Addressing the Challenges of Climate Education
The Education for Climate Coalition, a key initiative of the European Education Area and the Green Deal, aims to support and promote co-created actions in five areas: training teachers, linking education with science, developing green skills, raising awareness, and changing behaviour. The Coalition engages a wide range of participants, including educators, students, policymakers, and climate education enthusiasts.
E4C's Key Challenges
1. Engagement: Maintaining an active community with a clear purpose among more than 9.000 members.
2. Knowledge Sharing: Facilitating the exchange of knowledge and best practices among diverse participants.
3. Event Management: Organising and running over 400 events for more than 7.000 attendees.
4. Content Management: Managing and organising a wide variety of resources, which includes over 130 pages of searchable content.
ECP SaaS: A Modular and Scalable Solution
To meet these needs, E4C adopted ECP SaaS, a ready-to-use solution built on Open Social’s Drupal-based platform. Hosted on the European Commission’s infrastructure, ECP SaaS ensures compliance with security and privacy standards. Its modular architecture allows for continuous updates and customization across multiple community websites.
Empowering Community Engagement and Collaboration
ECP SaaS offers a range of features designed to enhance user experience and foster collaboration:
- Community Management: Members can join groups, register for events and participate in discussions.
- Rich Profiles and Permissions: Detailed member profiles and tailored user permissions facilitate diverse roles and responsibilities.
- Knowledge Synthesis: Content scheduling, moderation and comprehensive taxonomies ensure organized knowledge sharing.
- Advanced Search Functionality: In-depth search capabilities allow members to easily find relevant content, events and discussions.
- Interactive Event Hosting: The platform supports webinars, workshops and conferences with features like live Q&A sessions and video tutorials.
- Gamification and Certifications: Gamification elements and course certifications enhance member engagement.
- Collaboration and Innovation: A dedicated Challenge Hub enables members to propose challenges, seek feedback and collaborate on solutions.
Achieving Tangible Results
Since implementing ECP SaaS, E4C has experienced significant growth and impact:
- Expanded to over 9.000 members with high engagement levels.
- Hosted over 400 events, attracting more than 7.000 participants.
- Created over 130 pages of curated content, ensuring easy access to resources.
- Supported numerous co-innovation labs, resulting in new teaching materials, citizen science projects and green education initiatives.
A Testament to Effective Digital Collaboration
“The Open Social platform has been instrumental in building and sustaining our community. Its user-friendly interface and powerful features have allowed us to engage thousands of members, host hundreds of events and curate a wealth of knowledge. Open Social has truly empowered us to drive meaningful change in climate education” said Susanne Szkola, Knowledge Manager and Community Co-designer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
Open Social’s ECP SaaS platform exemplifies how tailored digital solutions can effectively support large-scale, purpose-driven communities. By addressing the specific needs of the Education for Climate Coalition, it has become a cornerstone in the European Commission’s efforts to promote sustainable education and training.
Read the full case study: ECP SaaS Powers the Education for Climate Coalition.
About Open Social
Open Social is a leading provider of community engagement platforms, empowering organizations to build vibrant, purpose-driven communities. With a focus on user experience and robust functionality, Open Social enables organizations to connect, collaborate, and innovate effectively. Open Social is built on Drupal and follows an open-core model, offering its core software on Drupal, while providing enhanced features and products through a subscription-based version.
About DIGIT’s ECP SaaS
Europa Communities Platform SaaS (ECP SaaS) It is a ready-to-use solution based on Open Social (Drupal) to create and manage online communities. ECP SaaS is a ready-to-use solution for large community websites with citizens and external stakeholders. These communities websites have an important public presence and offer the possibility to publicly share content.
For more information, visit DIGIT’s Wiki Page.
