MOOC education for sustainable development. The Erasmus+ project experience

Abstract

The paper presents the scope of the international curriculum developed under the MOOC4ALL project financed by the Erasmus Plus Strategic Partnerships Program for the MOOC platform https://platform.mooc4all.eu/. The project partners were research units and non-profit organizations from Germany, Poland, Romania and Hungary. Developed under the project, the curricula covers topics in the "green area” such as renewable energy sources, waste management and sustainable development. Research conducted in the consortium countries has demonstrated the need to create online courses in these subject areas to respond to market demand and achieve the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Green education is essential for safeguarding a sustainable world, maintaining it and preserving it for future generations. Currently, in times of climate crisis, increasing public awareness through non-formal education is of key importance. In the field of education, MOOCs have attracted a lot of attention as tools for open distance learning in the last decade. They make it possible to use the potential of new technologies in the didactic process and enable a reduction in the differences between developing and developed countries thanks to new interactive digital learning channels, which transpired to be particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic. The online courses developed as part of the project are available to participants free of charge in five languages – English, German, Polish, Romanian and Hungarian. © 2022. The Author(s).