Measuring the educational impacts of a graduate course on sustainable development

While university‐level education is increasingly recognized as an important component of sustainable approaches to development, little empirical research has been done on the impact of sustainability education on student behavior. This study relies on an evidence‐based research approach to better understand how graduate coursework on sustainable development can facilitate learning and transform the perceptions and reported behavior of class participants. Specifically, the authors use ecological footprint analysis in an interdisciplinary graduate‐level course on sustainable development to make statistical conclusions about the degree to which education on sustainability influences students’ daily consumption patterns. The results of this study suggest that graduate‐level education can significantly increase the degree to which students behave in a sustainable manner as measured by their ecological footprints.