Learning in Networks for Sustainable Development

The didactic model of remote internships described in this study provides the flexibility needed to
support networked learners, i.e. to facilitate the development and subsequent assessment of their
competences. The heterogeneity of the participants (students, employers, tutors) in the learning
network provides relevant diversity in expert perspectives.
In today’s (networked) business environment, ever more collaboration takes place through virtual
platforms and tools. Learning for Sustainable Development could profit from the opportunities such
platforms offer, as part of it. Taken from the Brundtland Report (1987), Sustainable Development is
development that "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”. Sustainable Development has a high level of complexity, with
its need for integration of socio-political, environmental and economic perspectives, its uncertainty in
future and its dedication to an enormous range of levels of scale, acting from local to global. Because
of the complexity of the concept, the defining of competences and learning outcomes for Sustainable
Development is not easy. Learning for Sustainable Development could be described as obtaining the
ability to cross the boundaries between multiple perspectives in interaction with stakeholders and
actors in sustainability issues. An authentic example on the Dutch-Flemish Scheldt Estuary debate,
described in the present study, shows such different perspectives and how they influence the
scientific study of and decision-making on sustainability issues. We argue how learners who have to
deal with these kinds of different perspectives will develop their personal competences in an effective
way. The didactic model of remote internships that we use, allows learners to work in virtual teams
on current, authentic research assignments in contact with their customers: real employers in the
professional field. Moreover, the didactic model enables learners to define their own activities
according to their personal learning goals matching the external requirements of employer and
university. This allows our learners - adult distance students at the formal BSc Environmental
Sciences programme (Open Universiteit) - to start from their own unique perspectives, having
different prior knowledge, in different learning domains and from different professional experiences.
The multiple perspectives show themselves in the practice of virtual cooperation with peers and
experts from both the academic and professional community. Thus, the present study explores how
an online remote internship model can effectively support competence development in a
heterogeneous professional learning network.