Trinity invites you to explore sustainable development in free online course

Posted on: 23 October 2018

Trinity College Dublin is inviting learners across the globe to explore the major challenges facing the world and to learn about the actions that can help create a better one as it launches a new run of its free, massive open online course (MOOC), entitled Achieving Sustainable Development.

Since 2014, Trinity has reached over 100,000 learners from more than 100 countries worldwide through free online courses in Irish History, Successful Ageing, and Exercise Prescription. The Achieving Sustainable Development MOOC offers yet another high-quality, free course that provides a multi-disciplinary perspective of important issues. It has been crafted following a unique collaboration involving researchers from five of Trinity’s Schools: Ecumenics, Economics, Engineering, Natural Sciences and Medicine.

What challenges are we facing to create a better world?

What is the future for the world around us? What challenges are we facing collectively to stop conflict, improve healthcare, build sustainable cities, and enable access to clean water and sanitation? How do we measure our impact? These are some of the key questions that will be explored over the four-week course, which begins on Monday 5th November.

Achieving Sustainable Development is open to anyone interested in the future of our world, and how we can improve it together. It has been coordinated through the Trinity International Development Initiative and exploring the challenges to sustainable development in our world.

Achieving Sustainable Development is open to anyone interested in the future of our world, and how we can improve it together. It has been coordinated through the Trinity International Development Initiative and exploring the challenges to sustainable development in our world.

The course explores the links between five of the global Sustainable Development Goals: peace; healthcare; sustainable cities; water and sanitation; and gender equality. Learners will examine fascinating case studies from Ireland, Uganda, Sri Lanka, Colombia, India, and Korea which look at the impact of development on real lives, and challenge how we think about making our world a better place.

Coordinator at the Trinity International Development Initiative, Linda Lumbasi, said:

Achieving sustainable development is the collective challenge of our time. How can we work together globally to achieve peace, access to healthcare, improve sanitation, and ensure sustainable cities? Through Trinity’s work with partners around the world, we seek to find innovative and practical solutions to some of these complex issues related to sustainable development.

Associate Professor in Trinity’s School of Medicine, Dr Martina Hennessy, added:

Our course is for learners who care about the future of our world, and who wish to engage in a discussion about how we can all contribute to achieving sustainable development. It has been a pleasure to collaborate with colleagues across Trinity who all bring important perspectives on tackling some of the greatest global challenges that face us.

Using real-world examples, the course will tackle complex questions on sustainable development by asking:

  • Is world peace the most important goal for sustaining development?
  • How can we ensure that healthcare is available to the most vulnerable?
  • What are innovative ways to provide sanitation services in cities?
  • How can we measure the impact and outcomes of development projects?

 

For more information about Achieving Sustainable Development and to register for the course, see here.