Collaborative SDG Action Plans

After completing this activity trainees/ learners will be able to define an SDG action plan based on SMART goals and organize their ideas, research findings and resources related to SDGs in a shared digital workspace.

Creating action plans for addressing SDGs is a proactive way for students to make a positive impact on their communities and the world. Steps the to follow:

1. Select one or more specific SDGs that your students are passionate about or that are particularly relevant to the local community or school.
2. Form teams of 4-5 students based on their common SDG interest. Share tasks and roles of team members.
3. Ask them to make research on the chosen SDGs, by focusing on the key issues, statistics, and challenges associated with that specific SDG. Encourage them to make research on local context, by focusing on challenges. Within the chosen SDGs, they should identify specific issues or problems that need to be addressed.
4. Working groups select a suitable shared digital workspace platform. Workspace options could be Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Drive, Microsoft Teams, Slack, Trello, or collaborative note-taking tools like Notion.  
5. Name an administrator of the working space, who will manage the files and keep the record of activities. She will use task and project management tools within the workspace platform to assign and track responsibilities, deadlines, and milestones.
6. All research documents, videos and articles, should be stored in the cloud (e.g., Google Drive) to ensure easy access and sharing for each group member. For collaborative writing, students should use shared documents (e.g., Google Docs or Microsoft Word Online) that allow real-time collaboration and commenting. Is important that each team member needs to have access and appropriate permissions to the folder. To avoid loss of original documents, they should use version control features in collaborative document editors to track changes and revisions. This ensures reverting to previous versions if necessary.
7. Trainer encourage team members to add comments or annotations to research findings and ideas directly within the documents. This keeps discussions and feedback organized.
8. Working groups define their Action plans by setting SMART Goals. For example, “Reduce plastic waste in our school by 50% by the end of the school year.” To define SMART goals, they could use a shared platform where they can brainstorm, like Padlet, Mir or Mural.
9. Encourage students to implement the action steps from their plan. Trainer should help teams to regularly assess the impact of their actions, if they are moving closer to their goals.
10. Remember your students that addressing the SDGs is a long-term effort, and progress may be gradual. They should be patient, stay committed, and adapt their plans as needed to achieve meaningful change.

Note: The trainer should allocate herself enough preparation time before starting this activity with their group.

Think about the long-term sustainability of your actions. How will your initiatives continue after you leave school or graduate? Consider passing the torch to younger students or establishing a sustainable structure.

Slack: https://slack.com/

Learn about Slack: https://slack.com/resources/using-slack/apps-and-workflows

Trello: https://trello.com/home

How to use TRELLO – Tutorial for Beginners: https://youtu.be/geRKHFzTxNY?si=j3-UZT3aUf08bPA4

Notion: https://www.notion.so/ (It is a note-taking web application developed by Notion Labs Inc. It offers organizational tools including task management, project tracking, to-do lists, and bookmarking.)

Padlet tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLdZJAc3bGQ

MIRO tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNNPchRnDp8

MURAL – a quick-starter guide: https://support.mural.co/s/article/how-to-use-mural-your-quickstart-guide