Curriculum
Introduction
One of the primary functions of colleges and universities is to educate students. By training and educating future leaders, scholars, workers, and professionals; higher education institutions are uniquely positioned to understand and address sustainability challenges. Institutions that offer courses covering sustainability issues help equip their students to lead society to a sustainable future.
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The Kinnikinnic Project: Developing Sustainability Learning Outcomes In Higher Education
- University of Wisconsin-River Falls (WI)
A sustainable campus and community approach to learning outcomes provides the single richest multi-disciplinary and discipline specific platform for immersing our students and stakeholders in a place-based, living-learning laboratory environment ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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In Front of the Mirror: Assessing Curricular Change
- California State University, Chico (CA)
California State University, Chico undertook a general education reform, providing a unique opportunity to craft a new general education pathway with the intent of preparing students for challenges of the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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“You Can’t Measure That!” Measuring Affective Learning Outcomes in an Undergraduate Urban Sustainability Course
- University of Louisville (KY)
Traditional classroom assessments are unable to measure students’ development of the affective competencies and behavioral dispositions implicit in education for sustainability. This original research addresses the question of how to ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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How can we know that our educational efforts are working?
- University of Otago (Otago)
Some higher education institutions aspire to transform students into global citizens, able and willing to address the sustainability needs of the planet. Yet these institutions have limited capacity to evaluate ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Assessing Sustainability Learning Outcomes at Two Community Colleges
- Delta College (MI)
Assessing sustainability and general education outcomes is a tough nut to crack. Follow two community college academic professionals along their journey to discover an efficient and effective assessment tool. Both ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Learning Outcomes for Teaching Sustainability in the Humanities
- Luther College (IA)
This paper explores the question of what we expect students to know and be able to do as the result of successful education for sustainability. I start by defending the ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainability as a Pedagogical Project
- University of New Hampshire (NH)
Sustainability is a large and complex concept that integrates multiple domains of knowledge across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales. (Kelly, 2009) Its focus lies at the intersection ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainable Graduates Achieving Global Learning Outcomes Through Innovative Curricular Design
- Northern Arizona University (AZ)
- Haley & Aldrich, Inc. (MA)
In spite of challenges that many are facing with integrating sustainability into curricula, Northern Arizona University (NAU) has tackled this on an even larger scale by purposefully infusing environmental sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Sustainability learning outcomes for an interdisciplinary general education curriculum
- Portland State University (OR)
- EcoChallenge.org (OR)
Over the past 15 years sustainability has emerged as a prominent theme within Portland State University's interdisciplinary general education curriculum. For example, a web-based survey of faculty found that ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Refining and Assessing Workshops for Infusing Sustainability across the Curriculum
- University of Scranton (PA)
While the call for curricular attention to sustainability has been made often and widely, real obstacles exist to infusing sustainability issues across the curriculum. Faculty development seminars have been an ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Transformative Learning for Sustainability
- Pennsylvania State University (PA)
The journey toward a sustainable world is a tremendous technical and political challenge, but it is also a challenge of values. Sustainability implies a fundamental transformation of values at both ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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Core Competencies in Learning for Sustainability
- Western Michigan University (MI)
Successful implementation of sustainability declarations and commitments such as the ACUPCC (particularly 1.c.iii: "Actions to make climate neutrality and sustainability a part of the curriculum and other educational ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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How much have students learned?: Outcomes Assessments for Sustainability Education
- Green Mountain College (VT)
With the increasing attention on sustainability curricula, more emphasis should be placed on the assessment of what students actually learn from such curricula. AASHE's STARS has helped to focus ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
- Conference Presentations
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Integrating Sustainability and Science in an Urban Infrastructure Course - Experience and Learning Outcomes
- Tulane University (LA)
In the fall of 2007, a course was developed on sustainable infrastructure in urban environments, and the course was taught in the following spring semester. Aimed mainly at undergraduate students ...
- Posted Feb. 26, 2016
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The Development of 'Learning for Sustainability' Core Competencies
- Western Michigan University (MI)
Over the last several years, there has been increased interest within communities, schools, and government to promote behavior that will yield a positive future impact on the world. The sustainability ...
- Posted Feb. 24, 2016
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Curriculum Improvement in Education for Sustainable Development: Measuring Learning Outcomes in an Introductory Urban Planning Course.
- Arizona State University (AZ)
Education for sustainable development (ESD) is an academic goal for many courses in higher learning. ESD encompasses a specific range of learning outcomes, competencies, skills and literacies that include and ...
- Posted Feb. 24, 2016
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A Qualitative Investigation of Sustainability-Oriented Courses at UBC
- University of British Columbia (BC)
With the underlying theme of globalization and encouraging students to be global citizens, the University of British Columbia (UBC) adopted a sustainable development policy in 1997 and revised it in ...
- Posted Feb. 24, 2016
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Key competencies in sustainability: a reference framework for academic program development
- Arizona State University (AZ)
The emerging academic field focused on sustainability has been engaged in a rich and converging debate to define what key competencies are considered critical for graduating students to possess. For ...
- Posted Feb. 24, 2016
- Publications
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This tab provides access to data collected through AASHE’s Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System™ (STARS). STARS is a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to measure their sustainability performance. STARS enables meaningful comparisons over time and across institutions using a common set of measurements developed with broad participation from the campus sustainability community.
All responses reference content from reports under the latest version of STARS, version 2.2. AASHE membership and log-in is required.
AC 1: Academic Courses
- Percentage of courses that are sustainability course offerings
- Percentage of academic departments with sustainability course offerings
- Inventory of sustainability course offerings (upload)
- Website URL - Sustainability course offerings
AC 2: Learning Outcomes
- Description of institution level sustainability learning outcomes
- List of degree programs that require an understanding of the concept of sustainability
- Percentage of students who graduate from programs that require an understanding of sustainability
- Website URL - Sustainability learning outcomes
AC 3: Undergraduate Program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate degree program
- First sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused undergraduate minor or concentration
AC 4: Graduate Program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- First sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level minor or concentration
AC 5: Immersive Experience
- Description of the sustainability-focused immersive program(s)
- Second sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
- Third sustainability-focused graduate-level degree program
AC 6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (upload)
- Copy of the sustainability literacy assessment (description)
- Website URL - Assessment of sustainability literacy
AC 7: Incentives for Developing Courses
- Description of the course development incentives
- Website URL - Incentives for developing sustainability courses
AC 8: Campus as a Living Laboratory
Additional analysis on scores and quantitative fields can be conducted using the STARS Benchmarking Tool.