The "Sustainable Development Goals - together, let's meet the challenge" MOOC supported by the Veolia Foundation wins "MOOC of the Year"

On 30 January in Paris during the 3rd MOOC (MOOC: Massive Open Online Course) of the Year ceremony, the MOOC "Sustainable Development Goals - Together, let's meet the challenge" won in the category "Best MOOC designed by a university / school". This UVED (Université Virtuelle Environnement et Developpement Durable) online training course is supported by the Veolia Foundation.

The award-winning "Sustainable Development Goals - together, let’s meet the challenge" course aims to inform, raise awareness and mobilize the general public around the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted in September 2015 by 193 United Nations Member States in order to respond to the challenges of globalization leading up to 2030.

Produced and coordinated by UVED, this MOOC provides the keys to a better understanding of the 17 SDGs and how they interact with each other, tools to give them greater consideration, and ideas and initiatives to take concrete action. 32 contributors - teachers, researchers and high-level experts - from 26 institutions and 6 coordinating experts produced 47 sets of educational content including 36 videos.

 

Among the experts, Pierre Victoria, Director of Sustainable Development at Veolia, contributed to the section “Stakeholders take on the SDDs” presenting the Group's commitments in this area:

The business world is changing. Everyone understands that business becomes legitimate and creates value by being socially and environmentally efficient and by taking the needs of the planet and the people into account.
Pierre Victoria
Director of Sustainable Development at Veolia

The SDG MOOC is now available in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian.

 

The 1st session of the SDG MOOC:

Six weeks of online classes from 3 September to 16 October

  • 13,248 registered students: a new record for any MOOC offered by UVED!
  • 53% women and 47% men
  • 114 countries represented
  • 33% of participants took the course from Africa: Morocco (6%), Côte d'Ivoire (5%) and Cameroon (3%)
  • 6.6% of registered students successfully obtained the course certificate.

 

The next session will be in September 2019.

 

Université Virtuelle Environnement et Developpement Durable

The UVED has produced and coordinated 9 MOOCs on major societal challenges and environmental issues, including the circular economy, biodiversity, climate change, ecological engineering and renewable energy, with more than 250 scientists and 107,000 students, mainly from French speaking countries.

The Veolia Foundation has supported MOOCs on Biodiversity, Causes and Challenges of Climate Change and Ecological Engineering.

In 2018, it is estimated that by 2025 85% of today's business activities will have changed. It is now necessary to train throughout life and MOOCs are considered the ideal format to increase employability because they issue certificates. There are more than 10,000 available online for free.