Judson University
ER-5: Sustainability Course Identification

SUSTAINABILITY-FOCUSED COURSES A sustainability-focused course is one whose primary purpose is to study one or more of the following: 1) Theories of sustainability 2) The environmental, social, economic, or religious dimensions of sustainability 3) Practical skills or problems that are directly associated with a sustainability issue SUSTAINABILITY-RELATED COURSES A sustainability-related course might accomplish one or more of the following: 1) Address a sustainability issue in at least one formal unit of the course 2) Teach a theory, method, skill, or body of information that is not directly labeled sustainability but is commonly employed in work on sustainability, such as an earth science or energy-conscious architectural planning.

Each of the University's department chairs and/or program directors received a survey form to complete, asking them to list all of their courses offered during the past three years. They were provided with guidelines that included various definitions of sustainability and the University's definitons of sustainability-related and sustainability-focused courses (as provided above). They were also directed to websites that included examples of courses offered at other universities that included sustainability components. The chairs/directors analyzed the content of their courses and completed the surveys accordingly. For those who did not respond, course titles were examined for sustainability connections. The results were then compiled by a data assistant in an Excel spreadsheet and percentages of sustainability-focused and sustainability-related courses were determined.