There are a growing number of MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) being offered on a range of sustainability and ethical topics. These courses are available for free online, open to anyone with an interest in the topic, and they last between three and fourteen weeks and take between three and eight hours of time per week to complete. Here is a selection of courses from PRME signatory and non-signatory schools being offered this Spring 2015.
- Natural Resources and Sustainable Development organised by Louvain School of Management, and taught in French, explores the links between the exploitation of natural resources (land, water, minerals, forests) and sustainable development, including understanding the opportunities and challenges at the local and global levels. (Currently open)
- Louvain School of Management has another online course this spring on International Human Rights Law, taught in English, which aims to provide a solid understanding of international human rights law as well as explore the controversies surrounding development of international human rights law and its enforcement. (Currently open)
- Re-Enchanting the City – Designing the Human Habitat from the University of New South Wales introduces the interdisciplinary nature of city planning with a focus on design, sustainability and law. (Start Date: April 2015)
- The University of British Columbia has an interdisciplinary MOOC on Forests and Livelihoods in Developing Countries, exploring the complex interactions between poverty, rural livelihoods, and forest resources in developing countries, and considering some of the dynamics that occur when impoverished people use forests in their daily lives. (Currently open)
- The Ethics of Eating at Cornell University explores the ethical issues we confront each time we decide what to eat or purchase food. The course will involve a diverse group of philosophers, food scientists, activists, industry specialists, and farmers in this discussion. (Start date: 15 April 2015)
- The Introduction to the Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda for UN Delegates and Negotiators provides an in-depth overview of the Post-2015 agenda, the main challenges in each Sustainable Development goal, the changing nature of global partnerships for sustainable development and the implementation of the agenda. (Currently open)
Other courses currently being offered include;
- Learning for Sustainability: Developing a personal ethic by the University of Edinburgh looks at our own personal understandings of sustainability, and the significance of these as they shape environmental, social, economic and moral principles for individual, collective or corporate behaviour. (Start date: June 2015)
- Corporate Social Responsibility and its impact on Information Technology from the Open Education Consortium (offered in Spanish) explores the role of CSR in economic and financial sustainability, and how organisations generate informational models that allow companies to value success and compare their progress between sectors and geographically. (Start date: May 2015)
- Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs): How can PPPs help deliver better services from World Bank Group explores the key principles of PPPs and how they can be used to address the infrastructure gaps in emerging markets. (Start date: June 2015)
- Introduction to Sustainability, Resilience and Society by University of Washington examines the complex but critical concepts of sustainability and resilience, including a self-analysis of your own environmental impact. The University is also running an Introduction to Media Ethics exploring ethics in communication, social media and new technologies, as well as the course Introduction to Globalisation and You, which examines the impact of market led global integration on the economy and on our personal lives. (All three are currently open)
- Biomimicry: A Sustainable Design Methodology from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design explores the principles of biomimicry and how it emulates nature’s best ideas and blueprints in order to solve human design challenges. (Start date: March 23 2015)
- Circumpolar Innovation from the University of Saskatchewan examines the manner in which scientific and technological innovation, or the commercialisation of technology-based products and services, is shaping the Circumpolar world, with a focus on environmental sustainability. (Currently open)
- The Challenges of Global Poverty from MIT explores the challenges posed by massive and persistent world poverty. Is extreme poverty a thing of the past? Should we leave economic development to the market? To NGOs? To Foreign aid? (Open now)
- Introduction to Environmental Sciences from Dartmouth University explores the natural world and how it is influenced by people. Major topics include food, energy, human population, biodiversity and global change. (Currently open)
- Basics of Energy Sustainability from Rice University explores the basics of energy sustainability through technological and economic frameworks, and global markets. (Start date: October 2015)
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