Dear Elizabeth,
The course is constantly online and participants can enroll anytime to a 5-week session: www.coursera.org/learn/solid-waste-management .
The advertising is mainly done by us. However, we benefit a lot of being on a platform used by 18 million students worldwide.
We try to have a close interaction with the course participants by answering questions on the forum at least once per week. It helps that we have many students and practitioners with good knowledge about solid waste management and the willingness to answer questions of their peers.
The LinkedIn group shall enable students to easily keep in touch after the end of the course and to build up their professional network.
Best regards, Fabian

Dear Fabian,

Thanks for this feedback about your online course on Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries. I am really intrigued by it all and have the following questions:

1. How do you manage to attract so many participants? Is it the Coursera website that does all the advertising for you?
2. Do the participants receive any tutoring by staff of Sandec, and if yes, how is this staff time funded? How many hours per week does it take up for Sandec staff? I assume there'd be some marking of assignments or perhaps that's all automated?
3. How many months are you keeping this course open for?
4. Why do you point the successful participants to a closed LinkedIn group rather than e.g. this Forum? Admittedly our category on solid waste is still small (forum.susana.org/forum/categories/208-solid-waste-management) but it could grow a lot if you encouraged your students to use it?
5. Is the LinkedIn group that you've created now very active? What is the link to it and why is it only for those who completed the course successfully?

Regards,
Elisabeth

Dear all
I'm glad to share some numbers of the MOOC "Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries", which is offered on the internet platform Coursera. The course is offered for free and has a duration of 5 weeks. After the first two months, we can present the following numbers:

• > 16'000 enrolled students
• > 1'400 students completed the course successfully and earned a Statement of Accomplishment
• > 50% of students are from low- and middle-income countries
• 500-1'500 new students are signing up each week

This course has two new features:

• It constantly runs on Coursera and participants can sign up any time to join a
  course session. Maximum waiting time until the start of the next session is one week.
• Students who successfully complete the course are invited to a LinkedIn group to continue the discussions after completing the course.

Please find more information directly on the course page www.coursera.org/learn/solid-waste-management . The videos are also available on our YouTube-Channel Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries

Best regards, Fabian

Dear all,

Just reminder. The MOOC on Municipal Solid Waste Management in Developing Countries is currently ongoing and very exciting.

You can still join at www.coursera.org/learn/solid-waste-management/home/welcome for free!

For example today I learned about the success of Waster Concern in Bangladesh. Organic solid waste composting at a capacity of over 100 tons/day (still a dream for faecal sludge).

Please join.

Cheers,
Moritz

Dear SuSanA community,

Sandec/Eawag and EPFL will launch the third MOOC of the series “Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development” on 22 February 2016. The five-week course will be offered for free on the internet-platform Coursera, and the videos will be in English with French and Spanish subtitles. The course will cover the current waste situation in low and middle income countries, the physical and governance aspects of a solid waste management system, including planning and evaluation methods. It will have a special focus on organic waste treatment technologies. Please find enclosed the course factsheet in English, French and Spanish. You can watch the trailer on the MOOC webpage and sign up for the course directly on the course page .

Course page @ Coursera: www.coursera.org/learn/mswm
MOOC page @ Sandec: www.eawag.ch/mooc

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French
Nouveau MOOC sur la "Gestion des déchets solides municipaux dans les pays en voie de développement"
Sandec / Eawag et l'EPFL vont lancer le 22 Février 2016 leur troisième MOOC de la série "Eau, Assainissement et Déchets Solides dans les Contextes du Développement". Le cours de cinq semaines sera offert gratuitement sur la plateforme internet Coursera. Les vidéos seront disponibles en anglais avec des sous-titres français et espagnol. Le cours présente la situation actuelle des déchets solides dans les pays en voie de développement, les aspects physiques et de gouvernance d'un système de gestion des déchets solides, y compris les méthodes de planification et d'évaluation. Il mettra un accent particulier sur les technologies de traitement des déchets organiques. Veuillez-vous inscrire pour le cours sur ce lien .

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Spanish
Próximo MOOC “Gestión municipal de residuos sólidos en países en vías de desarrollo”
Sandec/Eawag y EPFL lanzarán el tercer curso en línea de la serie “Saneamiento, Agua y Residuos Sólidos en el Contexto del Desarrollo” el 22 de febrero del año 2016. El curso, que tiene una duración de cinco semanas, será ofrecido de forma gratuita en la plataforma de internet Coursera. Los videos se ofrecerán en inglés con subtítulos en francés y en español. El curso abarcará la situación actual de los residuos sólidos en países en vías de desarrollo, los aspectos físicos y gubernamentales de la gestión de residuos sólidos, incluyendo métodos de planificación y de evaluación. El curso se enfocará especialmente en las tecnologías de tratamiento de residuos orgánicos. Puedes inscribirte aquí y recibir más información en la página web .

Warm regards,
Evelyn (on behalf of the SuSanA secretariat)

Dear all

Check out the trailer for the latest module of the series of free online courses “Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development” offered by Sandec:


Sign up and find further information about the course here: www.coursera.org/learn/mswm

More information on the series of free online courses “Sanitation, Water and Solid Waste for Development” offered by Sandec:
www.eawag.ch/mooc

Cheers, Dorothee