Green Teaching Certificate

The Center for Teaching Excellence and Eco-Sense piloted a Green Teaching Certificate this past fall, and are entering a second piloting phase in the Spring 2009 semester. This is part of an attempt to reward faculty members who are green teachers, while giving green courses a familiar face among students. The Green Teaching Certificate is based on a system of self-reporting. Faculty members at American University can qualify for a Green Teaching Certificate by answering a number of questions about their efforts to make their courses more sustainable. Upon evaluation, qualified courses will be rewarded with a seal representing one of four different levels of the Green Teaching Certificate, which can be put on syllabi and Blackboard pages to market courses as green:

Click here to start the Green Teaching Certificate qualification process

Qualification Criteria

The criteria that you are going to be asked about are listed below.

Easy Things (1 point each):

• Only require the purchase of books from which the majority of chapters have been assigned as required reading

• Recommend buying used books, and inform students about required books as early as possible

• Do not order desk copies of your books unless you really need them

• Post readings and handouts on Blackboard, and encourage students to read articles online rather than printing them

• If you need to print a handout or syllabus, print double-sided and on recycled paper

• If you let students hand in hard copies of their work, require double-sided printing, and allow single-spaced printing, with reduced margins

• Use scrap paper for classroom activities

• Allow students to bring a laptop to class for note-taking

• If you take attendance, keep the record on a spreadsheet in electronic format rather than passing around a sign-in sheet every class

• Use your CTE Small Grant to purchase an item that will help you become a greener teacher (for example a voice-recorder for attendance-taking, or a USB-drive for file transportation)

Not So Easy Things (2 points each):

• Customize textbooks to include only chapters that you will use in the class

• Have students type their in-class exams in a computer lab

• Have students submit their papers on Blackboard; grade them electronically, and return them to the students through Blackboard

• Use Blackboard online quizzes rather than giving quizzes on paper during class

• Use the chat-function in Blackboard or videoconferencing to talk to students rather than setting up appointments on days when you do not usually come to campus

• Use videoconferencing for guest speakers

Bonus Points:

You can receive bonus points for any measure you are taking to make your course greener that is not listed in the Green Teaching Certificate Questionnaire.

Click here to start the Green Teaching Certificate qualification process

Click here to see who has been certified and what they do

The Meaning of the Green Teaching Certificate Seals:

20 points and over

17 to 19 points

14 to 16 points

11 to 13 points