Key Information
About the content
Explore the role of technology and data in cities, and learn how you can participate in the creation of smart cities.
Cities are incubators of innovation and opportunities but they also face great challenges such as rapid urbanisation, climate change and inequality. How can smart cities address these challenges and become more resilient? And what role will people play in the design and planning of our smart cities?
This free online course will help you to navigate your own path through the complex landscape of smart cities. You’ll hear from smart city innovators and entrepreneurs, city leaders, communities and business, connecting with learners from around the world to reflect on issues facing smart cities of different sizes and situations.
Syllabus
You’ll explore what it’s like to live in a smart city, the role of systems thinking, living labs, open data, crowdsourcing and roadmaps. You’ll debate challenges of privacy, ethics and security, and weigh up the value of leadership, standards and metrics. You’ll learn how to co-create a smart city project where you live.
Get started by capturing an image of what a ‘smart city’ means to you and share it with your fellow learners in the Smart Cities pre-course Padlet activity. It can be a photo, drawing or digital image.
The course has been developed as part of MK:Smart, a £16 million collaborative smart city initiative partly funded by a grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and led by The Open University, which will develop innovative solutions to support the economic growth of Milton Keynes.
Your educators are Dr Lorraine Hudson who is developing the MK:Smart citizen education strand and Professor Gerd Kortuem, one of the lead academics of the initiative.
Instructors
- Lorraine Hudson
- Gerd Kortuem
Content Designer
The Open University (OU) is a public distance learning and research university, and one of the biggest universities in the UK for undergraduate education. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based throughout the United Kingdom and principally study off-campus; many of its courses (both undergraduate and postgraduate) can also be studied anywhere in the world. There are also a number of full-time postgraduate research students based on the 48-hectare university campus where they use the OU facilities for research, as well as more than 1000 members of academic and research staff and over 2500 administrative, operational and support staff.
The OU was established in 1969 and the first students enrolled in January 1971. The University administration is based at Walton Hall, Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire, but has regional centres in each of its thirteen regions around the United Kingdom. It also has offices and regional examination centres in many other European countries. The university awards undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as non-degree qualifications such as diplomas and certificates or continuing education units.
Platform
FutureLearn is a massive open online course (MOOC) learning platform founded in December 2012.
It is a company launched and wholly owned by The Open University in Milton Keynes, England. It is the first UK-led massive open online course learning platform, and as of March 2015 included 54 UK and international University partners and unlike similar platforms includes four non-university partners: the British Museum, the British Council, the British Library and the National Film and Television School.
