Free course on caring for planet from Tec and University of Edinburgh

If you are looking to broaden your environmental awareness by understanding climate change, its effects in Mexico, and how to help mitigate them, Tec de Monterrey and the University of Edinburgh have a course for you.

It is "Climate Solutions: Mexico," a free online course (with the option of obtaining a digital certificate for an extra cost), available in English and Spanish on the FutureLearn platform.

"As Mexico is a megadiverse country, the causes are going to be very similar when talking about climate issues, but theeffects are different at the national level," says Mariajulia Martínez, Deputy Director of the Tec's SDG Initiative and professor in the Mexico City region.

The course will take place over five weeks:

• Weeks 1 and 2: Understanding climate change and its global impacts
• Weeks 3 and 4: Risks, adaptation, and mitigation with a focus on Mexico
• Week 5: Global climate solutions and individual actions

The Tec and University of Edinburgh: two universities seeking to support the planet

The University of Edinburgh is known for its strong focus on sustainability and climate change research.

In 2021, the Tec also announced Ruta Azul (Blue Route), its Sustainability and Climate Change Plan for 2025, which promotes alliances like these that help care for the planet.

ThisMOOC, initially developed by the University of Edinburgh, seeks to approach the material from the ground up and from a multidisciplinary perspective, with experts in fields ranging from chemical engineering to political science.

According to Paola Visconti, Ruta Azul's Liaison Manager, it was the Tec's Director of Innovation and International Networks, Patricia Montaño, who achieved the first connection between the institutions for this collaboration.

"It should be noted that it's not only a pre-existing course translated into Spanish, but we were given the task of translating some of the material while also focusing on the local level of what is happening in terms of climate change in Mexico," explains Visconti.

The experts behind the course

This course includes material and experts from the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute, the Climate Solutions Network, the Institute of Directors, the UK Universities Climate Network, and the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, as well as the two universities mentioned above.

Visconti also highlights the incorporation of the perspective of Mexican academia when it came to evaluating the bases of the MOOC and contributing new content of value, ranging from the meaning of climate change to risk management issues.

"The truth is that we need to give a lot of credit to our collaborators since they're the ones who laid the foundations, the structure, and part of the initial content, which gave us a guide to be able to contribute from the perspective of climate change in Mexico," she said.

"On this basis, we decided to involve people such as Martín (Sánchez), who has worked a lot on measuring greenhouse gas inventory, Luis Fernández, an academic expert on climate change, and Cintia Villarreal, who has more of an institutional and strategic perspective," Visconti said.

This team was joined by Mariajulia Martínez, who contributed to the governance part, together with her knowledge of chemical engineering, which provided a perspective in this version of the MOOC that focused on the quantification and valuation of mitigating actions.

According to Visconti, this perspective involves an awareness-raising exercise for students, as the course goes beyond understanding the impact of this problem to including a module dedicated to measuring the personal and community impact.

"I realized my footprint for the first time because this unique part of the MOOC allows you understand how it's measured, that is, not just your day-to-day activities, the steps and decisions you take, and how they contribute to this, but also what to do about it," she says.

A course that addresses climate justice

In addition to emphasizing the challenges of climate change at both the national and local levels, one of the important differentiators of this MOOC is its emphasis on climate justice.

According to Martínez, this version of the MOOC recognizes that although climate change affects the lives of everyone, the most severe impacts are felt most by vulnerable groups already facing a high level of segregation.

Women, ethnic minorities, and indigenous communities are more likely to suffer the impacts of climate change at a global level because, as Mariajulia points out, the living conditions of these sectors in the country and their lack of resources prevent them from being able to protect themselves and recover adequately.

"There's already a lot of information about climate change and greenhouse gases and all that, but this MOOC integrates more awareness, especially in this part of climate justice, which is very important to put on the table," Visconti said.

"This issue isn't just a learning differentiator. It's also part of this commitment that we all have to start working on mitigation and adaptation actions in our own disciplines," she adds.

An option for certification plus benefits with payment

The Climate Solutions: Mexico MOOC is available on the Future Learn platform completely free of charge. However, it is important to clarify that the free version allows access to the complete material only by unlocking it in stages.

This implies that it is released in phases, regardless of individual progress. The total duration is five weeks.

In addition, the MOOC offers a downloadable certificate of completion for an additional cost at the end after completing all the modules and their corresponding evaluations, which can complement the paid versions of the course.

These versions allow access to all the course material without time restrictions and the ability to download the diploma, both digitally and physically, depending on the plan selected.

"The important thing here is that when you complete the material, you can pay for this certificate to use as an additional qualification on your résumé to indicate the knowledge and competencies you obtained from the course," Visconti says.

"It's part of the micro-credentials approach we have, this multidisciplinary and cross-disciplinary training that says, regardless of whether you come from an engineering or humanities or architecture background, you have this component and this climate focus," she concludes.

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