Leeds launches its first MOOC
A free course launched today by the University of Leeds forms the first wave of a new approach to online learning.
Professor Jon Lovett conducting fieldwork in Tanzania
'Fairness and Nature: When Worlds Collide' is one of the first MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) offered in partnership with FutureLearn – a company built on the Open University’s expertise in delivering online and distance education. The course focuses on why fairness needs to be part of natural resource management policy.
Led by the School of Geography's Professor Jon Lovett, who holds Leeds’ Leadership Chair of Global Challenges, the two-week ‘mini-MOOC’ will be the first of FutureLearn’s courses to finish, running for two weeks from October 21.
MOOCS are free for all, with potential students of all ages from across the globe able to choose a course that interests them and learn from the University’s top academics – benefiting from virtual access to world-leading researchers in their field and studying at a pace that suits them.
Professor Lovett said: “We are targeting the MOOC at audiences that don’t have access to the high quality education we provide here at Leeds – such as Nepal, which features prominently as a key case study. This MOOC gives information about institutional economics and how it can be applied in real situations. If the participants take the message on board, then environmental change will result.”
See the homepage Watch & Listen video slot for Professor Lovett's video about how and why the MOOC was created.
For more information, to watch a trailer and to sign up to When Worlds Collide, visit the FutureLearn website or the University's MOOCs webpage.