The Overlooked Dimension of Sustainable Education

While universities are increasingly focused on developing "green" practices on their campuses and integrating sustainability concepts into their curricula, few have considered the potential impact that their online learning programs may already be having on the environment. Online classes result in paper not printed, miles not driven and classrooms not lighted thereby reducing the carbon footprints of the sponsoring institutions. Yet, despite the growing enthusiasm of academic institutions to be recognized as "sustainable universities", most have overlooked the potential of their online learning operations to contribute to their long range goals for environmental stewardship. Consequently, the purpose of our paper is to present a proposed framework for measuring the sustainable impact of online learning which is currently being pilot tested at University of Dallas. We report results from the pilot data in the spring and summer semesters of 2009 and concludes with suggestions for establishing measurement models at other institutions where partnerships between university administrators, faculty and students hold promise for leveraging the sustainable impact of online learning. (Contains 4 tables and 3 figures.)