As our Smart Cities MOOC reaches its midway point, over 7000 learners from around the world have joined the free online course.
Week 1 started by exploring what it means to be a smart city, examining contrasting examples from around the world. Students learnt how systems thinking can be useful for exploring city challenges. There was lots of interest in approaches which actively e
ngage citizens and concerns raised around privacy and security, ethics and sustainability.
Week 2 focuses on the role of citizens in smart cities and how we can make them more inclusive. Students debated whether smart cities exclude certain groups such as older people and started to co-create smart city projects for their cities drawing on approaches such design thinking and living labs.
In week 3 the learners got to grips with smart infrastructure, sensor networks and city data. Discussing the value of the different approaches and exploring what’s happening in their cities. As we move into the second half of the course, we’re excited to see how their smart city projects develop.
The next course starts in early 2016 and you can join by signing up here https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/smart-cities