At first, we thought that we needed to find the funds to develop well-designed content. But after months of trying to find financial support, we decided to make a MOOC based on open access materials: academic articles, newspaper items and youtube video’s. We spend our own time mostly in curating this into a consistent course and in adding assignments, MC quizzes and short introductions (in on-street interview style).

In 2020 that resulted in running three MOOCs with a similar setup: Unraveling the Cycling City, Reclaiming the Street, and Alternative Mobility Narratives with now over 11.000 students from more than 130 countries and received high ratings. This year we will develop a fourth one (Smart Cycling Futures) and we have now secured some support and funding to further work on supervising and supporting the community. Also, we look for ways to use the MOOCs to enrich our on-site teaching.

During our talk, we will give you a view behind the scenes and hope to inspire you to also think about such development. We will give ample time to answer any questions that you have!

Please register for this Urban Dialogue by sending an email including your name and affiliation to urbanstudies@uva.nl, and you will receive the zoom link in due course.

The Urban Dialogues Series

The Centre for Urban Studies cordially invites you to participate in the new Urban Dialogues series. This series gives CUS members and guests the opportunity to share their research and receive feedback, to enlarge their network, and to explore potential collaborations. Each session will start with a 30 minute presentation, followed by a 30 minute discussion, in which everyone is welcome to participate. Please find the full programme below.