MOOCs 2023-2024

MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, are a model for delivering learning content online to anyone who wants to take a course, with no limit on the number of participants and no fees. MOOCs allow us to learn from our peers around the world.

The SMUS MOOCs bring research and practice on urban sustainability into a global digital auditorium and respond to the need for the production, teaching and exchange of contextualised spatial practice and knowledge from different parts of the world. The MOOC themes are linked to the targets of the Sustainable Development Goal #11 and are driven by the context of the location, picking up on other pressing local urban development issues. Each MOOC team was led by a SMUS partner who in turn collaborated with local partners from academia and practice.

To access the MOOC trailers and open access links to their hosting platforms, please click on the individual MOOC tiles below.


This MOOC seeks to create awareness on natural restoration, enabling the recovery of natural areas and enhancing resilience against climate change-related disasters on a neighborhood scale. Through experiential learning, participants will be invited to explore and design solutions that can contribute to the conservation and restoration of the ecological balance in our cities.

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Structured around three different spatial scales: city scale, neighbourhood scale, and household scale, this MOOC addresses the interconnected issues of corruption, integrity failures, lack of accountability, and poor access to water and sanitation services in informal settlements in Lima. The participants of this MOOC will hear directly from policy makers, civil society organizations, residents of informal settlements and staff of the utility company to expand their understanding of the impacts of corruption and lack of integrity in the water and sanitation sectors, learn how to address such challenges, and how such impacts can be spatialized in informal settlements.

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SIC! – Sense, Investigate, Communicate


GERMANY, Berlin and MEXICO, Xalapa

Bridging international colorful expertise, disciplines, and languages, this MOOC focuses on ways of sensing, reading, and communicating about the diverse sociocultural and ecological environments that give urban spaces their flavors, and to elevate sensibility against human-made hazards, erasures, and dispossession. Basing on feminist principles of research and data visualization, participants of this MOOC will be trained with a diverse toolkit that triangulates sensorial experiences, participatory (critical) mapping, and visual methods, to help situate divergent perspectives and enhance concepts of living and coexistence in urban spaces.

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This MOOC shows several of the great cultural and natural heritage sites in Kazakhstan and zooms in on the city of Almaty. At the same time, it addresses the challenges in protecting these resources, and through discussions and interviews with scholars, practitioners, activists, and local authorities, tries to find common pathways to strengthen the protection of the cultural and natural capital of Kazakhstan.

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This MOOC addresses the lack of multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral flood risk reduction and management practices and policies in urban settings of Tanzania. Using interdisciplinary spatial research methods, this MOOC will explore a century of flood disasters and responses in the case study city of Dar es Salaam, in order to influence change in practice and policy in risk reduction and flood management.

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