Community First Foundations MOOC

A free course on community-led, values-driven approaches to low-carbon housing and community buildings.

Welcome to the Community First Foundations massive open online course (MOOC), offered through PowerED™ by Athabasca University.

The most influential moment in any low-carbon building project happens at the very beginning, when a community establishes its shared vision, objectives, and core values. This free course introduces a values-driven, life-cycle-based approach to reducing embodied carbon in housing and community buildings, grounded in forest-based materials, wood technologies, and regenerative design. It complements our more extensive paid certificate programs for learners seeking deeper study and formal recognition.

Why take this free course?   

By participating in this course you will:

  1. Understand embodied carbon in context: Build a practical, context-sensitive understanding of embodied carbon in the built environment and how wood technologies and forest-based biomaterials can reduce life-cycle impacts.
  2. Lead with community values: Learn why early, community-led conversations matter and how shared language, vision, and intergenerational values shape long-term environmental, social, cultural, and economic outcomes.
  3. Apply life-cycle and regenerative frameworks: Develop the ability to bring life-cycle thinking to the planning, design, construction, adaptation, and stewardship of housing and community infrastructure, with attention to technical, regulatory, cultural, and logistical realities.

Who is this course for?

This MOOC is designed with rural and regional Canadian communities in mind, where community leadership plays a central role and early decisions carry lasting consequences. Whether you are a community leader, municipal staff member, planner, builder, housing advocate, or simply someone who wants better buildings for your community, this course meets you where the real decisions get made: at the beginning.

Pathways to further learning   

Completing this free, non-credit MOOC gives you a strong foundation in community-led, low-carbon building concepts and life-cycle thinking.

If you'd like to continue your learning journey, PowerED offers a paid program, the Energy Efficiency in Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry Micro-Credential. The paid program provides deeper exploration of embodied carbon, mass timber, and life cycle analysis, professional-level content, full tracking, and a certificate of completion.

 

Access the course

Sign up below and you'll receive an email with your link to PowerED™ by Athabasca University's free Community First Foundations massive open online course (MOOC). Join a community of learners putting people and place at the centre of low-carbon building, and start laying the foundations where they matter most. 

 

Athabasca University respectfully acknowledges that we are on and work on the traditional lands of the Indigenous Peoples (Inuit, First Nations, Métis) of Canada. We honour the ancestry, heritage, and gifts of the Indigenous Peoples and give and give thanks to them.

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