Massive Open Online Courses

By Eva Lewandowski

One of the questions we get asked most often here at Do It Green! Minnesota is where people can get more in-depth information on a topic.  We encourage people to check out all the articles on our website, recommend books, and direct them to other organizations.  One great resource that many people aren’t familiar with is MOOCs (massive open online courses).

MOOCs are free, online courses open to members of the public.  Some are self-guided, allowing the user to access them at any time, while others run during specific time periods.  MOOCs can take anywhere from less than an hour to several months to complete.  They are often administered by universities or nonprofits, but they don’t usually provide any credit or official degree certification.

MOOCs are wonderful because they offer anyone with an internet connection an opportunity to engage in high-quality learning.  Course topics range from math to medicine to medieval literature, and not surprisingly, there are a large number of MOOCs that focus on sustainability and the environment.
So where can you go to find MOOCs about the environment?  Here’s a list of options:

  • University of Wisconsin-Madison:  With its strong land grant traditions and focus on stewardship and conservation, it’s no surprise that UW-Madison is offering some green-themed MOOCs.  In 2015, the university will host courses on land ethics, forests, climate change, and energy.
  • Coursera:  This website partners with over a hundred other educational institutions to offer MOOCs on a wide variety of topics.  It recently hosted the University of Minnesota’s public class on the sustainability of food systems, and it offers a number of other cool options to learn about the environment.
  • MIT OpenCourseWare:  MIT is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and it makes its course materials accessible to everyone.  For every class that MIT offers, information is placed on the OpenCourseWare website.  In some cases all that is provided is a syllabus and reading list, but in many instances lecture slides, powerpoint presentations, videos, and homework assignments are available to eager learners.  Their environment section contains well over 100 courses!

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