Are you interested in climate change, and willing to learn about it from a systemic point of view?
We will never understand the full extent of the relations that link us to other people, technologies, species, and environments, but it is not enough to marvel at how “everything is connected” and leave it at that. Climate Change calls for urgent attention to the specific links between humans and our natural environment. Understanding these connections and their implications is crucial for responding to Climate Change as a global challenge.
SystemsChange.now - Systems Thinking in Global Change Research MOOC is part of Climate University studies. It is a multi-disciplinary course on how to apply systems thinking in the context of climate change. The course offers an introduction to systems analysis and mathemathical modelling, investigation of climate models, and study of human systems via a negotiation simulation. All the course materials of Climate University are freely available online on the website.
Course learning goals:
- Students will understand why systems thinking is necessary to make the implications of global challenges comprehensible and understand the various forms of change Climate Change is bringing about in eco-social systems.
- Students will be able to make reflective use of models to ask and test questions about the structures and dynamics of systems.
- Students will recognize the potential for systems thinking as a form of expertise to contribute to their work and develop their capabilities for interdisciplinary collaboration.
- Students will understand the opportunities for intentional systems change and their own agency.
Studies at the open university
To get credits from the course, degree students need to register to the course organized by a CU university. If you dont´t have a degree student's study right, you can register for the SystemsChange.now course at the Open University of the University of Turku.
According to the preliminary plan, the course will be held in the spring semester of 2026.
Prerequisites: Basic knowledge on climate change and/or sustainability, for example Climate University course Climate.now or Sustainable.now. Students are responsible for assessing their prior knowledge requirements when registering to Open University.
Further information:
Contact: Lotta Nyholm