About this course: The Age of Sustainable Development" gives students an understanding of the key challenges and pathways to sustainable development - that is, economic development that is also socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable.
Created by: Columbia University
Taught by: Jeffrey Sachs
Director, Earth Institute; Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development; Professor of Health Policy and Management
| Commitment | 2 hours of lectures per module |
| Language | English, Subtitles: Chinese (Simplified) |
| How To Pass | Pass all graded assignments to complete the course. |
| User Ratings |
Syllabus
WEEK 1
Course Materials
Information about the general course structure and reading list can be found here.
3 readings
What is Sustainable Development?
Professor Sachs provides an overview of the challenges the world faces, and introduces the topic of sustainable development.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: What is Sustainable Development?
WEEK 2
Inequality Around the World
Professor Sachs delves into the reasons for and the measurements of inequality between and within countries.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Inequality Around the World
WEEK 3
A Short History of Economic Development
Professor Sachs provides a history of economic development, starting with the Industrial Revolution and ending with the current state of modern economic growth.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: A Short History of Economic Development
WEEK 4
The History of Inequality
Professor Sachs analyzes the intersecting roles of various factors that contribute to some countries advancing while others do not.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: The History of Inequality
WEEK 5
The MDGs and the End of Extreme Poverty
Professor Sachs outlines the pathways for achieving the end of extreme poverty.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: The MDGs and the End of Extreme Poverty
WEEK 6
Growth within Planetary Boundaries
Professor Sachs details the various planetary boundaries and their implications for growth dynamics.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Growth within Planetary Boundaries
WEEK 7
Human Rights and Gender Equality
Professor Sachs delves into the ethics of wealth, poverty and inequality as well as the forces that widen inequalities.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Human Rights and Gender Equality
WEEK 8
Education
Professor Sachs provides an overview of the state of modern education, and what needs to be achieved for sustainable development.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Education
WEEK 9
Universal Health Coverage
Professor Sachs provides an overview of the challenges and pathways to achieving universal health coverage.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Universal Health Coverage
WEEK 10
Sustainable Food Supply and the End of Hunger
Professor Sachs provides an overview of food security, farm systems, and ecology and reviews what can be done to achieve a sustainable global food supply.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Sustainable Food Supply and the End of Hunger
WEEK 11
Sustainable Cities
Professor Sachs looks into what makes a city sustainable, the patterns of urbanization, and pathways for urban resilience around the world.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Sustainable Cities
WEEK 12
Curbing Climate Change
Professor Sachs provides an introduction to the science behind climate change, and describes the negotiations and policies that are necessary to mitigate and prevent the consequences.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: The Basic Science of Climate Change and Consequences
WEEK 13
Saving Biodiversity
Professor Sachs reviews the various threats to the world's ecosystem and biodiversity.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: Saving Biodiversity
WEEK 14
The SDGs
Professor Sachs recounts the history of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and describes what is necessary to achieve them.
5 videos
Graded: QUIZ: The SDGs
Graded: Final Exam
FAQs
How It Works
Coursework
Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.
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Creators
Columbia University
For more than 250 years, Columbia has been a leader in higher education in the nation and around the world. At the core of our wide range of academic inquiry is the commitment to attract and engage the best minds in pursuit of greater human understanding, pioneering new discoveries and service to society.
Ratings and Reviews
An exceptional course with extensive amount of information about sustainable development very nicely presented by Prof. Sachs and a lot of support material. Recommend it very strongly to anyone who is interested in sustainable development. It changes your view on every thing!
Very interesting course. Prof. Sachs is amazing and I found the content of the course so interesting, it didn't matter that the video lectures are fairly oldschool and unengaging. You have to be able to process a lot of information coming solely from video lectures, since the only time you get to do something active is for the weekly quiz.
Final Examination had many questions that did not relate with the contents that we saw in the Chapters, such as questions n.21, 22,23 and 24 please replace them !
I liked specially the Graphs and the Data Banks presented by organizations such as The World Bank. UN, WHO, FAO, etc.
Thanks and keep the good work !
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DA
What an amazingly educated view of our past, current and future states of our current global issues from hunger, disease and carbon footprint. This was very eye opening and I thoroughly enjoyed this course.
Thank you