Anne Arundel Community College
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

A sub team from the College’s Sustainability Learning Design Committee, which was comprised of three faculty members who taught courses in different departments, adopted the following definition of sustainability in the curriculum: Sustainability-Focused Courses concentrate on the concept of sustainability, including its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, or examine an issue or topic using sustainability as a lens. Sustainability-Related Courses incorporate sustainability as a distinct course component or module, or concentrate on a single sustainability principle or issue. o Understand and be able to effectively communicate the concept of sustainability. o Develop and use an ethical perspective in which they view themselves as embedded in the fabric of an interconnected world. o Become aware of and explore the connections between their chosen course of study and sustainability. o Develop technical skills or expertise necessary to implement sustainable solutions. o Understand the way in which sustainable thinking and decision-making contributes to the process of creating solutions for current and emerging social, environmental, and economic crises. o Contribute practical solutions to real-world sustainability challenges. o Synthesize understanding of social, economic, and environmental systems and reason holistically. o A course does not have to accomplish all of these things to be designated as sustainability-related or sustainability-focused.

The methodology is self-reported credit offerings from the various directors, chairs, and coordinators within the academic schools.