Welcome to the MOOC series „Democracy MOOC – Democratic political education for adults“!

Democracy is more than its constitution, laws and separation of powers. Democracy is also more than casting your vote in elections every few years. Even if all these aspects are of fundamental importance for democracies, democracy also needs autonomous and competent citizens who play a responsible role in shaping the society in which they live and public affairs.

The MOOC series “Democracy MOOC” - DeMOOC for short - is a free online course series for openly accessible and digital democratic political education for adults, which has been implemented in a cooperation between the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centers and the Democracy Center Vienna and has been available on the iMooX platform since 2019. The DeMOOC is offered in several modular self-study courses and runs without a time limit, so that participation is possible regardless of time and place.

The courses in the DeMOOC series help participants to build up a basic knowledge of democracy, politics, political processes and social structures so that they can put this knowledge into practice in a second step and integrate it into their own lives. In the three-part basic program, participants are introduced to the fundamental content of adult political education and democracy education. Their self-perception as active, responsible and critical citizens is strengthened and their knowledge and skills in the area of participation and civic engagement are expanded. This knowledge should also have a positive influence on future course design, pedagogical work or teaching.

The DeMOOC is supplemented and expanded each year with in-depth courses on various key topics. Although the content of these courses ties in with the three basic courses, they can be completed independently of them. They offer participants the opportunity to take an in-depth look at various topics relevant to democratic politics, including, for example, participation in everyday practice and sustainability. The specially prepared information material aims to shed light on different facets of the topics and to discuss them using various perspectives and questions.

Overview of courses in the DeMOOC series:

DeMOOC: Basic course part 1

• Politics and democracy
• Options for action in the Austrian political system
• Democracy and media

DeMOOC: Basic course part 2

• History of democracy
• Migration, integration and identities
• Democracy in Europe, European and global democracy

DeMOOC: Basic course part 3

• Fundamental rights and the rule of law
• Democracy and economy
• Freedom and security
• State, ideology and religions

DeMOOC: Democracy and Participation – Political involvement and participation in everyday practice

DeMOOC: Exclusions in concrete terms – What prevents democratic participation?

DeMOOC: Sustainability and Democracy – Connections, potentials and obstacles

The complete learning and teaching materials are made freely available to participants. Thus, on the one hand, the DeMOOC serves the further education of all interested persons, multipliers, course creators, teachers or (social) educators. On the other hand, the courses in the series also provide materials and methods so that participants also feel motivated and able to develop and offer courses, lessons or projects on political education themselves. The programs in the “Initiative Erwachsenenbildung” as well as many other courses and offerings in adult education can also benefit from the courses in the DeMOOC series.

MOOC certificates:

For active participation in the courses, an automated certificate is issued upon completion, which includes your username, the course name and the lessons completed. We would like to point out that this is only a confirmation that you have answered at least 75% of the self-check questions (multiple choice quiz) correctly.

The Democracy Center Vienna and the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centers hope you enjoy the courses!