Innovative Coastal Education against the background of ESD – Experiences from an online training project

Environmental education has been expanding its goals, key topics and methods in recent years, not only on the coasts but in general. The main goal is to foster structuring competence of the learners in order to prepare them for an active participation in decision-making within integrated planning processes. In order to achieve this goal, topics and methods must reflect the concept of sustainability. E-learning is an evolving approach of teaching and learning in the information society which holds great potential for application within the context of education for sustainable development (ESD). In this study, an environmental education project with young nature guides is presented, which deals with questions relevant to sustainable development of the coastal zone through an innovative e-learning application. A retrospective evaluation was carried out to identify achievements and difficulties of the project. The project met the general demands posed by local standards for ESD. However, the training concept needs to be refined with respect to central topics and educational techniques. The software tool IKZM-D Lernen proved to be a valuable tool suitable not only for university students, but also for learners at the high school graduate level.