The Virtual University for Environment and Sustainable Development, UVED, is one of the seven Numerical Thematic Universities created on the instigation of The Ministry for Higher education and Research.

UVED aims to develop, coordinate, finance, pool and share, disseminate and promote teaching resources and e-learning tools, whose contents and type are validated from a scientific, pedagogical and technical point of view. These resources are tailored for higher education students and for teacher training, in the fields of environment and sustainable development (ESD). &nbs

A public utility mission and common values

• Knowledge dissemination and dissemination

• Fight against failure at university level and social inequalities

• Environmental protection and consideration of ecological, economic and social dimensions of sustainable development

• Policy for free access to certified resources developed from a scientific, technical and pedagogical point of view

• Sharing teaching resources and good practices 

• Collective dynamics between educational institutions

• Experience sharing and partnerships with the civil society

Bridging higher education or research institutions and civil society members involved in training in ESD

UVED gathers today nearly about fifty higher education and research institutions in the fields of environment and sustainable development: French universities (or equivalent institutions), French Grandes Ecoles (elite university-level institutes), foreign institutions, research centres and other public or private organizations.

By 2010, UVED is becoming a non-profit organization through associating public and private founders. A partner status of the Foundation is implemented, and it aims to gather a wide range of French universities, and a great number of research training or educational institutions.

Producing and disseminating quality audio-visual and electronic teaching resources

• E-teaching resources in all fields and for all approaches of sustainable development

• Planet and Universe Sciences

• Global Change

• Ecosystems and Biodiversity

• Natural environment patterns 

• Natural Resource and Waste Management

• Risk Assessment and Management

• Regional Planning and Management 

• Eco-Design and Eco-Technology

• Institutions, stakeholders, societies and territories

Sustainable development is common to all these fields.

UVED supports a policy of broad access while being based in particular on the direct access to the resources via Numerical Spaces of Work. The resources that are produced thanks to financing from UVED are labelled “Creative Commons Licenses”.

Training Programs

• Master's Degree Level (to allow a fast result transfer from research to the society)

• Bachelor's Degree Level (to contribute to the fight against failure at university level) 

UVED is also developing resources designed for secondary and primary school teachers in terms of Environmental Education for Sustainable Development.

The Types of Electronic Teaching Resources Produced

Various materials have been developed from the “turnkey” module (including “content” and a “teaching kit” or teachers’ guide) to the collection of sharp “teaching pearls” (case studies, role playing, 3D simulations …) which can easily be reassimilated by teachers and trainers.  

More than 40 training modules already produced or being produced...

More than one thousand training hours…

Sharing to a large extent teaching resources of higher education institutions and develop the partnership

UVED shares all resources produced by its members to support uses and to set up an e-teaching resource bank. Each producing institution is responsible for selecting the category where to classify its resources: 

• Free Access: open worldwide, to ensure as many users as possible, and international partnerships 

• Shared Access: between UVED institutions  

• Reserved Access (to the producing institution): while aiming at developing partnership agreements between institutions

The dissemination of shared resources is encouraged within UVED, through the “networks of identities” (https://federation.renater.fr/) and direct access to resources via Numerical Spaces for Work.

By late 2010, the e-resource bank which is accessible via UVED search engine will gather several hundreds of training modules and thousands of teaching pearls.

In addition to developing and sharing materials, UVED is a key collective organization for each of its institution members:

• Through contributing to the identification of training and material needs in the field of Environment and Sustainable Development

• Through offering tools to develop their own training offer in ESD

• Through supporting the innovative teaching techniques and multidisciplinary approaches

• Through participating actively in the analysis and improvement of techniques to develop electronic teaching materials, to develop ICTs as innovative and result-oriented teaching device

• Through working on the development of electronic device uses, especially through promoting and sharing gained experience

Contribute to the development and organization of training programs on Environment and Sustainable Development in France

UVED contributes to the development of training programs in Environment and Sustainable Development at a national scale. UVED is essentially committed to networking and managing teachers of its members, and to organizing networks of teachers, researchers and stakeholders in the field of sustainable development.

Through developing an electronic version of all its teaching materials relevant to skill acquisition, UVED ensures IT Certificate Level 2: http://www2.c2i.education.fr/sections/c2i2mead

International Availability and Partnership

UVED has been equipped with an international policy which aims to:

• Make UVED actions available on an international scale (in terms of production, dissemination, sharing, experience capitalization, project management…)

• To encourage the production of bilingual resources or the translation of resources 

• To encourage and supervise project development to apply for European calls for the development of ICTs in the field of ESD 

• To develop partnerships for the production and dissemination of teaching resources and to contribute to the emergence of networks and approaches on Environment and Sustainable Development themes on an international scale, in particular in regions:

• TheFrancophone space

• The European Union

• The Union forthe Mediterranean

UVED is today participating in the project of Open Numerical Space for the Mediterranean.