journals in the Australian Business Deans Council (ABDC) Journal Quality list, Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) in the fields of Business and Economics. Then, a case of a university with medium research output is considered where scholarly performance evaluation is based on the ABDC Journal Quality List.Design/methodology/approachAfter ranking journals in the fields of Business and Economics based on SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) indicator, JCR's Journal Impact Factor (JIF) and JCR's Eigenfactor (EF), a methodology is proposed to categorize journals in the three JRLs into the same categorization adopted by ABDC. The latter establishes a way to compare the four JRLs under consideration and serves as a basis to compare and analyze the content of journals in the ABDC Journal Quality list, Scopus and WoS. As a proxy impact metric, a normalized citation count is associated with each article based on Google Scholar. The publications of the considered university are then evaluated from the perspective of the four JRLs in terms of citation-based impact and quality while considering the exposure to popular world university ranking tables.FindingsFor journals classified under fourth tier by ABDC, over 53 and 59% are not indexed by Scopus and WoS, respectively. In this case study, over 42% of the publications appear in journals that are not listed in JCR despite the fact that over 94% of them are listed by the SJR list. Generally, publications that appear in journals listed by JCR achieve, on a yearly average, significantly higher citation rates when compared to those that appear in journals listed in ABDC and SJR Lists.Originality/valueA four-tier mapping is proposed for consistent comparison among JRLs. Normalized citation count associated with each article based on Google Scholar is employed for evaluation. The findings provide recommendations for scholars, administrators and global universities, including Euro-Med Universities, on which JRL can be more influential for both faculty development and positioning of the university.

Copyright and information service provision in public university libraries in Kenya

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (6-7) ◽  
pp. 375-388
Author(s):  
Salome W. Mathangani ◽  
Japheth Otike
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Public University ◽  
Copyright Law ◽  
Information Services ◽  
University Libraries ◽  
General Direction ◽  
Content Type

Purpose Copyright law supposedly brings a balance between copyright owners and information users as a way of creating a harmonious relationship. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between Kenya’s Copyright Act and the provision of information services in public university libraries in Kenya. Design/methodology/approach The study was informed by both the organization theory and the social systems theory which, respectively, provided a base for discussion on the library and its basic functions, and an interdisciplinary approach that accommodate library services and law. Data were collected from a sample of 77 librarians from public universities libraries, and analyzed using the qualitative method. Findings The study established that librarians were reasonably aware of the copyright Act. However, they were apprehensive and uncertain about copyright effect on the library. Evidence from the study showed that librarians needed to extend their knowledge and understanding of the copyright law for the effective provision of information services. The paper concludes that there is scope for librarians, using their wealth of knowledge and expertise, to make relevant and useful suggestions on copyright. Such contribution would assist in bringing harmony in the use of copyrighted materials. Originality/value These findings are original and will be useful in giving general direction on copyright. The study highlights the important issue of universities as parent institutions providing needed leadership in the copyright area.

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