The University of Eastern Finland, along with six international partners aim to promote social and cultural sustainability in the field of adult education. University of Eastern Finland and Kansalaisfoorumi started their partnership in 2019 to begin planning this project.
During the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020, the international partners joined the project. Spring of 2020 was spent doing the preparations for the project, and now in fall of 2020 the project has begun.
Usually these projects include a meeting at the beginning, so that the partners can meet each other in person and get to know each organization. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 this was not possible this year. Nevertheless, with the use of the Teams application, partners were able to present their organizations to each other.
The project is based on the 2030 sustainability goals, each partner has a goal that they will base their intellectual output on. UEF’s goal is number 4. The goal states: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
UEF will be producing a massive open online course Adult education promoting sustainable development (MOOC) based on the goal. There will be 5 modules within the course based on adults’ everyday spheres. The first module title is; Introduction to the concepts of adult education and sustainable development. The second module title is; Adult education, education policy and sustainable development. The third module title is; Work and family, towards a sustainable working life. The fourth module title is; Leisure time and non-formal learning. The fifth module title is; Media and new technologies as enablers and threat to sustainable development. The UEF team includes Professor Jyri Manninen, Lecturers Juha Kauppila (coordinator) and Risto Ikonen. Students will do their project work as part of their studies or they will have hour based contracts related to outputs. Three students workers have started in the project; Sami Tanskanen, Saara Hassinen, and Eerika Latvanen. The project aims to include students from courses within the university, to allow them to familiarise themselves with project work, develop project working skills, and allow them to become familiar with an international working community.
