How learning works

Each course starts from what you will be able to do, teaches it through worked cases and labs on real data, and checks it with assessed activities.

Start with outcomes Browse the course catalogue

01Instrument

How learning works

1OutcomesWhat you will be able to do, written so it can be assessed.
2Lessons and casesEach outcome taught through worked cases.
3Labs6 kinds of lab on real or openly licensed data.
4Assessed activitiesQuizzes, lab tasks and graded assignments.
5Completion recordKept when every assessed activity is passed.
6AchievementsStack on top of completion records.

02Position

A free, learning-by-doing environment

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is a learning-by-doing environment for the study of risk. Its courses and learning materials are free, and they are organised in faculties, departments and disciplines that span the full range of risk, from the Earth system and natural hazards to infrastructure, health, finance, technology and governance. Learners work on live models, open data and digital twins of real places, and every result states its source and date.

The Academy is designed to work with higher-education institutions, research laboratories, public institutions and communities to deliver risk education and risk literacy in every format: self-paced courses, cohort study, labs, field exercises and open lessons. Institutions are named as partners only once a cooperation is in place.

03Outcomes

Every course starts from outcomes

Outcomes are written so they can be assessed. Water Nexus (RAN-303), for example, lists 7, starting with:

Explain water security, the water balance of a basin and the water-energy-food-ecosystems nexus, and describe how water connects risks across sectors.
Calculate and interpret water balance, water stress and flood exposure measures, including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators 6.4.1 and 6.4.2, exceedance probabilities and flood map accuracy.
Analyse compound and cascading water risks, tracing how droughts, floods and their combinations propagate through energy, food, water supply, sanitation and health.

04Labs

Six kinds of lab

Labs are where you use a method on real data and see its limits.

05Assessment

How learning is checked

QuizzesShort checks after lessons, with feedback that explains the answer.
Lab tasksA result you produce in a lab, checked against the stated method and its limits.
AssignmentsA written or analytical product, such as a policy brief or a dependency map, graded against a published rubric.

A course is complete only when its assessed activities are passed (strict completion, with required labs checked on the server); that produces a completion record, and achievements stack on top of it.

06Community

Learning with others

Each course has a group where learners discuss cases and review each other's work. Learners who are signed in find each other in the member directory and join a course or cohort group.

07Practice

From learning to supervised practice

Courses teach a method on real data; the national model is designed to give learners supervised assignments where the method is applied.

08Access

Accessible by design

Text alternatives for figures and maps; captions for video.
Keyboard navigation and visible focus throughout.
Light and dark themes, and reduced motion respected.
Self-paced study with no deadlines unless a cohort sets one.

09Consortium

Across the Consortium

Nexus StandardsCommunities, Learning and ContributionStandards that apply

NRNexus Reports gateway · GW-ACADEMY

Contribute to Nexus Reports from this page.

Nexus Reports is the Consortium's quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.

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Around How learning works

Risk Academy

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Open courses list their outcomes, labs and hours in the catalogue.

Browse the course catalogue See the pathways