This project focuses on developing a central online coordinating hub for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and environmental learning as part of the Fundisa for Change teacher capacity-building programme that seeks to achieve the overall goal of developing teacher capacity to deliver transformational ESD and environmental learning. The ELRC project’s objective was to catalyse the upscaling of the Fundisa for Change programme in South Africa to support teaching capacity building, through online courses and material development. Our main result areas included:

• Developing the National System of Engagement through stakeholder consultation
• Drafting and sharing of the content for the ESD-aligned online courses for generic and topic-specific.
• Development of the course platform, ten online courses and the materials management system.
• The development of an online Monitoring and Evaluation framework

During phase one of the project, we consulted with various stakeholders to review and redevelop the Fundisa for Change course outcomes, pedagogy and how Fundisa for Change online courses can strengthen the CAPS Curriculum. The team developed frameworks and guidelines for the initial ten online courses and established a monitoring and evaluation system on the online learning platform. In phase two, the Rhodes University team appointed specialists, including graphic designers, web designers, material and resource developers and course developers. The team consisted of Prof Heila Lotz-Sisitka, Dr Wilma van Staden, Mr Thandanani Miya, Dr Sebastian Sanjigadu, Dr Arorisoe Sibanda, Prof Rob O’Donoghue. In 2022 three initial Teaching Climate Change in Life Orientation Courses were developed. During 2023 the team developed nine other courses covering ESD topics climate change, green economy, sustainable livelihoods, Indigenous Heritage Knowledge, circular economy and nutrition. We aim to complete another five short courses on framing IKS in Sustainable Livelihoods, one Teaching Climate Change in Geography and one Teaching Biodiversity in Natural Science online course by the end of 2023.  We are finalising the project in Phase Three. The course platform and the material management systems are in place. We are continuing to pilot-test the courses with different organisations and groups and adjusting the online courses. The Rhodes team presented the roll-out plan for all the courses for 2024 at EEASA and shared our monitoring and evaluation process with stakeholders.