Michigan State offering free online course in conjunction with 2014 FIFA World Cup
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EmailBillions of people tune into the FIFA World Cup to watch the greatest soccer players from around the world compete.
Billions of people tune into the FIFA World Cup to watch the greatest soccer players from around the world compete. But beyond the spectacle of the matches themselves, mega events like the FIFA World Cup have a far greater cultural, societal and economic impact lasting well beyond the short-term event itself.
Mark Wilson, a professor of Urban & Regional Planning (URP) in the Michigan State University (MSU) School of Planning, Design and Construction (SPDC) and the director of SPDC Global; Eva Kassens-Noor, assistant professor of URP and the Global Urban Studies Program; and Lisa Robinson, head of metadata management for MSU Libraries, will explore those deeper impacts during the 2014 FIFA World Cup with a free Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled, Mega Events: Inside the FIFA World Cup, starting Monday, June 23, and ending Monday, July 21, 2014.
“Our hope is that this course gives participants a functional understanding of the FIFA World Cup, how it is organized, and how host cities and countries manage the event,” Wilson said. “The MOOC format and timing of the course will let us tailor modules to developments of the World Cup and incorporate those into class discussions as they happen.”
Wilson, Kassens-Noor and Robinson drew from their collective experience with “mega” events, including the Olympics, the World’s Fair and the World Cup, when designing the course. “Mega” events typically have some key characteristics--they are short, large-scale events with millions of spectators; they are expensive (the Sochi Winter Olympics, for example, cost approximately $51 billion); and they draw an expansive audience and media presence.
“Mega events are increasingly popular across the world,” Wilson said. “There are currently more than 150 cities bidding to host different events. The draw for host cities is that the events are prestigious and draw the attention of spectators, viewers and media to one place on the planet at the same time, engaging a worldwide audience.”
This MOOC is the second offered in the SPDC MOOC Series on Mega Event Planning; the first being the 2014 Winter Olympics MOOC in January. The course will feature five self-paced modules focused on different aspects of the FIFA World Cup, including the sport itself; its history, culture and politics; business; and urban planning. Yuya Kiuchi, assistant professor of MSU Writing, Rhetoric & American Culture; and Francisco Villarruel, professor of MSU Human Development & Family Studies, will teach the module on Laws of the Game. The instructors will use twitter (connect to MEPupdates) and facebook (Mega Event Planning Group) to connect with participants for an individual experience.
“Our goal with the course is to show how the impact of the FIFA World Cup can be seen and interpreted in many different ways,” Wilson said. This course will become a trademark of Michigan State University, as the next MOOC tentatively titled “Mega Events: Inside the World’s Fair” is already in the making.”
To register for this free course, visit Mega Events: Inside the FIFA World Cup.
The course will be MSU’s sixth pilot MOOC. It was developed in partnership with MSUglobal Knowledge and Learning Innovations, innovation and strategy hub that assists faculty in creating, facilitating and implementing impactful projects that lead to new research and funding opportunities and enhance the reputation of the university community. Visit MSUglobal’s MOOCs at MSU page for more on Michigan State’s pilot MOOCs.
Learn more about SPDC’s MOOC Series on Mega Event Planning.
