DePaul University
ER-9: Sustainability Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes Linguistic Rubric: Sustainability Aspect - Key words, terms, language in learning outcome or course description Environmental - Green, Environment, Ecology, Resources, Recycle, Reduce, Reuse,Efficiency, Local, Earth, Global, Conservation, Preservation,Stewardship, balancing people and planet. Economic - Economic Health, Economic Equality, Economic Development,Business Practices, management, living within means. Social Equality - Future of society, global needs, poverty, the poor, the underserved, social justice, (in)equality, community, maintain culture, personalism, respect for people, human rights, fairness.

In February 2011, the Curriculum Working Group collected data to assess STARS Credits 9–14. Members of the committee on curriculum were asked to access the learning outcomes for their respective colleges. At DePaul these are housed centrally at: http://condor.depaul.edu/tla/Learning/learning_outcomes.html#LA&S Where learning outcomes were not available on this site, members of the committee contacted departmental and program directors for copies. In total, learning outcomes for 175 programs, departments, degrees and general education learning domains were collected. Following collection, in March 2010, the co-chairs of the committee instructed members on how to assess the learning outcomes for the purposes of the audit. To be consistent with the identification of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses, its linguistic rubric was used to direct committee members to identify if a program or department’s learning outcomes could be considered to contain sustainability items. The linguistic rubric was selected to ensure that this analysis would be replicable in the future and consistent with the language used throughout the work of the committee on the curriculum. Where there was doubt about whether a phrase or learning outcome could be considered to pertain to “sustainability,” the committee reviewed and assessed the point of contention and came to a consensus. For Credit 9 calculations, the number of degrees awarded to programs identified as including sustainability as a required learning outcome, or include multiple sustainability learning outcomes, was obtained from Tracy Mohr, Senior Research Associate at the Institutional Research & Market Analytics. In addition, the members of the committee contacted the directors of DePaul’s programs that offer students an immersive experience. The evaluated programs are: Study Abroad, University Internship Program (UIP), First Year Program, and the Steans Center for Community-Based Service Learning. Learning outcomes were collected for 161 programs, departments and degrees. Also, outcomes from the 13 general education “learning domains” and the University’s overall learning outcomes were obtained. None of the general education requirements comprised all 3 sustainability aspects, although four of these requirements did mention one or two aspects. DePaul’s overall learning outcomes only contained one sustainability element, concern for social equality, with the institution’s commitment to students gaining “Knowledge of and Respect for Individuals and Groups Who are Different from Themselves.” As all students are required to take general education “learning domain” courses, the committee decided to focus on the 161 programs, departments and degrees from which learning outcomes were collected (some programs and departments offering both undergraduate and graduate degrees did not list separate learning goals for each). This included 85 undergraduate and 78 graduate degree programs. These were assessed and 16 undergraduate and 11 graduate degrees/programs were identified as including at least one aspect of sustainability in the required learning outcomes, or included multiple sustainability aspects in the learning outcomes. In the academic year 2009–2010, DePaul awarded 6,300 degrees; 1,523 degrees awarded were from programs that include sustainability as a required learning outcome or include multiple sustainability learning outcomes.