The integration of digital technologies into education creates new opportunities for understanding complex environmental issues, enhancing student engagement and providing more interactive learning experiences.
With this vision in mind, the European project Eco360 successfully completed WP4, which focused on the development, integration of educational content and pilot evaluation of an innovative digital platform for environmental education.
The Eco360 platform aims to provide a comprehensive learning environment, combining educational materials, lesson plans with interactive activities and 360° videos to enhance environmental awareness and promote sustainable development.
A Comprehensive Digital Platform for Environmental Education
Within the framework of WP4, the project partners collaborated to develop the Eco360 Platform, a multilingual digital environment that brings together the project’s educational outcomes and makes them easily accessible.
Its development followed a comprehensive design process, with particular emphasis on user-friendliness, intuitive navigation and effective organisation of educational content.
During the platform’s design, special attention was given to both its visual interface (User Interface – UI) and the overall user experience (User Experience – UX), ensuring that teachers can easily locate available resources and integrate them into their teaching practices.
The platform incorporates the educational materials developed under the previous WPs, creating a centralised space for accessing lesson plans, digital activities and tools that support the teaching of environmental topics.
Furthermore, the availability of content in the partner languages enhances accessibility and facilitates its use by educational communities across different European countries.
360° Videos: Making Environmental Learning Experiential
One of the platform’s most innovative features is the integration of interactive 360° videos created by schools participating in the project.
This technology allows students to explore digital environments from different perspectives, transforming traditional educational video viewing into a more active and immersive experience.
Through the use of 360° videos, environmental concepts and sustainability issues can be presented in a more visual and accessible way, strengthening the connection between theoretical knowledge and real-world environments and situations.
Integrating these videos into the platform also enables the educational materials created by participating schools to be shared with a wider European educational community. In this way, teachers gain access to new digital resources that can enrich their lessons, while students are introduced to different approaches and environmental experiences.
Online Teacher Training through the Eco360 MOOC
In addition to educational materials and interactive videos, an important component of the platform is the MOOC for teachers.
The programme was developed to support teachers in using digital tools and the Eco360 project results, strengthening their knowledge and skills in integrating innovative environmental education approaches into their teaching practices.
Through a flexible online learning environment, teachers can access the training content at their own pace, familiarise themselves with the available activities and explore ways to incorporate them into their classrooms.
This approach supports teachers’ continuous professional development by providing access to educational resources regardless of their geographical location or working schedules.
More Than 30 Teachers Participated in the Pilot Evaluation
A key milestone in the completion of WP4 was the pilot testing and evaluation of the platform by more than 30 teachers from the countries participating in the project.
During the pilot implementation, teachers had the opportunity to navigate the Eco360 digital environment, explore the available educational materials and test the platform’s functionalities. At the same time, they participated in the online training programme through the MOOC and had the opportunity to obtain a certificate of completion.
Their involvement extended beyond simply accessing the educational content. Teachers also played a particularly important role in evaluating the platform by providing feedback through a structured online evaluation questionnaire.
