The UN Sustainable Development Goals: an Interdisciplinary Academic Introduction

EdX MOOC “The UN Sustainable Development Goals: An Interdisciplinary Academic Introduction” (University of Leuven)

Climate change, pandemics, poverty, hunger, energy, conflicts,… These are big challenges the humanity is facing today, and they are all interrelated. To overcome such systemic issues, we need to step up actions at all levels.

In 2015, the United Nations have adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, a framework of goals to build a better, more viable and sustainable world for all by 2030. This framework is a powerful tool to translate sustainability commitments into concrete actions at all levels, from the local to the global. But five years into the SDGs, how well do you know about them? How did they came up to be? How are they structured? What challenges do they face?

The EdX MOOC “The UN Sustainable Development Goals: an Interdisciplinary Academic Introduction”, developed by the University of Leuven (Belgium), unravels the complex web of the 17 SDGs and explains their emergence, structure, and interrelatedness. In a systematic manner, the course explores the background and the reality of each of the SDGs, and reflects on the challenges they are confronted with.

The course is taught by an interdisciplinary team of academic experts from the University of Leuven, as well as by practitioners in the field. Throughout the 6 modules, you will explore the concept of sustainable development and each of the 17 SDGs through videos complemented by reading materials. The discussion platforms and activities will offer you the opportunity to exchange with your peers on some of the most salient sustainability issues globally as well as to share your own experiences in contributing to the SDGs in your daily life.

The course consists of 6 modules and takes approximately 25 hours to complete, which you can do at your own pace up until 25 October 2021. As it is 100% online, it is entirely COVID-safe and you can take it from wherever you want.

As an introductory course, this MOOC is targeted at anyone with any educational or professional background who is interested in understanding how the ambitious 2030 Agenda and its SDGs aim to solve global issues.

Interested? Join over 5000 participants around the world and enroll now: https://www.edx.org/course/the-un-sustainable-development-goals-an-interdisci

What learners have said about the course…

“This was a great introductory course to the SDGs and now I feel a lot more confident in the holistic aspect of sustainability!”

“I liked the interactive material. Breaking it up with videos and little finger exercises was really excellent and a great way to reflect critically on the goals without spending too much time and effort on each task (manageable for us with busy schedules!). The content addressed both criticisms, trade-offs and synergies, giving a very realistic outlook on the SDGs and inspires us to think about how we can reform, adapt and continue making progress.”

“The course is very well-designed in term of contents and how lecturers analyze each goal and give examples.”

“The MOOC was really good to broaden my horizon. It was clearly divided according to the goals, so I could easily follow the lectures. I could understand the importance of SDGs for all actors in public and private sectors.”