The Open University has just launched the FutureLearn MOOC Smart Cities. This free online course will help learners navigate their own path through the complex landscape of smart cities. Learners will hear from smart city innovators and entrepreneurs, city leaders, communities and business, connecting with learners from around the world to reflect on issues facing smart cities of different sizes and situations. Learners will explore what it’s like to live in a smart city, the role of systems thinking, living labs, open data, crowdsourcing and roadmaps. They will also debate challenges of privacy, ethics and security, weigh up the value of leadership, standards and metrics and will learn how to co-create a smart city project.

This MOOC has been developed as part of MK:Smart, a £16 million collaborative smart city initiative partly funded by a grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and led by The Open University, which will develop innovative solutions to support the economic growth of Milton Keynes.