CHARM-EU transnational online learning experience
Le Vu Phuong Uyen writes: In the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, I had the chance to gain international learning experience from home by participating in the course “Sustainable and Circular Economy” organized by Åbo Akademi University, a CHARM-EU partner university based in Turku, Finland.
I discovered this opportunity to join a transnational online course within the catalogue of CHARM-EU through a Neptun message sent to the student body in January inviting students to apply. The CHARM-EU website included instructions on how to submit the application, and after much support and assistance from the International Office of the Faculty of Economics, I was able to successfully apply for and take part in the course of my choice.
One of the reasons why I put myself forward for the course “Sustainable and Circular Economy” was for the first phase of the Project Work course as I found myself wanting to venture deeper into the various branches of Economics and study them intensively in order to pick a topic of my own that would be both unique and useful. Being able to learn about ecological economics and environmental economics before writing my thesis was an invaluable experience for me.
Another reason was for my own personal development. Since assessment for the course was built entirely around written assignments, this gave me a chance to improve my writing skills, which arguably remain among the most important skills of the 21st century.
“Sustainable and Circular Economy” taught me more than just the economic perspective of sustainability. For the first four weeks, articles, papers and supplementary readings about sustainable development, sustainable economy, and circular economy were shared, the next two focused on economic growth and the concept of “degrowth”. The subsequent four weeks were spent on studying the approaches to solving sustainability problems, namely systems thinking and cost-and-benefit analysis. The course culminated in a final written assignment, a five-page long course essay on a topic related to economic sustainability, sustainable economy, and/or circular economy belonging to a thematic area of choice.
Instead of having weekly scheduled face-to-face sessions, “Sustainable and Circular Economy” was a fully online, asynchronous course without specific meeting times. Students were asked to read the provided materials and submit them, along with sharing their thoughts on the forum and commenting on each other’s posts. The course instructor, Annina Kainu, encouraged all of us to complete the assignments and the course in time, and she was available for all our concerns and questions through email. My cohort size was 37 with participants coming from different parts of the world like Ukraine, Finland, Spain, France, Germany, Scotland, Netherlands, Bangladesh, etc. and from various backgrounds and qualifications: most were undergraduate and master’s students, but some participants were working in the industry or towards their doctoral degree; not only those studying social sciences like economics or law were participating, there were some textile engineers, IT students, and natural sciences learners as well.
To complete this 5-ECTS course, I dedicated roughly 1.5 hours a day throughout the first 8 weeks, and around 2.5 hours a day for the final 4 weeks, amounting to more than 150 hours over the span of 12 weeks. Since the course had no contact hours, I didn’t have to worry about the classes clashing. Nevertheless, because the last 4 weeks of the course coincided with the final round of midterms at the faculty, I did struggle a little to give both commitments as much time as I originally wanted. Thankfully, the online course leader was immensely empathetic, and with her encouragement, I was able to satisfactorily complete the final assignment.
The course has benefited me in several ways. First of all, I was able to apply what I had learned during my degree program to the problems presented in the course. This has facilitated a deeper understanding of both the materials and allowed me to develop an interdisciplinary approach to research. Furthermore, I came out a better reader and writerthanks to multiple writing tasks based on the distributed readings. My research skills also improved throughout the course and especially during the final assignment when a research question had to be developed. Additionally, the final assignment required the use of a reference management system which gave me the opportunity to practice citing and using referencing tools. Lastly, the course made me become more aware of specific sustainability problems around the world and what is being done to combat them, thanks to the participation and experience of other international students.
In conclusion, I highly recommend applying to these transnational online courses offered by CHARM-EU. These courses offer a unique opportunity to engage in innovative, interdisciplinary learning experiences alongside students from diverse European higher institutions with various professional backgrounds. As these are delivered fully online, participants can balance their studies with other commitments while also gaining valuable international exposure. By participating in CHARM-EU's transnational online courses, students can broaden their perspectives, challenge themselves academically and learn from international peers, all from the comfort of their home institutions.
Photo: Gergő Bernáth