Sustainability Learning Modules

Getting started

UNB Sustainability has developed seven self-directed, online learning modules that are accessible to anyone, anywhere. The purpose of these modules is to help increase the sustainability literacy of the UNB community and beyond.

UNB Sustainability would like to thank UNB's Office of Experiential Education, UNB's Strategic Communications and Marketing team, and the Government of New Brunswick's Environmental Trust Fund for all of their assistance with the development of these modules.

Before you begin the learning modules, please take the UNB Sustainability Literacy Assessment.

Take the assessment now

About the learning modules

The Sustainability Learning Modules can be completed in any order, but the Sustainability 101 and Climate Change 101 learning modules are recommended to be completed first. Each learning module is made up of 5 sections:

An introduction to the learning module topic
A set of definitions for the learning module
Information about the topic
An interactive activity to help you practice your understanding of the topic
Suggested reflection prompts to help you connect the information in these learning modules to your past experiences, learning, or goals

To get the most from these learning modules, we recommend that you take the time to engage with the reflection questions in depth, and consider keeping a notebook with your reflections so you can review and add to them later.

Choose a learning module

Reflections in learning

Reflecting on your experiences and the information you have learned can help you get the most from your learning and work experiences. For this reason, each one of the Sustainability Learning Modules provides you with an opportunity to reflect.

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Reflections and reflective activities are learning activities which ask the learner to think about experiences they have had and content they have learned.

Learners may be asked to make connections between new material and their prior knowledge or experiences, make connections between ideas or concepts presented in the material, or create a summary of the new concepts they have learned.

Reflective activities are important in learning as they help learners to “consolidate knowledge” (the process of taking new information and combining it with things you already know) and “construct knowledge” (the process of forming new ideas and making connections between them).

Reflective activities can include:

Journal prompts – these are usually short writing exercises based on a question or short series of questions

Concept maps – sometimes called mind maps, these are usually a web-like drawing that connects ideas, examples, etc.

Visual diagramming – this can take many different forms, but usually involves the learner creating some sort of visual representation of the content they have learned or experiences they have had. This can include: Venn diagrams, tables, flow charts, process diagrams, scientific diagrams, etc.

Reflection also benefits from sharing. Feedback, peer observation and discussion, and other social activities that encourage sharing, comparing, and developing reflections and reflective thoughts about experiences and ideas have been shown through research to increase the effectiveness of reflection on learning. To help support this, after each module’s reflection activity, we’ve included a bank of peer reflections you can compare your reflection with.

UNB Sustainability

Want to know more about sustainability efforts happening on campus? Please visit the UNB Sustainability website.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.