The Carbon Literacy Project Case Study

About The Carbon Literacy Project

Climate change is widely recognised as the biggest challenge we face as a global community. The award-winning Carbon Literacy Project (CLP), founded in Manchester, aims to offer every person living, working and studying across the UK and beyond, a day’s worth of certified Carbon Literacy training by 2020 so that they can certify as Carbon Literate.

Bespoke online learning development is a key focus for ‘learning technologies supplier of the year’, Virtual College. Working in collaboration with The Carbon Literacy Project, Virtual College has created an interactive e-learning course that offers Carbon Literacy learners a solid understanding of climate change, how it is already affecting them, and advice on what actions they can take to help move their own organisations toward a low carbon culture.

From animated videos, games and audio commentary, to compelling infographics, content was designed to meet the needs of a broad target audience, whilst at the same time catering for highly customised content for specific audiences, to ensure immediate relevance for all learners.

The Challenge

A fresh approach to a complicated subject

The Carbon Literacy Project had seen some of Virtual College's previous work with Manchester City Council and was impressed with the quality of product that could be designed. They therefore approached Virtual College to work collaboratively on designing a ground-breaking interactive e-learning course.

With a wealth of complex information, they needed Virtual College to produce a course so people could meet the requirements of the eight ‘Knowledge’ elements of the Carbon Literacy Standard (CLS) to pursue certification, or use it as a standalone tool.

Carbon Literacy has clear educational requirements and a clear ‘story arc’, but the project also had a wealth of information, resources and evidence which needed to be distilled down. Virtual College worked to convert all these resources into attractive and engaging screens, infographics and activities which would involve the learner, at a pace that suited them.

The course was designed to allow a clear path through a forest of information, but with opportunities to stop and explore, as the learner desires. It includes signposts and links to other places, so that the course has become not just a one-off experience, but a resource to be returned to again and again.

Virtual College needed to develop a course that was creative, engaging and approachable, but also rigorous and comprehensive to meet the knowledge requirements of the Carbon Literacy Standard.

Virtual College, carefully chose an agile, cross-functional Virtual College team to aid creativity, and to ensure the course was compelling by focussing on the structure, the tone, the story, the science, the challenges, the choice and the desire to make a change.

Getting to Grips with the Subject

Virtual College worked in close collaboration with the CLP to understand the subject and the CLP’s needs in detail, employing a consultative approach so that it could offer specific solutions in a professional and considered manner.

/n/n### The Solution

While climate change might be an ‘everyday’ issue we’re used to seeing in the news, some of the science behind it isn’t. Virtual College curated the CLP’s content and brainstormed creative, engaging and fun ways to take complex information from inaccessible to innovative, making it ideal for learners of all abilities.

Instructional Design is a technique used to promote learning acquisition. Explaining facts and theories through infographics turned dense information into vibrant visual displays. The resources also featured:

• Short videos
• Clickable infographics
• Interactive maps and section quizzes
• Gamification
• A key-words glossary
• Pre and post course learning assessment
• A final test assessment

A key challenge was to keep learner engagement levels high for a total of three-hours – the specified length the virtual course needed to last for it to meet the customer’s requirements. Virtual College’s graphic designers worked alongside specialist instructional designers to deliver an interactive user experience for each of the eight modules. Whilst flexibility is built into each stage, Virtual College's content development follows a rigorous process established over years of experience as the most rapid and effective method of developing bespoke content.

The Results

The Carbon Literacy: Knowledge e-learning course has proven to be a high-impact, scalable solution for delivering climate education. It enables learners to gain essential knowledge at their own pace, with the flexibility to fit training around work and personal commitments.

Organisations using the course have seen improvements in learner engagement, motivation, and post-course action — while saving time and resources previously spent on face-to-face sessions.

Learners have responded extremely positively to the final course. Results say it all: whilst only 23% of learners rated their knowledge of climate change as 'a lot' or ‘quite a lot’ before training, after taking the Carbon Literacy: Knowledge course, this rose to over 84%.

Before completing their e-learning, only 55% of learners rated their motivation to take action to tackle climate change as ‘quite a lot’ or ‘a lot’ which increased to 82% afterwards.

Organisational Benefits

Helped organisations deliver training at scale, cost-effectively, and with greater speed than traditional methods.

• Reduced in-person training from two half-day workshops to one, saving time and budget.
• Improved workshop impact by using the e-learning to deliver the complex science upfront.