AfriAlliance MOOC on Social Innovation in Water and Climate Change in Africa

AfriAlliance was delighted to hold it's Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on "Social innovation in water and climate change in Africa"  from 2 June to 12 July 2020.

You can follow the MOOC and the text analysis of it's weekly discussion forums here: https://afrialliance.org/afrialliance-mooc-highlights-discussions.

Registration is now closed for this MOOC.

The increasing manifestations of Climate Change on the African continent present many challenges for African stakeholders. This requires novel and holistic approaches in order to deal with the impacts on water resources and society. One such approach is social innovation - tackling societal, water-related challenges arising from Climate Change by combining the technological & non-technological dimensions of innovation.

The main goal of this course is to increase awareness of the potential of social innovation to address water and climate challenges in Africa. 

For whom? 

This course is designed for young as well as experienced water professionals with a background in the natural, applied or social sciences, working or interested in Africa.

Dates and Fee 

Start: 02 June 2020 

End: 12 July 2020

Deadline for application: 25 May 2020

Course fee: Free

Learning objectives 

Upon successful completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Define the concept of social innovation as it is used by AfriAlliance;
• Describe social innovation in water monitoring;
• Discuss  social innovation in Integrated Water Resources Management;
• Summarise a social innovation process;
• Apply the newly acquired knowledge on social innovation to a specific, water-related case.

Course content 

Module 1: Introduction to the MOOC

Module 2: Social Innovation: the AfriAlliance Approach

Module 3: Social Innovation in water monitoring

Module 4: Social Innovation and climate-proof Integrated Water Resources Management

Module 5: Social innovation processes in practice – a case study of the AfriAlliance Action Groups

Module 6: Conclusion: ‘Hands on’ social innovation for a pressing water or climate challenge

Working method 

This is an online, self-directed course, with moderation and feedback provided both by peers in the online environment and by AfriAlliance project partners with experience in the topic.

This course is expected to take 16-20 hours to complete. A certificate of completion will be issued to participants who successfully complete the course:

Participant-driven discussion forums formed a central part of each module in this AfriAlliance MOOC. To identify key topics and trends from these forum discussions, we used the text analysis tool Gavagai Explorer. Through using this tool, the participants’ complete anonymity was guaranteed, while at the same time making the rich themes discussed during the MOOC visible to a wide audience.