Design for Sustainability online courses fill to capacity

The Gaia Education e-learning programmes have grown for the past three years to reach full capacity in all dimensions in the 2017 series. Over the past two years, Gaia Education has invested its resources in updating all contents of the online courses to reflect the latest insights, research, and innovation in its 4D curriculum. And, this year the virtual classroom got a major uplift as we launched the latest version of the Moodle Open Source Learning Platform, with engaging collaborative forums and a lively learning community.

A typical comment from participants is that “there are no other courses online that cover so much relevant and inspiring content in such a well-organised and easy for us platform.” Billa Lauiti Kolkr, Australia.

The roster of English language courses, which include an ongoing self-paced introduction to the Big Picture of Designing for Sustainability, as well as the full 4D curriculum and a newly developed Design Studio, have reached record enrollment, and for the first time have had to close enrollment early due to high volume. However, participants are still welcomed to enroll for the full certificate course or for a single dimension, if they wish to deepen their expertise in a particular area. The next dimension of the 4D series, Worldview, is now open for registration. This dimension will start on May 8th and run for 8 consecutive weeks. Students who complete requirements for the four dimensions can then join the Design Studio in July of each year. A bonus feature of the e-learning programme is that students can take up to two years to complete the full 10-month certificate track.

The Spanish programme, in partnership with the Open University of Catalunya graduated its first group of MA students this year, and dramatically increased enrollment for the 2017 courses, while the Portuguese programme is keeping steady enrollment and reaching a wider Portuguese speaking audience at a much more affordable cost than more conventional university courses. All three tracks are part of the Learning Journey towards a professional training certificate launched this year in response to the high demand for trained facilitators who can conduct individual dimensions of the 4D curriculum both online and in face to face EDEs.

In addition, Gaia Education will be conducting an online course on Renewable Energy for Sustainable Development in partnership with UNITAR and the University of Strathclyde, beginning on 1st May and running for 8 consecutive weeks. This course is open to those in the business, non-profit, public and academic sectors who wish to install renewable energy systems in both urban and rural settings or make their contribution to reducing carbon emissions through energy efficiency and use of sustainable energy sources.