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Assessment - Words of Wisdom

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Course: Sustainability Words of Wisdom: Examples from Higher Education
Book: Assessment - Words of Wisdom
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Date: Tuesday, 28 July 2026, 3:31 AM

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About

Sustainability assessments embody the transformative and innovative Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) pedagogical approaches which include being learner centred, flexible, future thinking, experiential, collaborative, interdisciplinary, authentic, affective and enquiry based (Nicholson & Vargas, 2021). Nicholson and Vargas (2021) also argue that sustainability assessment involves a shift from focusing on assessment of learning towards assessment for learning and assessment as learning.

Whilst there is no one assessment approach that is ‘best’ for supporting ESD, authentic assessment approaches have been identified as a central thread within sustainability assessments (Kemp & White, 2025). Authentic assessment encourages students to use their judgment and creativity, engage more deeply with their learning, and apply their knowledge in realistic, meaningful ways. This includes simulating real-world scenarios, tackling complex tasks using a range of skills, and offering opportunities for practice, feedback, and refinement. Authentic assessment approaches can help make the concept of sustainability more tangible and personally meaningful whilst also developing key sustainability competencies, values, attitudes and knowledge.

References

Supporting students to reflect on personal actions to support a Sustainable Development Goal

Sustainability connections are threaded throughout B100, a core undergraduate module for Level 1 Business students. There are several activities where students explore different sustainability aspects — e.g. a guided exploration of the environmental impacts of a small business. In their first summative assessment, students are asked to provide an example of an action they could take in their own work, private life, or studies, that would support one specific Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) and to explain how it would do so. Activities in the run-up to the assessment use a video to introduce the relevance of the SDGs for business and asks students to choose a business or organisation and reflect on how they could help to achieve any of the SDGs. Students are then encouraged to share their ideas with their peers in a dedicated forum space. This builds students' familiarity with the SDGs and develops reflective skills ahead of the assessment. Students are also provided with a template which outlines what they should cover in their 350 word answer e.g. a brief explanation of what the SDGs are, and specific detail of the sustainability benefit of their action.

Author: The Open University's Responsible Futures Audit 2024

A badge that indicates the winner of the student vote in November 2025

Student quotes

"I chose this because the text highlights a thoughtful and practical integration of sustainability into business education. B100 doesn’t just teach business—it cultivates responsible, globally-minded professionals. By linking sustainability to personal and professional contexts, it empowers students to see themselves as contributors to a better future from day one."

"This is something that can be personalised and people would feel that they are able to make a difference to sustainability through their own actions."

Reflecting on personal environmental impact using a Carbon Calculator

U116 Environment: journey through a changing world is a level 1, 60 credit, Environmental Sciences Module. Students use the OU carbon calculator as part of module activities and assessment. The calculator was developed in partnership with The Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT) and is publicly accessible via Open Learn. Students based outside of the UK are directed to use carbonfootprint.com. The OU carbon calculator supports students to estimate their personal carbon footprint and compare it with the UK average. 
 
The module also includes a case study of a former OU Environment student. The case study explores how the student’s experience of learning about climate change and environmental sciences inspired changes that positively impacted their carbon footprint. 
 
The module uses a framework of ‘I/we/they’ and provides examples of actions which span the framework to help students better understand environmental issues and responses. Using this framework and the examples students must also reflect on and identify possible approaches they can take to address their carbon calculator results. The reflections and identified actions form part of the module’s second assessment.
 
Author: The Open University's Responsible Futures Audit 2024
 
Student quote
"Highlighting how each individual's/organisation's actions contribute helps to foster a more responsibility-led approach to sustainable development."

Supporting collaboration and active participation in sustainability debates

SDT306 is a level 3 interdisciplinary module which focuses on how to equip students with skills to participate in sustainability debates and champion responses to sustainability challenges. Half of the module's assessment marks are linked to project work that addresses biodiversity, climate change and food issues. The project runs in parallel to the module content and is split into mini-project, group project, and individual project elements. 
 
For the group project students work together to create a set of slides which answer a research question about either Ecosystem Services (ES) or Sustainable Diets (SD). Students choose which topic to pursue and work with between five and ten peers. Each group member approaches the question from a different natural- or social-science perspective, e.g. intergenerational equity, natural heritage, sustainability, ethics, in order to consider different perspectives. 
 
Student groups have autonomy over how they collaborate and can work together online synchronously or asynchronously over approximately eight weeks of study time. Although a challenging task, most students report finding it rewarding and recognise the usefulness of developing collaboration and time management skills.
 
Author: The Open University's Responsible Futures Audit 2024
 
Student quote
"This seemed interesting and even though I don't love group projects, I feel like this would have the students gaining a lot from the learning."

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship Toolkit

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) Open Pedagogy Fellowship Toolkit is a resource created by a fellowship of further and higher education institutions in the United States. The Toolkit is designed for instructors and institutions and provides a collection of openly licensed ‘renewable assignments’. The assignments are interdisciplinary, emphasise more than one of the UN SDGs. By connecting students to real-world topics and issues the assignments support meaningful and authentic learning experiences. The toolkit compiles renewable assignment examples which include learning outcomes, rationale and instructions. The examples have all been gathered and reviewed by the fellowship institutions and are available to be adopted or adapted by educators under creative commons licenses. The toolkit also promotes institutional adoption of open pedagogy practices, fostering collaboration, adaptability, and wider educational impact while contributing to awareness and action around the UN SDGs.

Link to Open Pedagogy Fellowship Toolkit - Resources and Repositories – UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship

Author: The UN SDG Open Pedagogy Faculty Fellowship