Exploring sustainable student travel behaviour in The Netherlands: balancing online and on-campus learning

Abstract

Purpose Daily commuting trips of higher education (HE) students account for a large proportion of the carbon footprint of a HE institution. Considerations of students underlying their choice of travel mode and their decision to make the trip to campus or to study online are explored as a necessary first step for finding an optimal balance between online and on-campus learning from both a sustainability and an educational perspective. Design/methodology/approach Focus group conversations were held with student groups from different study programmes of a university of applied sciences in the Netherlands. Findings Dutch students’ travel mode choices seem to depend on measures regulating travel demand such as a free public transport card and high parking costs. The findings indicate that students make reasoned choices about making a trip to campus. These choices depend on considerations about their schedule, type, lecturer and content of a course, social norms and their own perceived behavioural control. Alternative online options can provide students with more flexibility to make choices adapted to their needs. Social implications While these findings are useful for sustainable and educational reasons, they also seem helpful in times of COVID-19 which calls for a re-design of curricula to allow for blended forms of online and on-campus learning. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first studies looking at students’ considerations when deciding whether to travel to campus to learn or stay at home learning online.

Online Learning Participation Intention after COVID-19 Pandemic in Indonesia: Do Students Still Make Trips for Online Class?

“…The main driver behind the growing adoption of online learning extends beyond its ability to improve access to education and quality of learning into its potential to reduce the cost of education [13,37]. On the other hand, the benefits of e-learning are also felt by students, as they can learn at their own pace with the availability of online materials as well as the time and cost wasted for traveling are reduced [12,28,38]. The popularity of e-learning is proven by a market size of USD 222 billion in 2020, which was pushed by the mobility restriction imposed by governments in light of the COVID-19 pandemic [39].…”

“…Various studies [27,28,35] have examined online learning behaviors to identify ways to make online learning more effective and to attract more students to adopt the method. Several studies that investigate the effectiveness of online learning have underlined instructors/lecturers, learning method, and interaction as key factors to the effectiveness of online learning [20,38].…”

“…Many universities and colleges around the world are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and studies in the US, UK, and the Netherlands have estimated an emission between 300 and 630 kg CO 2 [49][50][51][52]. While studies on the impact of e-learning on travel remain limited, a study by Versetijlen [28] in the Netherlands found that online learning has potentially reduced the need for travel to campus as well as for non-study-related trips.…”

“…However, research on the impact of online learning on travel is rarely conducted. One such research was done by Versetijlen [28] in 2019 and found that online learning potentially reduces the need for travel to campus as well as non-study trips in the Netherlands. However, this research is limited, as the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and the research were conducted in 2019 when online learning was not as intensive as it is today.…”

“…First, in Indonesia, students make up a substantial portion of the population within the age bracket of 15-24 years old at 17% (46 million people) of the population [29], and therefore, their travel contributes significantly to traffic congestion. Second, with such a significant number, student travel contributes to the production of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, which consequently accelerates climate change [28], and many universities worldwide are looking for ways to reduce their emission [30]. Therefore, understanding the impact of online learning can be beneficial to comprehend its impact on sustainability.…”