Study phases

The intervention and data collection of this study, related to the design, development and use of a community-based EfS website, consisted of a sequence of four study phases:

• Phase I: Planning phase

• Phase II: Pre-design research phase

• Phase III: Design phase

• Phase IV Evaluation phase

Further details of each study phase are presented below, with an indication of the purpose and expected outcomes of each phase. This is followed by Section 4.5.2, which presents the methods used during the data collection phases. Note that all research instruments used in this study were constructed in English, and then translated into Spanish for their administration. Myself as the researcher did the translations; I am fluent in both languages. In some cases translations were double checked by other people also fluent in both languages.

I. Planning phase

This phase consisted of the planning of the intervention of this study, in terms of the selection of a target community in which to carry out the intervention. This phase involved three stages: firstly, to identify a target community in Chile, and a sustainability issue affecting the target community, for which an EfS website can be developed. Secondly, the familiarization of the researcher with general aspects related to the use of Internet websites in the Chilean context, as well as within the chosen target community. This included a general overview of the type and quality of ICT and Internet penetration, and website affordances that are culturally relevant in the Chilean context, and in the chosen target community. And thirdly, a networking and partnership process with relevant individuals, organizations and groups related to the target community and chosen sustainability issue.

In the first stage, the objective was to review the Chilean national, regional and local contexts in regard to potential and suitable target communities.

This stage included different meetings and interviews with strategic people and experts knowledgeable about the general ecological sustainability of this country (n = 11, see Section 5.2.1.2), to assist with the selection of a potential target community in which to carry out the intervention of this study. These key strategic individuals and experts represented a variety of areas and disciplines, providing input from a range of perspectives in relation to the selection of a potential suitable target community for the purposes of the present research. The target community needed to comply with the following three conditions:

• Presence of a socio-ecological related sustainability issue affecting the local community;

• Presence and penetration of ICT and Internet infrastructure;

• An evident need for the implementation of an EfS intervention at the community level.

During this stage, data collection was carried out in the form of informal interviews, researcher’s personal observations and notes, and audio recording for later analysis and interpretation, as a means to document and evaluate all the input given from the group of key strategic individuals and experts. More details on these participants are provided in Chapter 5.

The second stage of this planning phase included an overview of the quality and penetration of ICT and Internet in the Chilean context, and within the chosen target community. The objective of this stage was to familiarize the researcher with the general range of affordances and features that Internet websites can offer to non-formal EfS at the community level in Chile. This stage included input from four different website developers and designers, and involved some data collection in the form of informal interviews.

The third stage of the planning phase, which consisted of the networking and partnership with relevant individuals, organizations and groups related to the chosen community and sustainability issue, permitted a better understanding of the different contexts existing in the target community.

These individuals, organizations and groups were both from the target

community, and from outside the target community, but in all cases related either to the target community and/or chosen sustainability issue (e.g.

university academics knowledgeable on the target sustainability issue).

More information and details on these experts and organizations from the second and third stages mentioned above are presented in Section 5.2.

Another aim of this third stage was to start the process of receiving input from relevant organizations, groups, and persons in the form of ‘user-informed design’ (see Section 2.4.3) that contributed to the design and development of the EfS website. Nonetheless, the actual user-informed design process is part of the second study phase of this research.

II. Pre-design research phase

This second study phase consisted of understanding the ecological, social, cultural and technological contexts of the chosen target community, in relation to the sustainability issue to be addressed through the EfS website. The aim of this phase was to gather all the relevant information related to the target community and the chosen sustainability issue that informed the design and development of the EfS website. In order to achieve understanding of the local socio-ecological and cultural contexts of the target community, as well as the technological context related to ICT penetration and use within the target community, this pre-design research phase involved four stages:

• An investigation process of the local, social and cultural contexts of the target community (stage 2a);

• The assessment of the existing conceptions within the target community members, in regard to the chosen sustainability issue (stage 2b);

• An assessment of the type of ICT penetration, infrastructure, and use within the target community, and a review of existing EfS websites (or similar environment related websites) already available to the target community (stage 2c);

• An understanding of the chosen sustainability issue by the researcher (stage 2d).

In the first stage, the understanding of the local, social and cultural contexts of the target community was initially achieved through the networking and partnership process from the previous phase (i.e. planning phase). During this process, key strategic persons, organizations and groups were identified and invited to provide input from their perspectives about a variety of topics related to the target community, in relation to the chosen sustainability issue (e.g. ICT and Internet infrastructure, community members’ general level of ICT skills, existing interests regarding sustainability issues, economic aspects, etc.).

This stage involved interviews (n = 11; see Appendix A for details on the research instrument), observations and notes, and audio recordings of the interviews as data collection methods. This was conducted to document and evaluate all the received input from such key strategic persons, organizations and groups that participated of this process. A second method of data collection for the understanding of the local, social and cultural contexts of the target community in relation to the chosen sustainability issue was the revision and analysis of relevant documents and existing data regarding the target community and its relation to the chosen sustainability issue.

Concerning the second stage involving the investigation of the existing conceptions among community members of the target community, a questionnaire survey was carried out with nineteen local community members who accepted an invitation to participate in the survey (survey 2b ‘Existing sustainability conceptions’; see Appendix B). This questionnaire survey was administered in public places of the target community, for example within city parks, public library, and the local council building (see Section 5.3.1), and included a range of open and closed questions related to the chosen sustainability issue.

The aim of the questionnaire survey was to assess the type and level of knowledge of participants concerning the chosen sustainability issue affecting the local community, and to identify the range of potential

alternative conceptions existing within participants of the survey in relation to the local sustainability issue. The identification of such alternative conceptions permitted the EfS website design team to guide the development of educational affordances and content of the EfS website, and, in the case of the presence of such alternative conceptions, to directly target them through, for example, a ‘challenging beliefs’ learning strategy (i.e. for details of this approach refer to Section 3.2.1).

The third stage of this pre-design research phase involved assessment of the technological characteristics existing in the target community. This included a review of existing EfS websites (or similar types of environmental websites) available to the target community, and a survey addressing levels of ICT access and skills, and Internet websites preferences among participants of this survey (survey 2c ‘Existing websites preferences’; n = 19; see Appendix C). Note that participants of survey 2c were recruited in the same way as participants for survey 2b (see Section 5.3.21), and that in a few cases the same participant was invited to participate in both surveys.

This research stage permitted the understanding of the local context in terms of use of websites within the target community, as well as the identification of website features and affordances that seemed to be relevant and meaningful to participants of the survey. Data collection during this research stage was carried out in the form of a questionnaire survey that included a short interview during the survey, in order to assess participants’ website preferences.

During the interview participants were shown different types of websites and asked to identify the websites’ affordances and features that were relevant to them (i.e. user-informed design process). This assessment of participants’ website preferences helped guide the design phase of the intervention (phase III), particularly the design and development of the EfS website’s affordances.

The last stage of this pre-design research phase consisted of developing the understanding of the chosen sustainability topic and issue by the researcher, as a means to enhance the whole process associated with the design and development of an EfS website for the target community. The understanding of the chosen sustainability issue, within the context of the target community, allowed the researcher and the design team of the EfS website to address relevant aspects related to the main sustainability issue affecting the target community within the EfS website. This stage involved data collection in the form of analysis of existing documents, as well as interviews with the key strategic individuals, organizations and groups identified during the networking and partnership process from the planning phase (n = 11; see Appendix D).

III. Design phase

Once the planning and pre-design research phases were concluded, the third study phase of this research involved the design and development of an EfS website to address the socio-ecological sustainability issues affecting the target community. This design phase was carried out based on all the information and data collected during the previous two phases, and following the guidelines of the theoretical model for the development of EfS websites presented in Chapter 3. The objective of the development of such an EfS website was to use it as the research instrument for the evaluation of the use of EfS websites at the community level, and its potential for the promotion of understanding and action around socio-ecological sustainability issues among members of the target community.

As a means to develop a relevant and meaningful EfS website for the target community, the design and development of the EfS website was carried out within a user-informed design format. This means that during the design and development of the website local community members were invited to get involved and participate in the design process. A detailed review of this design phase and all related aspects is presented in Chapter 5 addressing the intervention of this study, where the chosen target community and socio-ecological sustainability issue are introduced.

IV. Evaluation phase

This fourth study phase corresponded to the evaluation of the use of the EfS website by local community members of the target community. This evaluation phase aimed to address the third and fourth research sub-questions of the present PhD research project, and evaluate if the EfS website developed during the design phase of this study promoted understanding of sustainability issues affecting the target community;

action towards the local socio-ecological sustainability at the target community; and the adoption of ecological sustainability principles and practices among local community members. The next section introduces more details on the data collection methods carried out during the study phases.