Skip to content

Four-pillar sustainability model for online study programs

Design · All designs
Evidence · 1 claim (1 for) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 1 claim rests on one study

Description

The article applies a four-pillar sustainability model in which "The model consists of four sustainability pillars: economic, social, environmental, and ethical." The economic pillar covers resources and funding, the social pillar internal dynamics and community, the environmental pillar the physical, technical, cultural and psychological contexts, and the ethical pillar the values behind goals and working principles. The pillars are mutually interrelated and can be traded off; the authors use the model to analyze critical events and pivotal factors of an online doctoral program.

Design Implications

Context

Requirements

  • Analysis requires identifying pivotal factors connected to critical events from the perspective of each pillar

Constraints

  • The authors note relying too heavily on a single pillar or even two could be potentially problematic for the sustainability of the program

Target Learners

  • doctoral students in online study programs

Learning Goals

  • sustainable design and continuation of online study programs

Claims

Examples

-

Key Sources

  • Jarkko Suhonen · Erkki Sutinen. (2022). Critical events and pivotal factors as tools for analyzing the sustainability of online study programs. Education Tech Research Dev. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-022-10133-9
Page metadata
Field Value
type design
id four-pillar-sustainability-model-online-programs
title Four-pillar sustainability model for online study programs
description The article applies a four-pillar sustainability model in which "The model consists of four sustainability pillars: economic, social, environmental, and ethical." The economic pillar covers resources and funding, the...
status review
generated by process:settle-candidates on 2026-10-28
trust unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
sources 1 — jarkko-suhonen-erkki-sutinen-2022

Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.