This is the ninth in our series of blog posts showcasing work presented at ESD Exchange. Patrick and Shelly’s session took place on day two of the ESD Exchange conference, on April 17th 2026.
This is based on my talk at ESD Exchange delivered on 17th April 2026 entitled Student-led videos to highlight UN-SDGs in undergraduate modules
At the University of Exeter, a central vision of The Transformative Education Initiative is to embed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Climate Emergency across all courses, including integration of carbon literacy training into the curriculum.
Within the Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, which includes Biomedical Science, Medicine, Neuroscience and Medical Science, SDG embedding has been supported by mapping exercises and staff workshops. In developing the new BSc Biomedical Sciences programme which started in 2025, SDGs have been embedded in all modules from the onset.
In 2023, we wanted to understand how students experienced sustainability within their modules, and at university more widely. We therefore organised a workshop, which was attended by ten 1st year students, and several of the teaching staff from our department, and used several activities to gather their views and experiences.
Surprisingly, no students recognised the acronym ‘SDG’. Furthermore, they felt that exposure to sustainability was limited whilst university so far. This was despite the fact that several had completed our modules where we had explained the SDG links in the module information and highlighted the links on various PowerPoint Slides. Also surprisingly, they also perceived that many of their peers on their courses had little interest in sustainability. Other notable comments from this workshop were that students wanted paid opportunities to get involved in sustainability, and to see leaders in sustainability they could relate to.
So, this prompted the question, “What else could we do to make students more aware of the SDGs in their modules?”
We decided to use students as co-creators. Students would produce short videos linking the content of their modules to relevant SDGs. These would be made available on the module Moodle pages, and other student-facing pages, allowing their peers these courses to view content if they were curious.
One advantage of this approach is that it shifts some responsibility of embedding sustainability/SDGs away from the module leads. It also enables integration of a broader range of SDGs, as biomedical educators often focus on SDG3 (good health and wellbeing), and SDG10 (reduced inequality) rather than topics related to environmental sustainability.
In October 2025, we recruited 12 students, who worked in pairs to make two videos. The students could choose the modules and SDGs they would focus on, though we provided some broad suggestions, and some guidelines of essential information to include. The students were paid for 20 hours each for their work. Although students worked largely independently, we held a workshop in January they shared ideas, received feedback and shared tips for video editing. Each student was required to fill in a reflective log during the project, which enabled us to keep track of their progress and for them to reflect on what they have learned during the project. All reflective logs were also visible to other students involved in the project.
So far, the results of the project have been promising. All videos were completed on time, and covered a wide range of topics, including lab waste reduction, the environmental impacts of artificial intelligence, gender equality and representation in scientific research, and the relationship of skills taught in a module to good work and economic growth. The videos were engaging, with styles ranging from animation explainers to direct-to-camera pieces and narrated PowerPoints.
In an end-of project focus group, students commented on their appreciation of the importance of SDGs and highlighted the skills they had developed – particularly in science communication, video production, and writing formal email requests to university staff. Many felt the project had strengthened their employability and confidence.
We have now in the process of adding the videos to the student webpages. The next stage of the project will be in the next academic year; the key questions we have are:
- Will students watch the videos?
- If they do, will students watch them to the end?
- Will students become more how their courses relate to SDGs?
The project also has raised broader questions about how such video projects could be applied more widely in undergraduate education. For example, how could the project be set up to have meaningful international collaborations? Would such a project be successful if it was voluntary?
We look forward to analysing the results from the video-viewing as they start becoming available in September. We hope that they will enhance our students’ experiences of sustainability during their time at university.
Author contact details:
