5 free online courses for environmentalists and educators
Many of us find ourselves confined at home again with new partial or total lockdowns. While this may lead to hectic times for some, it may also create opportunities for others to catch up with a variety of online professional development courses.
We have compiled a short list of interesting and free courses that many environmental professionals as well as educators, can find of value to their respective work.
1. National Geographic’s storytelling for impact courses
This series of self-paced courses for formal/informal educators and youth (ages 16–25) aims to help “visualize and communicate powerful stories that inspire change.” Currently two courses are running, one focusing on photography and another on video.
2. Nature-based Solutions for Disaster and Climate Resilience
Nature-based Solutions are increasingly being recognised as key practices that need to be adopted and also scaled-up to build resilience at different scales. However for nature-based approaches to successfully deliver on expected societal and biodiversity benefits, one need to be familiar with the concept and how it looks like in practice. The latest online course launched by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Partnership for Environment and Disaster Risk Reduction (PEDRR) can help a diverse set of stakeholders to “ learn more about how they can contribute to strengthening Nature’s solutions to reducing climate and disaster impacts.” The course will be available till 1 December 2021.
3. Climate Change: The Science and Global Impact
Whether we are an educator or a student and/or someone writing about climate change issues, understanding the science behind climate change can help to better communicate on the subject and also inform advocacy efforts calling for effective climate action. This specific course is available till 1 September 2021. See here.
4. Environmental Justice
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is among one of the world’s leading institution working on the links between social justice and environmental change. The last online course on Environmental Justice by the University’s Global Environmental Justice Group was launched in April 2020 and is currently still available on the FutureLearn digital education platform.
5. Gender and Environment
Available on the UN CC:Learn knowledge-sharing platform, this self-paced course developed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) covers gender dimensions linked to biodiversity, climate change, land degradation, international waters, and chemicals and waste. See here.
You can explore more courses on these differences platforms:
