Pennsylvania State University
AC-1: Academic Courses

We followed STARS guidance related to curriculum to use the SDG targets as a framework for identifying which course offerings provide students with the knowledge and skills to help address sustainability challenges.

The course inventory developed was done by conducting a thorough review of the online Undergraduate and Graduate Bulletins and (1) removing courses that were no longer offered, and (2) adding new sustainability courses based on their descriptions. To ensure inclusion of courses that have been self identified as sustainability-focused or inclusive by individual colleges, such as the College of Liberal Arts, their listing of courses was cross cheeked to ensure they were included. See https://sustainability.la.psu.edu/course-list/

The Bulletin was also used as an information source for identifying and counting academic departments. See https://bulletins.psu.edu/

A keyword search was done using the title and long descriptions for each course. Keywords used were drawn from the Pure Elsevier library database which we used to sort for research topics. For example, courses related to SDG 1 had to relate to one or more of the following search terms, which draw from SDG targets:
extreme poverty OR "poverty alleviation" OR "poverty eradication" OR "poverty reduction" OR "international poverty line" OR "financial aid" OR "north south divide" OR "child labor" OR "social protection" OR "micro finance" OR "safety net" OR "economic resource" OR "food bank."

Courses that were filtered using those terms were reviewed to ensure that the words were accurately used matched the intent of the SDG targets and indicators by referencing https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/metadata. This site was very helpful to clarify standards and terms and ensure courses met the criteria to address main sustainability issues. When clarifications were needed, we reviewed secondary sources that included journal publications.

Courses descriptions were also reviewed to ensure that the search terms match the intent of the term. For example, a government special council course about the Watergate scandal was selected for SDG 6 but did not meet the intent of the SDG.

To identify a course as sustainability focused, the course had to address three or more SDGs. A course which only addressed 1-2 were considered inclusive.

Counts were made of each unique course offered during the 2021/22 academic year (FA21, SP22, SU22). Multiple offerings or sections were counted only once. Sustainability courses and total courses were counted in the same manner. See Notes below for exclusions.

The spreadsheet of sustainability course offerings and descriptions has three tabs: one is a list of all courses (undergraduate and graduate) and how they relate to the SDGs; one is a listing of the undergraduate courses which are flagged as inclusive and focused as well as which SDGs each addresses; the third tab is of the graduate courses which are flagged as inclusive and focused as well as which SDGs each addresses.

Following guidance in the STARS Technical Bulletin, we removed from the inventory and counts, courses in the following categories: independent study, practicums/ internships, thesis/dissertation research, physical education (KINES classes numbered below 100), other individual research (294/ 494) courses, special topics courses, and instruction in the performance arts (e.g., BRASS, VOICE, KEYBD).

Special topics courses which had sustainability themes were not included because their topics can vary from one year to the next.

Count of academic departments includes departments and schools within colleges, and colleges and schools that lack departments (e.g., Law, Nursing, International Affairs); these were each counted as one department. Courses in the inventory were matched with their departments/ schools to determine the number of academic departments/schools offering one or more sustainability courses.