Abstract
This chapter highlights the high potential and challenges involved with developing Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) for capacity building and climate-friendly technology transfer within the United Nations (UN) system. The paper begins by providing a short introduction to the world of MOOCs and their rapid rise in recent years. The second section explores why sustainable development-oriented international organizations (IOs) have arguably not used this resource to its full potential. It does so with a case study of a MOOC proposal on ‘ecosystem-based climate technologies for adaptation to climate change’ that was discussed between representatives of academia at the UN, and executives from the UN’s Climate Technology Centre and Network (CTCN). A concept note from Oxford University academics, requested by the above-mentioned UN centre, had suggested a free and short MOOC (the standard format of a four- to six-week long course), focusing on high-visibility adaptation technologies. Despite several positive academia-/-UN exchanges, the MOOC never materialized as the funds needed were substantial and not immediately available. Additionally, a previous UNEP MOOC had shown that MOOC costs involving a UN organization—with heavy procurement and administrative constraints—could potentially run significantly higher than what MOOC platforms indicate for universities. Eventually, the UN’s CTCN chose to propose a series of webinars on climate technologies and host the recorded material on its website.
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Notes
- 1.
Shah (2016).
- 2.
See e.g. https://www.coursera.org/specializations.
- 3.
Global MOOC enrolment jumped again last year (2016).
- 4.
Ibid.
- 5.
Ibid.
- 6.
Ibid.
- 7.
Adams (2013).
- 8.
Leckart (2012).
- 9.
The platform of the World Bank’s Open Learning Campus is available at: https://olc.worldbank.org/. The platform of the ILO is available at: https://ecampus.itcilo.org/.
- 10.
The UNEP offered in 2015 ‘The E-Waste Challenge’ MOOC and subsequently the MOOC ‘Disasters and Ecosystem: Resilience in a Changing Climate’. Nothing has been announced since then.
- 11.
The United Nations Information Portal on Multilateral Environmental Agreements is available at: https://www.informea.org/. Based on several Website traffic measurements, its total visits were estimated at only 619 visits over the past six months, of as of 29 March, 2017. See, e.g. https://www.similarweb.com/website/e-learning.informea.org#overview.
- 12.
Hollands and Tirthali (2014).
- 13.
ILO Crowdfunding for Development Massive Open Online Course Report (2015). Retrieved from https://issuu.com/itcilo/docs/cf4dev_evaluation_of_a_massive_open.
- 14.
One of the two authors of this chapter, Dr. Laurent A. Lambert, was then a representative of the global research community at the AB meeting of the CTCN and one of the two Oxford University authors of the MOOC concept notes for a CTCN MOOC.
- 15.
The World Bank’s two online courses on climate-smart agriculture at that time had only focussed on other aspects, namely soil carbon monitoring and sustainable land-water management. See http://einstitute.worldbank.org/ei/.
- 16.
References
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Lambert, L.A., Hassan, H. (2018). MOOCs and International Capacity Building in a UN Framework: Potential and Challenges. In: Leal Filho, W., Mifsud, M., Pace, P. (eds) Handbook of Lifelong Learning for Sustainable Development. World Sustainability Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63534-7_11
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