A mega-digital hackathon for student-driven environmental justice in war: 3 Challenges and 7 institutions from 7 European countries

In a world of multiple social disruptions and ongoing crises (e.g. climate emergency, war, etc.), digital education should embrace a holistic approach to learning to make sure both educators, learners and society gain its true benefits for social good. In this context, our contribution presents the transformative, digitally-enhanced learning trajectory adopted by the Erasmus+ GROMADA project (https://gromada-erasmus.eu/) that combines innovative theory-based learning with hands-on application of acquired knowledge and skills in a continuum of digitally-driven learning activities.

Hence, at the initiative of Web2Learn (Stefania Oikonomou, Katerina Zourou) we transformed a traditional learning activity to train Ukrainian university staff and students in environmental citizen science, into a user-attractive and mega-learning experience that encompasses:

• 3 Online “crash courses” to introduce and familiarise students and academic staff with the topics of a) war-linked threats to water, b) soil quality in conflict, and c) the legal dimension of citizen-generated environmental data. This learning pillar serves as the theoretical framework to guide the forthcoming hands-on actions. In particular:
• 3 Challenges on the 3 topics presented above; registered within the pan-European digital education hackathon competition “DigiEduHack”. Hence, this problem solving-oriented activity aims to strengthen and expand knowledge gained by students through the online courses by encouraging them to co-ideate, co-experiment and co-create solutions that enhance digitally-driven education and action for environmental justice in Ukraine. 
• A series of environmental citizen science projects in Ukraine that are designed to allow students to apply their cumulative (theoretical and hands-on) knowledge in concrete, real-life scenarios of community monitoring of environmental damages. 

Finally, our contribution aims to highlight the value of offering stimulating, digitally-enhanced and action-oriented learning experiences to students who are affected by war consequences. By leveraging the potential present in digital education environments, like DigiEduHack, and combining it with knowledge and skills generated learning activities, we build an inclusive and sustainable pathway towards student-driven environmental justice and advocacy.