Online Learning Programs for Sustainability Leaders
The Jindal Centre for Social Innovation + Entrepreneurship (JSiE) started designing for online education in 2016. Partnering with Middlesex University London in the UK, JSiE collaboratively created a series of courses on FutureLearn, Europe’s leading online social learning platform.
As the coronavirus takes its toll around the world, unfortunately, those who are most vulnerable in society will be impacted the most. While governments are responding, it is unlikely to be enough.
What role can investors play in responding to the current COVID-19 coronavirus crisis?
As long-term stewards of capital, investors can help contribute to reducing these harmful impacts. They can also fund new opportunities to find solutions to the crisis, such as developing a vaccine, creating continuous access to healthy food in under-resourced communities, or strengthening capital supports for small businesses.
Throughout the course, we will examine different investor approaches to creating positive social and environmental impact alongside earning financial returns. We will also engage with the debate about whether there is a tradeoff between financial returns and social impact.
What do you think investors can do to respond to the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis?
Join over 7000+ people from 130 countries learning how the power of finance can generate financial returns and tackle today's global challenges.
“Impact Investing: Profit with Purpose” was created in partnership with Asha Impact, one of India's leading impact investment and policy advocacy platforms. The 4-week online course has been designed to provide an understanding of:
Financial instruments and techniques used to fund social enterprises
Impact measurement components, tools, and frameworks
Current market trends and key players of the impact investing ecosystem
Key challenges in impact investing industry and how to unlock opportunities to invest in social and environmental impact
Educating at Scale for Sustainable Development and Social Enterprise Growth: The Impact of Online Learning and a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)
Abstract
The solutions to the grand challenges of sustainability, poverty, and health affecting the world will require education and capacity building for all individuals implementing change on a global scale. The challenge ahead is to reach those missed by traditional education and support networks. Online Learning and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have the potential to build knowledge and share best practice experiences among individuals worldwide. This paper examines the case of the FutureLearn Social Enterprise Program, a series of MOOCs with over 50,000 registered learners, of which 15% become active learners, engaging in online exercises, debates, and conversations. This paper draws on quantitative and qualitative data collected over four years. The findings show that the course has not only had an impact on the creation of new startup social enterprises, but it has also supported a large proportion of learners in developing sustainability and social entrepreneurial ideas within a range of organisations in the public, private, and civil society sectors. The findings also show a positive cascading impact effect from the learners registered on the course to those in their network, as ideas are shared, and learners become mentors to others. Our conclusions demonstrate how digital education and online courses contribute to global education for sustainable development and social enterprise development.
