| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 74.85 |
| Liaison | Andrea Trimble |
| Submission Date | Feb. 8, 2024 |
University of Virginia
AC-6: Sustainability Literacy Assessment
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
4.00 / 4.00 |
Dana
Schroeder Sustainability Outreach and Engagement Specialist Office for Sustainability |
Does the institution conduct an assessment of the sustainability literacy of its students?:
Which of the following best describes the literacy assessment? The assessment is administered to::
Which of the following best describes the structure of the assessment? The assessment is administered as a::
A copy of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment(s):
A list or sample of the questions included in the sustainability literacy assessment or the website URL where the assessment tool may be found:
See file attached above.
A brief description of how the literacy assessment was developed and/or when it was adopted:
--UVA Office for Sustainability (OFS) has developed and distributed 2 rounds of surveys in partnership with Institutional Research & Analytics (IRA), one in 2019 and one in 2022
--UVA Sustainability stakeholders (relevant faculty, Committee on Sustainability, etc.) helped set objectives and zero in on what we wanted to learn about UVA undergraduates
--OFS reviewed other higher ed institutions’ sustainability surveys, pulled some questions directly, adjusted many, wrote some new, then sought feedback/edits from stakeholders
--Final survey was 35 questions (15 required literacy questions, 15 optional values questions, and 5 optional demographics questions)
--OFS & IRA plan to resurvey every three years, catching a number of students in both their first year and their fourth year to be able to analyze individuals’ changes over time
--The next assessment has been planned and approved for Fall 2025.
A brief description of how a representative sample was reached (if applicable) and how the assessment(s) were administered :
FOR 2022 SURVEY:
--Office of Institutional Research & Analytics (IRA) pulled a random sample of 5,000 undergraduate emails
--The Office for Sustainability (OFS) sent each student a unique link to their Qualtrics survey in mid-October 2022
--Students had two weeks to complete the survey & received periodic reminders
--Respondents were entered to win $25 bookstore gift card, of which there were 20 available (incentives were intended to combat the likelihood of pro-sustainability bias in respondents)
--Responses totaled 396 – about an 8% response rate from our sample of 5,000
--Some populations ended up being slightly overrepresented in the respondents (including women, asian/asian american students, white/caucasian students, and students already interested or involved in sustainability), but the initial sample was a true unbiased random sample.
WHEREAS IN 2019:
-- All survey logistics were similar except double the incentives were offered. The responses recieved in 2019 were more than twice as high (850 responses).
A brief summary of results from the literacy assessment(s):
Literacy score was percent correct of the 15 literacy questions, all equally weighted. Average total literacy score was 62%. Below are the percent correct for individual questions, in descending order:
--Effects of Climate Change (96%)
--Cause of climate change (92%)
--Scientific consensus (90%)
--Definition of sustainability (85%)
--Recycled at UVA (73%)
--UVA's energy (68%)
--Three pillars of sustainability (65%)
----Sustainable Development Goals (64%)
--Environmental agreement (63%)
--Water pollution (54%)
--Per capita emissions (48%)
--Environmental economics (44%)
--Personal footprint (43%)
--Environmental justice (33%)
--Top GHG emitters (14%)
COMPARED TO 2019:
--Results were generally similar to those from 2019, though overall literacy was slightly higher in 2022.
--Some scores improved slightly (pillars of sustainability, definition of environmental justice, for example)
--Some scores fell slightly (recyclability of plastic bags, sources of UVA's electricity, for example)
Website URL where information about the sustainability literacy assessment is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
The information presented here is self-reported. While AASHE staff review portions of all STARS reports and institutions are welcome to seek additional forms of review, the data in STARS reports are not verified by AASHE. If you believe any of this information is erroneous or inconsistent with credit criteria, please review the process for inquiring about the information reported by an institution or simply email your inquiry to stars@aashe.org.