About the Course
Cities are home to half the world’s seven billion people and contribute to about three-fourths of global economic output. An additional three billion people are estimated to live in cities by 2050, increasing the urban share of the world’s population to two-thirds.
Yet, cities and urban areas across the world face major challenges: poverty, unemployment, poor housing and lack of basic services for over 1 billion slum dwellers, constraints on productivity due to lack of basic infrastructure, and a concentration risk due to natural disasters and climate change. This classical view of the city, as a site of unsolvable problems, has inhibited interest and investment in them as sites of opportunity and change.
Sustainable cities build on the extraordinary potential of urban areas to enable change due to the concentration of economic activity, innovation, and job creation; the potential for social transformation, high levels of concentration of culture, people, infrastructure and buildings and the ability to redefine the relationship between rural and urban, and thereby enable rural prosperity.
Recognizing this, in September 2015, member-countries of the United Nations, adopted a historic stand-alone goal on Sustainable Cities “to make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” by 2030, leaving no person, place, and ecosystem behind.
This course explores what Sustainable cities are about. Over the next 9 weeks you will learn:
- An overview of governance, land management, utilities, and other entities that make up urban systems
- Understanding how poverty, health, economic opportunity, and other people-focused issues impact urban systems and development
- How technology is shaping transportation, energy, urban resilience, and more
- Case Studies featuring London, Durban, Mumbai, and beyond!
Course Schedule
This course will begin on 28 January 2019 and end on 14 April 2019 (23.30 UTC). UTC or Coordinated Universal Time is the time zone that is equivalent to GMT. All timings in this course follow UTC, so please be mindful of the time difference in your respective time zone. To check for your time zone, you may refer to this website - www.timeanddate.com. There will be two catch-up weeks at the end of the course, which is meant for you to catch up on all past readings and quizzes, additional material, work on the activities and contribute on the Discussion Forum. New material will not be available during the catch-up weeks.
Weekly Materials Provided
New materials will be posted every Monday at 00:00 PM UTC. The weekly materials provided will be:
1) Video Chapters: Each module will have 4-5 required chapters i.e. the content in these chapters is what is gradable. There will be some advanced Chapters each week also, meant for those who would like to learn more through case studies and practitioners. These Advanced Chapters will not be assessed. The speed of the videos can be adjusted (from 2.0x to 1.25x for faster delivery and 0.75x or 0.5x for making them go slower) as is suitable to your understanding. These videos also come with closed captions (subtitles) in Hindi. Click on the video right-corner " button to switch the subtitles from English to Hindi or vice-versa.
2) Hand Outs: The English Transcript for each chapter video can be downloaded from below the video in a PDF format for ease of accessing the material even offline.
3) Assigned Reading: Each week there will be assigned reading materials, all of which will be free links.
4) Check your knowledge questions: Each basic chapter in every module will have a practice question at the end. This is only to test your understanding of the chapter's material; you will not be graded for these questions.
5) Module Activity: To spur on a lively discussion, each module has a designated activity by way of a discussion prompt or fun exercise. You are encouraged to respond to the question in the forum thread and comment on the posts of your peers - doing so increases your participation grade!
6) End of Module Quiz: Each module has a gradable component via a quiz posted that covers the material addressed in the video chapters and Readings. You may be asked to use an external resource to find information or a data point. All questions will indicate the no. of points they are worth next to them and have 2 attempts to answering them.
Course Grading
The grading for the course can broadly be categorized into the following:
- The End of Module Quizzes
- Course Engagement
- Pre-course and post-course surveys
There are 9 quizzes that correspond to the 9 weekly module topics. Each week, a new quiz will be posted under the Course tab. Please see the Quiz Directions tab for specific directions on how to take the quiz. Quizzes can be accessed through the left-hand navigation bar and are arranged by week number. After you submit your quiz, you can view your grade report under the Progress tab in the top menu.
Course engagement includes; module activity and participation in the discussion forum.
Grading Policy
7 out of 9 End of Module quizzes will account for 70% of the final grade, each with equal weight. Your two quizzes with the lowest scores will be dropped from your final grade.
20% of the grade will be allocated for participation on the discussion forum
10% for pre-course and post-course surveys.
Certificates
In order to successfully complete the course and to be eligible to purchase a verified certificate signed by Aromar Revi, you will need an overall 70% average in the course.
Note: edX offers financial assistance to learners who wish to purchase a Verified Certificate, but are unable to afford it!
Contact Us
Questions about the course and IIHS - Email us at cities@sdgacademy.org
Questions about the platform and technical problems -- contact EdX by clicking on the "Help" button next to your profile at the top right corner of the page.
For more updates on the SDG Academy, upcoming courses, and more, you are encouraged to like and follow The SDG Academy via our Social Media: