Overall Rating Platinum
Overall Score 86.35
Liaison Lisa Kilgore
Submission Date March 3, 2022

STARS v2.2

Cornell University
IN-27: Online Sustainability Course

Status Score Responsible Party
Complete 0.50 / 0.50 Sarah Carson
Director, Campus Sustainability Office
FS - Energy & Sustainability
"---" indicates that no data was submitted for this field

Has the institution offered a free, sustainability-focused course on the public internet in which students were enrolled within the previous three years?:
Yes

Title and a brief description of the institution’s free, online sustainability course:
Course Title: "Sharks! Global Biodiversity, Biology, and Conservation"

A free, massive open online course (MOOC) on shark biodiversity and conservation developed by Cornell and the University of Queensland and offered through edX. The course covers the interactions between sharks and humans including the devastating impacts of unsustainable human activities on shark populations. The course is used to provide a foundation of shark global biodiversity and to teach students how to use current and future biology to inform shark conservation efforts. (https://onlinelearning.cornell.edu/sharks-global-biodiversity-biology-and-conservation-mooc)

Learning Objectives:
-Habitats and distributions of sharks from around the world.
-Evolutionary history and relationships of sharks and allies.
-Functional anatomy of swimming, breathing, and eating.
-Sensory biology, reproduction, and behavior.
-Ecological roles of sharks.
-History and culture of shark-human interactions.
-Impacts of human behavior on shark populations.
-How biology informs conservation efforts.

Syllabus outline:
Week 1: The Big Picture - Biodiversity and Evolution
Week 2: Miracles of Evolution - Functional Morphology and Physiology
Week 3: Thinking Like a Shark - Brains and Behavior
Week 4: Sharks in the World - Human Interactions, Ecology, and Conservation

Website URL where information about the free, online sustainability course is available:

Optional Fields

Number of individuals taking the institution’s free, online sustainability course in the most recent year offered:
4,300

Additional documentation to support the submission:
---

Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
Cornell Chronicle Article - Massive, indeed: Shark MOOC has attracted thousands
https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2020/09/massive-indeed-shark-mooc-has-attracted-thousands

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