Seneca Polytechnic
AC-1: Academic Courses

The course offerings of schools were first compiled by Seneca’s Centre for Institutional Data & Enterprise Analytics (C-IDEA) and the total number of courses offered was confirmed by asking schools the courses that were taught during the one academic year period. A course was listed in no more than one school and as an undergraduate or graduate course. As well, a course offered in multiple terms or sessions was counted as a single course.

The following course types were excluded from the course offerings of schools:

- Co-op/Work Integrated Learning courses
- Field Work/Practicum
- Capstone courses
- Non-credit courses
- Courses that are no longer running

The Office of Sustainability, with the support of a project team, created the course review process to identify sustainability courses in Seneca’s course offerings. The chairs of the schools were requested to provide STARS champions to support the course reviews. These STARS champions were faculty members who were knowledgeable about the course content of the programs offered by their schools. After receiving guiding instructions from the Sustainability Office and consulting with their chairs, the STARS champions either conducted the course reviews themselves or contacted the course leads and supported the course leads doing the reviews.

The STARS champions/course leads were asked to review every course by responding to the following two questions: (1) determine whether the course is sustainability-focused (SF) or sustainability-inclusive (SI) using STARS’ definitions (see bottom); and (2) if the course is SF or SI, identify what key sustainability challenges the course addresses by linking it to at least one of the condensed target statements under the 17 UNSDGs. If the course was neither SF nor SI, the second question would not need to be answered. After all the courses were reviewed, the STARS champions verified all the course responses provided before submitting them to the Sustainability Office.

The review process of the year’s course offerings was divided into two phases for completion, with Phase 1 focusing on reviewing the courses taught during the Winter 2023, and Phase 2 reviewing the courses taught during the Fall 2022 and Spring/Summer 2023.

To determine if a course is SF or SI, the STARS’s definitions below are used. The sustainability course inventory includes both SF and SI courses.

SF: To count as sustainability-focused, the course title or description must indicate a primary and explicit focus on sustainability. The course title or description does not have to use the term “sustainability” to count as sustainability-focused if the primary and explicit focus of the course is on the interdependence of ecological and social/economic systems or a major sustainability challenge.

SI: To count as sustainability-inclusive, the course description or rationale provided in the course inventory must indicate that the course incorporates a unit or module on sustainability or a sustainability challenge, includes one or more sustainability-focused activities, or integrates sustainability challenges, issues and concepts throughout the course.