e-Learning Course on Green ICT Strategies: Part 11 Other Courses

In Part 10 I reported on some Australian green ICT events I had attended as part of preparing a new e-learning course on "Green IT Strategies", to be offered as part of the ACS Computer Professional Education Program. That showed what I was proposing for the course was consistent with the approach others in Australia were taking with Green ICT. However, I tought I should look more widely and see what other courses were being offered around the world.

Margaret Ross, Southampton Solent University, UK and Bob Crooks, DEFRA gave an "Overview of Green ICT" to the BCS Academics Forum, 14 November 2008. This included many of the same information on the extent of carbon emissions from ICT as other presentations and ways to deal with it, but it also has a few slides on courses:

We need

• Students and staff to
  • understand the issues, be aware and skilled in tackling them, promote green behaviours
  • use their own and Estab’s ICT in greener ways
• Educational establishments to see Green as
enhancing reputation and attraction for students
• reducing costs (less Carbon = Less energy => less cost)
• Courses to provide
Accreditation of Green skills and knowledge
• Green dimensions

...
Assignments and Projects

Assessment:

* Case history or evaluation of an organisation
* Survey, eg of local SMEs
* Audits
* Learning Activities, eg multi-choice questions


Identifying for an organisation

* Benefits and risks
* “Road map” with priorities justified,
* Budget, time scale
* Business case

And the Curriculum...

* BCS initiatives
o ISEB module
o SME awareness
o Branch forum/mash ups

...

Leeds Metropolitan University is offering a MSc Green Computing. The part-time course modules are delivered as workshops, with self study and distance learning support. Assessment is typically by reports related to the student's work and so appears similar in concept to the ACS course:

Core Modules
ICT and the Environment: Assesses and measures the current environmental impact of ICT within a corporate context.

Green Computing Technologies: Investigates existing and emerging green computing technologies and systems.

Sustainable Computing: Considers the whole life cycle from procurement to disposal with a sustainable objective.

Responsibly Green: Analyses the legal and ethical issues from a Corporate 'Green' perspective.

Green ICT strategies: Develop, formulate and evaluate Green ICT strategies for practical implementation.

Research Methods: Research, methods, skills and practice for masters level dissertations.

Brian Henderson-Sellers, UTS, has set a Green ICT Project, OO Modelling Project Report, UTS, 2008:

Case Study for Project Work & Deliverables

STATEMENT TO BE MODIFIED BY STUDENT GROUPS…

1. Green ICT (GICT)

... Note: Following are the requirements for a system called GREEN ICT (GICT). GICT is a system developed to provide systems support for businesses implementing Environmentally Responsible Business Strategies (ERBS). This is an example of how in practical real-life projects, information is initially provided as a set of descriptive pages: usually half-baked, hardly complete and at times confusing. The requirements below are more organized than that, but still the students are encouraged to delve deeper into these requirements to identify what the user wants out of the system. The students will be able to appreciate how they can further correctly, completely and consistently model and document these requirements and their designs using the UML. These requirements also describe the business situation that is so important in understanding the context in which the project exists. Understanding the context of the project is a crucial ingredient of the quality process. ...

2. Background information on the Project

GICT is a software system to be designed to support businesses implementing Environmentally Responsible Business Strategies (ERBS). Therefore, GICT is not software that is specific to a particular industry. In fact, GICT must be able to be used by various types of industry categories, including both product and service industries. ...

3. Players

There are number of players (also called stakeholders) in the GICT system. ...

4. Organizational Portal (OP)

The GICT is made up of two major parts – the Organizational Portal (OP) and the regulatory standards portal (described next). ...

5. Regulatory Standards Portal (RSP)

Regulatory Standards Portal (RSP) is a large portal, maintained by the government of the country (take, for example, Australia) ...

Green ICT Workshop, UNI Strategic Pte Ltd, December 4–5, 2008, Singapore:

Participants will Learn About

• What is “green”, what is “sustainable”, and what is “greenwash”
• How to assess their organization’s current ICT eco-footprint and create objective standards for measurement and performance.
• How to create a systematic and strategic plan for reducing the cost and eco-footprint of ICT assets and operations.
• How to estimate, document, and realize cost savings of greening IT.
• How to estimate, document, and realize the environmental benefits of greening IT.
• How to present and justify green ICT initiatives to technical, financial, environmental, and Social Responsibility stakeholders.

Kent Connects ran a one-day "Green ICT Workshop", Jul 14, 2008:

... Socitm Consulting experts will help you and your colleagues move this agenda forward:

• Understand the carbon footprint of your current ICT and customer service operations
• Learn about successful initiatives in the UK and elsewhere to reduce the environmental impact of delivering services to citizens
• Discover how green awareness and more flexible working methods can save your authority money
• Lay the foundations of an effective and realistic Green ICT action plan
• Find out how to monitor progress using Green ICT key performance indicators