Biodiversity and ecosystem services

The vhb is a joint institution for strengthening cross-university digital teaching. All Bavarian state and state-recognized universities and universities of applied sciences as well as four art colleges are organized in partnership in this network.

The courses in the CLASSIC vhb course program are designed for use in a university degree program. Each course offers the opportunity to obtain a certificate of achievement for ECTS points or a certificate of attendance.

• Introduction to the topic and clarification of its social and ecological relevance
• Basics of biodiversity
    o  Definitions and levels of biodiversity (genetic, taxonomic, functional)
    o  Regional and global perspectives
    o  Characteristics of biodiversity in natural habitats, cultural landscapes and settlement areas
• Understanding and assessing ecosystem services (ES):
    o  Approaches to quantification and assessment of ESS
    o  Relationships between biodiversity and ESS
• Applying and communicating ecosystem services
    o  Communication on the importance of biodiversity and ESS
    o  Practical examples, comparisons on ESS balances
    o  Scenario development and assessment

The course is offered completely online and thus offers a high degree of flexibility. The content is presented in interactive formats. The interactive book and course presentation formats are suitable for the theoretical parts. Small exercises - where possible as interactive elements - are incorporated into the theory section to stimulate the learning process. A comprehensive exercise section is also offered for each learning unit. Peer review tasks in the forum allow feedback to be provided by course tutors and/or other course participants. At the end of each learning unit, students can check their learning progress by taking quizzes. These quizzes, together with a student research project, form the final examination  

If possible, examples from the Central or Southern European cultural landscape (e.g. Bavarian Forest, Los Alcornocales) are used to illustrate this. The student research project in the last part of the module is based on a regional scenario and promotes transfer competence.