Wolf, Franziska Seyfarth, Felix C. Pflaum, Ellen <jats:p>Energy-related training is much needed for SIDS to achieve sustainable development goals and reduce energy poverty. Online learning enables innovative formats of practice-centered trainings that address local needs and help overcome geographic constraints by efficiently reaching learners on remote islands. To justify high course production costs, content must be re-usable and the instructional design must match participants' motivation, skills, capacity, and constraints. An interdisciplinary university research cooperation used SIDS survey data to develop a learner-driven, collaborative online course for energy practitioners. Problem-based learning and peer-review mechanisms were used to localize knowledge and to practice real-world skills; sustainable institutional structures assure future iterations. The pilot reached a heterogeneous audience of 1,000 learners, geographically dispersed across the main SIDS regions. Principles of learning design outlined by the authors may also be valuable for capacity-building with geographically dispersed, heterogeneous learners beyond SIDS.</jats:p> application/pdf https://sonar.ch/global/documents/93971 eng info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.4018/978-1-5225-2621-6.ch003 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/2326-8905 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Open and Distance Learning Initiatives for Sustainable Development. - IGI Global. - 2018, p. 58-83 Scalable Capacity-Building for Geographically Dispersed Learners http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501