Some MOOCs to be getting on with

It's at this time of year that many people seek to overburden their lives with unnecessary and unrealistic aims and projects. I am like any other in this respect, and have signed up to two of the MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) listed below - Banerjee and Duflo, of Poor Economics fame were far too much for me to resist, and 'The European Union in Global Governance' is far enough away for me not to care about what I might be doing then. Not sure what I make of MOOCs as a concept yet (see here and here and here for some opinions on them) but it'll be interesting to see what they're like whilst brushing up on my global poverty and global governance knowledge at the same time.

Anyway here are five MOOCs on development-related subjects starting in the near future, along with brief information about their content, duration, conveners, etc. Oh and thanks to Anna Spinks for the inspiration for this. Enjoy!

1. Introduction to Sustainability

By: University of Illinois
Start date: 20 Jan 2014
Course length: 10 weeks
Effort: 8-10 hours per week
Superstar instructor: Jonathan Tomkin

A sneak preview...

"[The study of sustainability seeks to] uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet". One for the inter-disciplinarians; as the description says: "understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management)"

2. The Age of Sustainable Development

By: Columbia University
Start date: 21 Jan 2014
Course length: 14 weeks
Effort: 5-7 hours per week
Superstar instructor: Jeffrey Sachs

A sneak preview...

"The fundamental question is how the world economy can continue to develop in a way that is socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable. The course describes the complex interactions between the world economy and the Earth's physical environment. Ecological processes and constraints (climate, disease ecology, physical resources such as soils and energy sources, topography and transport conditions) significantly shape the patterns of economic development, demography, and wealth and poverty. At the same time, human activities (farming, land use, urbanization, demographic change, and energy use) change the physical environments, increasingly in dangerous ways"

3. The Challenges of Global Poverty

By: MITx
Start date: 5 Feb 2014
Course length: 15 weeks
Effort: at least 6 hours per week
Superstar instructors: Banerjee and Duflo

A sneak preview...

"[I]s extreme poverty a thing of the past? What is economic life like when living under a dollar per day? Are the poor always hungry? How do we make schools work for poor citizens? How do we deal with the disease burden? Is microfinance invaluable or overrated? Without property rights, is life destined to be "nasty, brutish and short"? Should we leave economic development to the market? Should we leave economic development to non-governmental organizations (NGOs)? Does foreign aid help or hinder? Where is the best place to intervene? At the end of this course, you should have a good sense of the key questions asked by scholars interested in poverty today, and hopefully a few answers as well."

4. International Human Rights

By: LouvainX
Start date: 17 Feb 2014
Course length: 10 weeks
Effort: 6-8 hours per week
Superstar instructor: Olivier De Schutter

A sneak preview...

A course dealing with, among other issues, "the sources of human rights, the rights of individuals and the duties of States, and the mechanisms of protection...religious freedom in multicultural societies, human rights in employment relationships, economic and social rights in development, [and] human rights in the context of the fight against terrorism."

5. The European Union in Global Governance

By: KU Leuven
Start date: April 2014
Course length: 6 weeks
Effort: n/a
Superstar instructor: Prof. Dr. Jan Wouters (among others)

A sneak preview...

"The study of the EU as an international actor has become a key element in European and International Law, European Studies and International Relations. The EU represents the world’s largest trade power and aid donor, has a diplomatic service larger than that of most states, and has launched more than 20 civil-military operations. It has presented itself as a normative, global actor, and its emergence as a legal entity that is neither a state nor a classic international organization has both puzzled and fascinated legal scholars and political scientists alike. We invite students to delve into and help solve the most intriguing of these puzzles."