Overview
In research, teaching, and technology transfer, the overarching theme for the Clausthal University of Technology, its guiding principle, is the Circular Economy. While degree-specific courses deal with selective aspects of the Circular Economy, there is a gap with respect to a course for all students that teaches the essential concepts and fundamentals of sustainability, environmental pollution, resource scarcity, and the Circular Economy.
The course “The Limits to Growth – Sustainability and the Circular Economy” aims to close this gap. As a general foundation course, there are no access restrictions. Furthermore, the course can be taken by Bachelor and Master students and PhD students. In order to accommodate a large number of international students, the course is conducted in English.
The Limits to Growth (LTG) course is open to all students of the Clausthal University of Technology as well as other organizations. Therefore, an adapted teaching format and appropriate technical support are required. The LTG course will be implemented as a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), which scales traditional forms of knowledge transfer (slides, recordings, etc.) via an IT-driven infrastructure and expands them with additional technical features such as forums, quizzes and other forms of (semi-) automated tasks or tasks to be assessed via peer feedback. In addition, corresponding MOOC platforms offer participants interaction and networking opportunities and the possibility of asynchronous learning, in which students study according to their schedule. They are given access to all teaching and learning materials, which are discussed in regular meetings – followed by optional question-and-answer sessions to clarify any questions.
All teaching and learning materials, recordings, homework, tutorials, etc. are published under an open-source licence (CC-BY-SA-4.0) and are thus freely available as directly integrable teaching units or as a basis for further courses.