SUSTAINABILITY OF ONLINE COURSES

DOES DIGITAL EDUCATION HELP US PRESERVE THE PLANET?

Sustainability has become a key criterion in the training sector as well, pushing us to evaluate the environmental and social impact of different delivery methods.

And there's no doubt that online courses present themselves as a more sustainable alternative to in-person courses, in several respects.

Elimination of travelThe main factor is the reduction or cancellation of travel, which is the most energy-intensive component of in-person courses. Road, air, and public transportation are responsible for high CO2 emissions, which must be accounted for per participant.

Reduction of physical spacesIn-person courses require the use of physical reception facilities, with energy consumption for heating, lighting, air conditioning, and maintenance, which is not necessary (or is greatly reduced) in online delivery.

Limit the use of paper materials, thanks to the digitalization of contents.

Facilitating accessibility: by allowing participation from any location and at flexible times, training is made more inclusive and adaptable to different personal and professional needs.

DIGITAL COURSE RELEASES

It is also true that online courses also generate emissions, especially related to energy consumption for servers, digital devices, the Internet and data centers.

However, various studies and analyses highlight that these emissions are significantly lower than those produced by in-person courses, thanks also to an ever-increasing push resource optimizationModern servers and data centers tend to continuously improve their energy efficiency, often also integrating renewable sources.

To quantitatively demonstrate that emissions from online courses are lower, one can refer to Life Cycle Assessment studies (LCA) on digital training, which compare the entire life cycle (from travel to energy consumed by devices) of different ways of delivering a course.

In the context of training, LCA can be applied to compare the environmental impact of courses, considering all the variables involved (travel, energy consumption of buildings, use of digital devices, production of teaching materials, etc.).

This can allow for more informed and sustainability-oriented training choices.

In conclusion, online courses are always confirmed as a more convenient choice. sustainable and accessible.

It is also evident that the catalog course is more sustainable than designing an ad-hoc online course for a single client, given its multiple uses (which decreases the per capita impact).