About this Course
Globalization: a new phenomenon or an evolving state of the world? In the age of the internet, highly interconnected supply chains and mass migration societies feel more closely linked than ever. But is that really the case?
In this free four-part course, Professor Jeffrey Sachs argues that we have always lived in a global world. He takes students on a historical and anthropological tour of six distinct waves of globalization, and outlines the key factors that drove innovation, technology dispersal and development during these epochs. The course tells the story of a global humanity and asks the question: What lessons can we pull from history to help understand the tumultuous changes underway today?
What you'll learn
- The six waves of globalization, from trade by sea to the fourth industrial revolution
- Emerging leaders -- the nations pushing progress and dominating the global economy
- Globalization and sustainable development -- the value of a shared global vision and ethics
Course Structure, Logistics & Requirements
This course is a self-paced course. This means that all lecture videos, quizzes, and readings have been uploaded to the platform and are available to you at once. You have until August 31, 2022, to complete this course. To learn about new instances of this course after August 31, 2022, please sign up for the SDG Academy newsletter!
The estimated time commitment to complete all course components is 2-4 hours per week, though this depends heavily on the student and his/her objectives in taking the course. Videos can be viewed directly (online), or can be downloaded for offline viewing.
There are no pre-requisites for this course.
Course Engagement
While we encourage students to use the Discussion Forum during the course, the discussion threads will not be managed by SDG Academy staff. The forum is available on the top of the page, and we hope students will pose questions and thoughts to each other in this format!
Questions
If you have questions at any point throughout the course, you can get in touch with us in the following ways:
- Course content issues (questions about assessments and lectures) should be emailed directly to courses@sdgacademy.org, using the subject line "Globalization Course."
- edX Technical issues should be directed to the Student Support Team via the Help button at the top of your screen.