Designing place-based education for online teaching

Online teaching for place-based experiential learning is a rather new practice that can be used to create a more engaging and comprehensive learning experience. Though, it is a challenge to deliver experiential learning and place-based education in online teaching. This paper reports how we tackled this challenge in the pedagogical development of an interdisciplinary course within the European University Alliance for Global Health. In the present context, place-based experiential learning was introduced to create opportunities for interlinkages between the students’ local tangible situation, a public urban space in their neighbourhood and the global environmental challenges. The paper describes and discusses the theoretical background, structure and the teacher role proposed to motivate students to engage with their local case and to connect and reflect upon their tangible experiences and analysis in online interaction with teachers and fellow students.