Abstract

This sourcebook accompanies the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on the Ecosystem Approach and Systems Thinking (EAST) developed by the Loyola Sustainability Research Centre at Concordia University, Montreal, and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in Nairobi, Kenya. The sourcebook is written for both teacher and student, though it is assumed that most of its readers will be teachers who are applying the MOOC to a hybrid class (blended learning) or are offering the MOOC to students and/or professionals in various branches of public administration, civil society, or the private sector. Each module is described in terms of the main learning objectives, a short introduction to the topic, a summary of prevalent policy initiatives and interventions, a list of suggested “discussion points” that can guide classroom or online discussions/debates, an annotated bibliography of some key sources that have been suggested by our subject experts, and a list of exciting websites, TED talks, and other Internet material that students can easily access for more information. A premium is put on brevity in this sourcebook: each module is dealt with in under fifteen pages. The actual MOOC contains far more material, including visual aids to the concepts and case study material. Each module is designed to take roughly four hours to complete for students in the MOOC; reading each module’s section in the sourcebook should take considerably less time. We have also refrained from including images, graphs, and other infographics in the sourcebook, since they are prominent features in the MOOC itself.