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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Age of Sustainable Development by Columbia University

4.7
stars
3,529 ratings

About the Course

The Age of Sustainable Development" gives students an understanding of the key challenges and pathways to sustainable development - that is, economic development that is also socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable....

Top reviews

AA

Jun 1, 2020

Very informative and detailed. Prof. Sachs covers all aspects of sustainable development in detail. Though the course was designed in 2013 hence does not cover the latest development to SDGs to date.

LG

May 18, 2017

This course was perfect for those wanting to explore the world of development, broad enough to include all interlinked themes, with sufficient reading materials to spark one's specializing interests.

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901 - 925 of 1,182 Reviews for The Age of Sustainable Development

By SAMUDRALA L S

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Nov 8, 2022

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By MEKALA S L P

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Nov 3, 2022

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By Cheryll P

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Apr 24, 2018

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By Daniel G G

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May 20, 2020

It is really a shame that such a content quality is not followed up by proper assessments in place. A substantial amount of questions are actually outdated or have the wrong answer. One has sometime the perception that passing the Quiz is a matter of luck rather than knowledge as if you fail in one or two, you may encounter that the ones that are supposed to be right are just wrong due to any of the issues earlier mentioned.

Professor Jeffrey Sachs compile a compelling, interesting, high quality and eye-awaking content that it is worth while going through regardless. It is just such a changemaker and you feel and end up becoming one of his at the end of the course.

I would recommend this course to anyone regardless of the your background. How is it possible that we the society are now aware of the business-as-usual problem and its magnitude? I have got the feeling this has changed me in many ways, not just intellectually.

By Syed A R

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Sep 18, 2018

I am excited to select this course. I learnt many many new things, above all the way of delivering lectures with pictorials and graphical presentations was really interesting and the main reason that I didn't lose my interest. Since I am part of UNDP team, implementing SDGs project in Pakistan, I learnt many innovative things which will help a lot to improve the quality of the project. Most of the links given, during the assignments, needs to be updated as the sites have later been updated however questions still relates to old data, few links are giving errors and not opening. Overall It was an excellent course and I am happy to learn much more about the world economy, the ecosystem, impact of climate change, greenhouse impact and the sustainable development. I strongly recommend this course.

By Henri R

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May 26, 2018

Overall, this course was an excellent balance between introductory concepts, technical knowledge, and global political context. Throughout, it was communicated by Professor Sachs in a clear and compelling way, which did not sacrifice simple communication for intellectual rigour. I have learned a huge amount about the world and its challenges through this course. The one major issue is that the course is somewhat out of date - much of the information relates to 2013. This means that not only are we not working with the latest information, but major political changes since are not accounted for. And practically, often many of the data sources referenced, which are needed to answer questions, are unavailable or incorrect.

By Evgen V

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Aug 12, 2017

This is a well-structured and thought-provoking course which weaves together the biggest issues in global development. Its major value for me is that it promotes an attempt to rigorously measure the key global challenges to come up with an adequate (inter-)governmental policy response. The tests do not simply rehash the content of the lectures, but often seek to make the student look for additional information. Alas, sometimes these questions may be somewhat too formalistic. Prof Sachs is an eloquent speaker, and one feels that he really cares about the issues he discusses in the course and wants to impart this enthusiasm on his students, even those, like me, watching his lectures from thousands of miles away.

By Chandrakant G

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Jan 9, 2016

the course is of immens use for the whole world as the globlisation in all spears of human activities

has taken place . People and many small governments are unaware of the impact of the development in different spears of its state activities such as economics, social and environment etc. This course with its solutions and applications for , will help the human habitations on this Earth will make living worth for every one The Paris Aggriment is really a triumph for the human race on this earth, this course will definatly will make us understand the shared objectives to end poverty, establish peace and ensure a life of dinity and opportunity for all.

By Ravinder M

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Dec 10, 2016

Prof Sachs takes us through a very interesting and engaging course on the need for sustainable development. It is simple in most parts. While I enjoyed the number crunching questions in the quiz, I can imagine that it is not for everyone. It is extremely informative, and I have filled up a notebook with my notes from all of the 15 lectures.

Just taking a star away for some of the links or course material not being updated. For instance the links to external websites are not valid any more. Also, the actual SDG's are different from the ones in the lecture, as the ones in the lecture were proposed as against the current actual ones.

By Marta R

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Jul 9, 2020

I was interested in learning more about the climate change and ended up learning that there's much more to learn, so much more to do and so much more to look ahead. We as society need to get involved to solve the problem that we created in the first place. Climate change, social equality, education and health for all, protecting the oceans and the forests... there are so many topics to choose from to get involved that it's impossible to just look somewhere else.

I believe this course is a good start for anyone who wants to contribute in making this planet a better place for us and for the generations to come.

By Laura L

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Aug 13, 2020

This course was extremely interesting and I learned a lot of things that I did knot know of before and honestly should have. The only reason why I did not score it 5 stars is because there were several issues with links that were either not updated or no longer worked. However, the forums were very helpful when it came to solving those kinds of issues since many mentors were there trying to help students get the correct links and resources. You can also use the internet and eventually you'll find the resources. Although it is a bit too long for my liking, I would do it again. I loved it!

By Reem M

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Aug 12, 2020

This course has provided in-depth thought into the history and sequences of events that lead to the need of sustainable development for our modern world. It had provided many resources to read though statistical data and charts to grasp the practicality an reason behind the challenges that world is causing and truly believing that we a humans are the reason behind it. This course changes your perspective to the economy and how little you can do can make a difference in your profession. However some links in the tests and exam need to be updated which is why I gave it a 4 out of 5.

By Lisa B

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Dec 8, 2016

This course has been deeply informative. The instructor is outstanding, sharing his deep experience and knowledge of economics, geography, international development, and earth science through the lectures. The time commitment required for this course is minimal considering the immense treasure of learning it represents. My only issues with this course (hence 4 stars instead of 5) are: 1. no one is monitoring the course, so questions/comments are only answered by other students; and 2. there is no certificate. Thank you Coursera and Dr. Sachs for this fantastic course!

By Navya L

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Dec 14, 2021

While thinking of Sustainable Development, one may feel overwhelmed by the magnitude of problems confronting us. This course systematically helps us gather economic, environmental, historical & global understanding of many such issues. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Sachs for explaining all the concepts with amazing simplicity and clarity. Some exemplary efforts made by indigenous communities to protect rights of Mother Nature, and philosophy behind protecting such rights, could have been shared too. May we conserve and rejuvenate ecosystems around the globe.

By Julia C F

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Oct 25, 2019

Overall it was very interesting to go through the material of this course and to learn a little bit more about social, environmental and economic aspects of development. The questions are very well tailored in the sense that makes the student go through the material provided and have a good understanding of the topics.

However, some of the links provided to answer some questions were outdated or broken or nonexistent. It would be good to have all links updated so students could perform better.

Thank you for sharing this knowledge online!

By Rodolfo E

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Jan 20, 2016

I really enjoyed how expert Professor Sachs is on sustainable development. He seems to know a lot about the subject and we can see a spark on his eyes when he is teaching. Moreover, the lectures and quizzes are comprehensive and well organized.

However, apart from the last Week, I think that solutions for the many problems that Professor Sachs presents are not showed properly. Although there are many issues unsolved, there may be a lot of good examples throughout the world to be presented together with these issues.

Kind Regards,

Rodolfo

By Dave D

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Nov 17, 2016

This course gave an excellent overview of Sustainability. What that entails and why it is crucial to develop and push toward global goals (SDGs) in this "Anthropocene" we find ourselves in today. The text gives a good look at all concepts related to Sustainability and resources to find more data and information for each heading. Professor Sachs' lectures were great and as were the tools used and recommended readings. There were some errors and discrepancies in the quizzes, but aside from that I would highly recommend this course.

By Karen S

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Apr 8, 2022

This class is from 2015 and out-dated. All kinds of links are not working. On the last test one question does not give any correct answer. There are several like that on the final that make no sense. This is an economic population class and not a sustainable development class. To end extreme poverty, the focus has to be to get the land issues resovled first so that people can get drinking & irrigation water for food production and then all else can start to happen. He does not address wars and refugee camps. I

By Swati K

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Jun 16, 2020

The course content is superb, detailed and all-encompassing. the pacing of the course is also superb. my singular complaint is that the course is rather outdated (many of the statistics and graphs are cut off after 2013), and several of the links are no longer active. This is especially disheartening when I'm unable to properly answer the questions asked in the quizzes. I've also noticed that this is a common complaint among many of the course-takers, and I urge that this issue may be solved as soon as possible.

By David D

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May 29, 2016

Extremely well done videos, Professor Sachs is articulate and clear. The videos are a bit lengthy 25 minutes each so this asks quite some time investment.

The quiz are not easy, one must often look up charts and work with various statistical methods which were not always easy to manage - hence the 4 instead of 5. However this does force one into mining world organizations for data so overall it's a good learning process. It never fails to amaze me how much data we have collected globally and for so long!

By Mỹ N L

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Oct 12, 2020

Great and inspiring course to understand the world around us, where we are in our development, and what we need to do. I love how the course integrates online resources like UN departments' websites, etc. to give learners clearer insights on the lessons. One thing needs changing about the course is that many links in the quizzes no longer work, and I have to go to the Forum to get new links, which is quite inconvenient. Sometimes, I have to do guesswork because the links are so hard to find!

By Lola .

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Jul 30, 2021

Really interesting course! Professeur Sach is a great teacher. The first part of the course is a bit long because it goes over basic notions for an extend number of lessons, but the second part is really interesting! However the course should be updated. It was made in 2014 so the data and the world's situation have really changed since them. Also the test's link should be updated, there were a lot of dead links so some of the answers of the quizz had ri be random guesses ..

By Gabriela C N V

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Jan 10, 2021

Es un excelente curso, en el que cual aprendí muchas cosas de la sustentabilidad, lo que sí, los quiz tenían algunos problemas para determinar la información necesaria para las respuestas que teníamos que entregar, ya que las páginas estaban cerradas u otros problemas con páginas externas.

Dentro de todo es un curso muy interactivo y además que muestra información de otros lugares que no son Estados Unidos, ya que USA no es el mundo entero.

By Lukas K

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Jan 17, 2021

Very interesting course that is touching on a lot of topic which are more relevant today than ever before. The holistic picture of the challenges the global community are facing is well presented. Prof. Sachs is doing a great job. Some on the link in the course are out of date, especially in the quiz section and should be revised. It would be great to add another lecture at the end about the changes since the time the course was recorded.

By Lili

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Nov 20, 2018

Great course! However sadly, some of the links to the questions in some of the partial exams (at least 2) are not available anymore/the data has been changed, and this affects directly in the score of the exams, which is a little unfair in my opinion. It would be great to have an updated (2018) version of this course. Thank you Professor Jeffrey Sachs for continue to inspiring our generation to be the Sustainable Development generation.