SDMM13006U Shelter and Settlements in Disasters

Volume 2015/2016
Education

Master's Programme in Disaster Management

Content

The course is designed to teach students strategies, methods and guidelines promoting sustainability in the shelter response from relief to recovery and reconstruction. Students will be prepared to address shelter and settlements challenges in accordance with local needs and build on local resources. It is an important feature of the course to teach students to integrate risk and vulnerability reduction strategies in recovery programming. The students will learn to consider local building technologies and materials as part of "building-back-better" strategies. The course embraces the common phases of the emergency cycle, emergency shelter, transition shelter, early recovery, and reconstruction.

Learning Outcome

At the end of the course students have acquired 
 

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

Knowledge

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Have adequate knowledge of the humanitarian response system, the role and functioning of the shelter cluster and the various shelter and settlements typologies, tools, standards and approaches
  • Have acquired strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and will be prepared to practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.

 

Skills

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Identify key shelter and settlements challenges and opportunities, apply relevant shelter assessment methods and prepare sustainable shelter and settlements strategies relevant to specific intervention phases.

 

Competence

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and  practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.
The methodology of the three course components combines e-learning (Absalon system) with face-to-face campus learning. The course includes an initial four-week knowledge building phase followed by two weeks campus lecturing, group discussions, workshops and written assignments. This phase will incorporate visiting practitioners invited to share their knowledge and real-time experiences during lectures and discussions. The final two weeks e-learning is focused on a written assignment as the final thesis.

Some information about online learning
During the online weeks you will only meet and interact with your teachers and fellow students in the University of Copenhagen's online learning platform.

A typical E-module is composed of:

An introduction to the topic
An overview of the purpose, the subjects and the intended learning outcome
A short study guide
Learning resources (which can be text, audio and/or video files)
Several exercises called E-lessons.
The E-lessons are online learning activities which can be questionnaires, assignments or online discussions. The roles of the teachers are to assist student learning by serving as E-moderators for the various E-lessons.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • E-Learning
  • 60
  • Exam
  • 23
  • Lectures
  • 40
  • Practical exercises
  • 5
  • Theory exercises
  • 10
  • Total
  • 138
Credit
5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Take-Home assignment
Aid
All aids allowed
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
More than one internal examiner
Exam period

See the exam schedule

Criteria for exam assesment

To achieve the maximum grade of 12, the student shall be able to:

Knowledge

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Have adequate knowledge of the humanitarian response system, the role and functioning of the shelter cluster and the various shelter and settlements typologies, tools, standards and approaches
  • Have acquired strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and will be prepared to practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.

 

Skills

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Identify key shelter and settlements challenges and opportunities, apply relevant shelter assessment methods and prepare sustainable shelter and settlements strategies relevant to specific intervention phases.

 

Competence

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

  • Demonstrate a strategic and practical knowledge of shelter and settlements policies, methods, tools and procedures in the humanitarian response system and  practice these in a sustainable manner from relief to recovery.