Thanks for the positive feedback! It's very appreciated.

Of course, we are also interested to know about the things that should be improved for further editions. Feel free to send any one of the lecturers and email if you have any ideas or suggestions for this or future MOOCs.

Best,

Liz

Hi Cecile

Yes I took the course as well and found it to be very good for focusing the mind on the issues and the challenges., and using the available tools and information such as the Compendium.

Well worth doing - but don't forget to do the first quiz of you want to get a pass certificate! (oh well, have to do it again - reinforcement will be good for the learning process:)

Hello, everyone,

I took the Planning and design of sanitation systems and technologies and I enjoyed the course. The lectures are clear (videos of the speakers with a powerpoint at the same time)and the assignements are interesting. The discussion forum was quite dynamic as well.

What is also interesting is that the course is bilingual, i.e. the videos are subtitled in English or in French and the assignments are in English or in French (except the final assignment which could only be answered in English but I am sure something can be worked out for next sessions as there were many French speaking participants).

About the content of the course : it is a good introduction to the use of the compendium of sanitation systems and technology(revised edition) through a practical assignement. Two planning tools are presented : Sanitation 21 for planning at cities level and CLUES for planning sanitation at household, ward and municipal levels.
The manuals can all be downloaded for free on Eawag's /Sandec website. Some manuals are translated in French and in Spanish.

The video lectures are available via the youtube-channel “Planning & Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies ".

In 2015 in the next MOOC topic will tackle Solid Waste Management in developing countries.

Hello!

Not sure we can answer all of these question yet, as the course will continue until the end of the week, so for some things it is still too early to say. But I will try!

1. There are over 6000 students enrolled; we can't report on how many people finish until the end of the week

2. students are registered from 180 countries!!! This is truly amazing.

3. Feedback will be given at the end of the week, and we will compile and analyze it then.

4. We mentioned and recommended the SuSana-Forum several times during the video lectures and are confident that interested student will join the discussions on the SuSana-Forum. The forum was VERY active during the course, and the participants were so knowledgeable and enthusiastic with experiences from 180 different countries so I'm sure they will become active SuSanA participants as well.

5. This was our first attempt at such a large MOOC and we learned a lot. Giving lectures and designing questions for use outside of a classroom environment is VERY different than for a MOOC, so adapting to this format is the biggest challenge to make it have as much impact and clarity as possible.

6. There are plans for more courses. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say yet, what they are, but they are in the pipeline!

7. Obviously that is the goal, but again, we'll need to wait and see what comes out of the feedback.

8. In the next weeks, we’ll upload all video lectures on our youtube-channel “Planning & Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies” to make them constantly available.

I also love your idea about the group assignment- something to file away as we think about the next incarnation...

All the best,

Liz

Hi Elizabeth,

I think your Eawag-Sandec online course on Planning & Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies has just come to an end now. I had a look at some of the videos and some of the early discussions and found it quite interesting. I am just wondering what conclusions you would draw from it now? In particular:

1. How many people attended (actively and passively)?
2. They were from all over the world, right?
3. What sort of feedback did you get?
4. Do you think any of the people who discussed things during the course might join us here on the forum afterwards (was this option advertised to them)?
5. Is there anything that you would do differently in future?
6. What are your future plans for similar online courses on sanitation topics?
7. Do you think it had an impact in terms of capacity building?
8. Will the videos and powerpoints and other materials be available for self-study afterwards on your website and perhaps be included via a link on the SuSanA website? We used to have a space for training materials on the SuSanA website (www.susana.org/en/resources/training-materials) although nothing has been added there since 2012.

Cheers,
Elisabeth

P.S. By the way, as I was doing some work on the Wikipedia page for septic tanks today (included the schematic from the Compendium - see here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septic_tank), it occurred to me that it could be a nice student group assignment for future online courses to progressively improve existing Wikipedia pages on sanitation topics (or to create new ones on topics not yet covered). It might seem like an odd assignment at first sight but professors in the US are already doing that with their medical students, see forum.susana.org/forum/categories/39-any...it=12&start=36#10747
where it says:

That well-schooled contributor pool is only going to get bigger starting on Monday, when the University of California, San Francisco, begins an elective class for fourth-year medical students that focuses on Wikipedia editing.

Just a reminder that Sandec's FREE online course: "Planning and Design of Sanitation Systems and Technologies" started TODAY!

However, you still have time to sign up and will have no problem catching up (there was not much material today)

There are over 5000 participants signed up from over 160 countries! Come join us!

Elizabeth

Dear colleagues / cher(e)s collègues

Three more weeks until our free 5-weeks online course takes off!
Sign up here today and receive a notification when the course starts.

Encore trois semaines jusqu'au démarrage de notre cours gratuit de cinq semaines!
Enregistrez ici encore aujourd'hui et recevez une notification au début du cours.

Kind regards / meilleures salutations
Lukas

Dear Munech
Thanks a lot muench for fixing link I have registered ,I here suggest ,please put more practical and applicable training video for decentralized waste water treatment in Susan discussion.

I have fixed the link now, it was the fullstop at the end that was the problem.

when I referred to this link it showed error could you please recheck link please?

Sandec/Eawag and EPFL's second MOOC (massive open online course) in the series on "WASH in developing countries" will take place this fall. This course will enable you to learn more about how to plan urban sanitation at the city and local/community levels, how to work with different sanitation system and technology configurations, and will give examples of successful and failed urban sanitation systems in low- and middle-income countries.

To find out more about the upcoming course and to register, please go to: www.coursera.org/course/sanitation

Le prochain cour gratuit sur la Planification & Design des Systèmes et Technologies d’ Assainissement (en anglais avec des soustitres en francais)

Le deuxième cours de Sandec et l'EPFL de la série « WASH in Developing Countries » aura lieu cet automne. Le cours vous permettra en savoir plus sur la façon de planifier l’assainissement urbain au niveau local/communautaire, le choix et la mise en oeuvre de système d’assainissement en combinant différentes technologies, et sur des exemples de succès et d’échecs de projets d’assainissement dans des pays à faible et moyen revenu.

Pour obtenir plus d’information et s’inscrire aux cours, consultez: www.coursera.org/course/sanitation