Nova Scotia Community College
PAE-13: Staff Professional Development in Sustainability

Education for Sustainability (EFS) is a five day, 39 hour course devoted to the examination of sustainability through the lens of higher education. It is a multi-disciplinary, introspective and progressive process of portfolio learning that steers the learner through various levels of awareness on three levels: inward, outward and global. EFS is an elective credit course in the NSCC Community College Education Diploma Program (CCEDP); a diploma required by all faculty and professional support employees of the College. The course is offered once a year in the CCEDP Summer Institute at the Truro Campus. All employee groups from all campuses are welcome to register for the course for credit. Organizational Learning covers all costs excluding travel. The course grew from an EFS 3-day workshop to a CCEDP self-directed credit, into an elective credit course. The employees who have attended have come from across the Province in various disciplines and employee groups: managers, faculty, professional support, operational support and support staff; trades, administration, science, business, technology, social sciences, health, etc. Each year of the course is documented on private class wikis which houses the recorded comments, group-work, reflections and observations from the class. The course outline and all video-related materials are stored online on prezi for 24/7 access. The course is facilitated in-house enhanced by guest-speakers, nature-based learning, peer teaching and team projects. Six months after the course, learners are contacted by the facilitators to discuss how they have applied or are applying their learning. In the past few years, faculty and staff have made significant changes to their courses, programs and lifestyles after completing the course. • Prezi: https://prezi.com/5v3hfg09lg7x/education-for-sustainability-course-nscc/ • Facilitators: Bobbi Dunham and Don Jardine