GUIDANCE REPORT: Teaching integrated planning and design for coastal landscapes in Europe by exploring digital dimensions of transnational collaboration in higher education.
CO-LAND. Inclusive Coastal Landscapes - Activating green and blue infrastructure for sustainable
development of the urban-land interface

This publication presents the key findings of a three years cooperation on the topic of sustainable coastal landscapes in Europe. The book results from the collective effort of an international and interdisciplinary team of teachers and researchers in spatial planning and design. The project addresses innovation in higher education at the interface of disciplines, landscapes and digitalisation. The CO-LAND Project has been co-funded by the ERASMUS+ 2017 programme of the European Union under the Key Action 2 ”Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices” and supported action ”Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education” with the identification no. 2017-1-RO01-KA203-037161.

This report divides into three major parts; the why, the what and the how of the CO-LAND project:

Part A describes the innovative teaching approach and methodology applied and further developed during the project. Chapter 2 contains the six dimensions of curriculum innovation, such as bridging the scales of planning, integrating academic disciplines, and including community and stakeholder perspectives. Chapter 3 highlights the underlying theories and teaching methods for integrated planning and design; the concept of landscape, educational constructivism, competences for sustainable development, the integrated planning and design framework and the principles of blended learning.

Part B explains the relevance of coastal areas for current global developments related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Chapter 4) and their suitability as a study and research issue for planning and design disciplines, illustrated by the examples of the Sand Motor and the BlueHealth project (Chapter 5). Moreover, it shows the subject-specific, methodical, (inter) personal and generic competences and learning outcomes that form the basis of the curriculum. It presents the topics, exercises and references to the main lectures of the online course. It concludes with the outline of the integrated CO-LAND Case Study Assignment that students carry out through all phases of the online course (Chapter 6).

Part C focuses on the implementation and dissemination process. Showing the practical steps based on the CO-LAND experiences, it describes how to set-up a blended learning project, presenting the elements of the online area and modes of student participation and the assessment strategy (Chapter 7). Chapter 8 presents the organisation of on-site workshops, with the selection of stakeholders, a preparatory visit, and schedule of the intensive programme. The fourth workshop presents a blended form that was able to deal with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The process of monitoring and evaluation for quality management is explained in a process chart
and an overview of the quality objectives and indicators. Examples of the results of the survey of students give an impression of the outcomes (Chapter 9). Chapter 10 presents the dissemination of the project: the objectives, target
groups, methodology and actions for communication and sharing the results. An online multiplier event forms part of it. The report concludes with the findings of the project and summarises recommendations for university teaching. The main recommendations are to improve the interactive learning platforms to allow for increased possibilities of participatory or collaborative design and more frequent iterative feedback to learners. In addition, one should be prepared to organise Intensive Student Programmes and workshops in a way that a blended form of on-site and online work can create a productive learning and working environment.

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