Food for thought: VLEs help academics and students see the bigger picture

One billion people go to bed hungry, while over two billion are overweight or obese. Our unsustainable global food system urgently needs joined-up, 'outside-the-box' thinking from across contexts as varied as politics, economics, business, society, culture and the environment.

As part of the Interdisciplinary Food Systems Teaching and Learning Programme (IFSTAL), the Environmental Change Institute is collaborating on a multi-disciplinary, multi-University virtual learning environment (accessed through WebLearn). Academics and graduate students from different relevant specialisms and backgrounds benefit from live-streamed cross-university lectures, and other online tools including cross-campus voting, forums, Q&A sessions and webinars.

We've really been able to draw on the strengths and different perspectives of each partner institution... IFSTAL is already helping students see the 'bigger picture'.

– Dr Rebecca White, Environmental Change Institute