Sustainability Literacy Test - Take the test online ! (news archive 2014)

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Sustainability Literacy Test - Take the test online ! (news archive 2014)

What do you know about your students’ knowledge of sustainability and global responsibility when they enter your classroom or your college/university? Do they have the basic knowledge to understand these concepts? Are you risking losing their attention by presenting them with information they already know? How can you be sure that your courses are adapted to their current level of knowledge? At a university/college level, do you have a clear idea of what that level of knowledge is? The Sustainability Literacy Test will allow higher education institutions to map their students’ basic knowledge and compare their results with other students nationally and internationally.

Over the past few years, most higher education institutions throughout the world have declared that they are committed to and engaged in sustainability. One essential question they now are asking themselves is: “How do we ensure that our students have all the basic knowledge for understanding (and addressing) the current global challenges?” But before now, no nationally or internationally recognized assessment tool existed that could evaluate students’ sustainability knowledge.

Nearly 200 faculty, administrators, and sustainability experts have collaborated over the past year to produce the first world-wide sustainability assessment tool, now in its pilot phase.

The “Sustainability Literacy Test” (SuliTest) is free, web-based and made up of 50 multiple choice questions. It is available in 4 different languages and already customized for 15 different countries (including UK, South Africa, India, Brazil, Peru, and Japan…). This innovative tool measures a student’s sustainability knowledge at an international level as well as national level (1/3 of the 50 questions are country-specific.) The test evaluates basic knowledge of sustainability and social responsibility and is designed for students at all program levels (undergraduate and graduate) and pursuing a wide variety of professional objectives (Engineer, Manager, Lawyer, Biologist, Architect …). The test will contribute to informing pedagogical design and research on student learning.

Over 110 higher education institutions have begun to organize test sessions for students who are either at the beginning or end of their studies using this first pilot version. By testing students as they enter a program or school, the institution immediately has a map of the sustainability literacy of its incoming student body that can be compared with students from all over the world (individual institutions score will remain confidential).

Supported by a number of United Nations institutions and international academic networks, the Sustainability Literacy Test is anticipated to be taken by 100,000 students in the coming months of the pilot. The first worldwide snapshot of the level of knowledge of higher education students will be presented in November 2014 during the next United Nations conference on Sustainable Development education in Nagoya, Japan.

Please set up a test session with your class before October, or if you are an administrator, set up the test for a group of classes, a department or academic program, at the beginning of the academic year or during the graduation exam.

Higher education institutions from all over the world can organize examination sessions for their students. As of this week, universities and colleges in the USA and Hong Kong have the opportunity to customize the test by inserting questions dealing with local issues for one-third of the assessment. France, Spain, India, Quebec, Brazil and Argentina will follow. By July, 25 countries and regions will be able to offer the same kind of local adaptations.

In each of these 25 countries, major academic associations and networks have prepared questions related to local regulations, laws, culture and practices.

Supported by a number of United Nations institutions and international academic networks, we expect this pilot version of the Sustainability Literacy Test to be used by 100,000 students in the coming months and the first worldwide snapshot of the level of knowledge of higher education students will be presented in November 2014 during the next United Nations conference on Sustainable Development education in Nagoya, Japan.