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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Sustainability by University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

4.8
stars
2,548 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces the academic approach of Sustainability and explores how today’s human societies can endure in the face of global change, ecosystem degradation and resource limitations. The course focuses on key knowledge areas of sustainability theory and practice, including population, ecosystems, global change, energy, agriculture, water, environmental economics and policy, ethics, and cultural history. This subject is of vital importance, seeking as it does to uncover the principles of the long-term welfare of all the peoples of the planet. As sustainability is a cross-disciplinary field of study, this foundation requires intellectual breadth: as I describe it in the class text, understanding our motivations requires the humanities, measuring the challenges of sustainability requires knowledge of the sciences (both natural and social), and building solutions requires technical insight into systems (such as provided by engineering, planning, and management)....

Top reviews

KF

Dec 18, 2016

It is a well prepared course. Contents are carefully organized and plenty of concepts and examples are included and analyzed. Overall, it is a excellent course to get an overview of sustainability.

MT

Sep 23, 2020

This course helps me to learn many things about sustainability. By this course, I am more interested in sustainable developments. I expect to learn more about this provided by Dr Johnathan Tomkin.

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26 - 50 of 792 Reviews for Introduction to Sustainability

By Mai K S T

Sep 24, 2020

This course helps me to learn many things about sustainability. By this course, I am more interested in sustainable developments. I expect to learn more about this provided by Dr Johnathan Tomkin.

By Santiago L

Oct 8, 2019

This is a comprehensive basic course about Sustainability. Great starting point. The course is easy to be understood by non-native English speakers, but exams are difficult.

By Anant S

Jun 25, 2020

Course is really worth the time and a must have course. Lectures are interesting. I would recommend you all those who are reading the reviews.

By Raphaël H E S

Jan 15, 2019

Un poco repetitivo en el formato pero muy completo, te ayuda a tener una visión más clara sobre la sustentabilidad

By Kira B

Oct 4, 2015

Very informative for an introductory course. I learned a lot in a short amount of time.

By Eleonora G E

Sep 18, 2018

Excellent course. The material is a little bit old but still relevant.

By Tan J F

Oct 5, 2018

Really tough course, but it was worthwhile!

By Talles G G

Jan 15, 2019

Excelente curso!

By Sugeet M

Aug 10, 2020

The course needs to be updated to reflect the changes during the approx 8 years since it was first created. The data in the coursework and the quizzes in particular is quite dated. Additionally, the language of some of the quiz questions is vague and may not be easily understood by participants whose first language is not English.

By Mohammad I

Apr 26, 2020

Content is quite good but the assessment style is quite difficult as in very hard to complete. I think there is need to rethink about the assessment strategy where passing with 90% isn't made mandatory. Got stuck in the midst of the course, still intersted to complete but unable to move on due to hard style quiz. The quiz has further links which is unaccessible in poor networks. I hope the team will understand this issue from a view of providing knowledge with minimum harrassment.

By Clare S

Dec 26, 2017

This has been a great class - good information and stuff everyone should know. Thank you so much! It's also surprising how thoughtful the tests are and how they can really test knowledge. I love the peer review - it's great to read other classmates' thoughts. Areas for improvement:

a) course content really needs an update every 5 or so years. From what I can tell, the course was written up in 2005. A LOT has changed. To keep this class vibrant, content needs updating!

b) there are some really arcane test questions and despite posting Q about them, requesting an explanation, I did not receive any response from the many TAs who are assigned to the course

c) peer reviews can be made more meaningful - the 5 or so checkboxes that you fill out as a reviewer really don't go into much depth - for example, a word count? Seems like the app could check that.

By Daniel G

Dec 31, 2017

The course is great... Lots of insights... I personally am more of neo-malthusian, which results from my experience from working in African countries, so I believe the "don't worry population growth will come down" and "humans will consume less materials in the future" to be too optimistics. Anyway, I'm looking forward to be proven wrong.

Thanks for a great course!

By Cyprian L

Nov 27, 2021

Generally a great course, providing a balanced theoretical introduction to sustainability! My only real criticism is that it looks like the course materials have not been updated and the course is about 10 years old.

By Adib Z

Jul 14, 2020

The quiz sections are very lengthy and some are quite hard. It didn't seem learner friendly overall.

By Ellie H

Sep 10, 2017

decent

By Gabriel M

Nov 19, 2015

I am sorry but the Prof. doesn't know how to attract students to be more curious.

By Abhinav S

Jun 13, 2020

Worst Course!

By Mridul M

Sep 28, 2020

What an eye opener it’s been!

I thoroughly enjoyed this course – an informative and well-planned introduction into the wonderful and essential subject of sustainability. Dr. Tomkin’s succinct videos followed by the recommended readings were an ideal blend of lecture and theory, and made the subject matter easy to break down and understand. The takeaways from the course are definitely going to shape my future work.

Thank you, Dr. Tomkin for the great course!

I do suggest that that the pdf be reworked in terms of layout, typeface and leading and contrast as this version can be difficult to read off a screen.

By Aravind S

Apr 17, 2017

This is my first time doing an online certificate course from Coursera and I have to say it had been a wonderful and informative experience for me. The lectures were easy to understand and really helped me to change so many of my misconceptions on sustainability and energy. I would like to thank Prof. Jonathan for give such brilliant lectures and sharing his views. I would also like to thank my classmates for their support and also would like to congratulate them on their achievement as well along with best wishes for their future.

Thank You Coursera for such an initiative to spread knowledge

By Pauline G

Jun 2, 2020

I found this training very enriching for those new to sustainable development. I took this course in order to have a global idea of the subject. I found what I was looking for. The course is quite complete, it gives a global vision of sustainability and deals with many aspects related to the subject. Both the basic concepts and concrete examples are explained. Moreover, I appreciated the moderate vision of our Professor on the subject, which is neither in denial nor in catastrophism. Finally, the tests are not stupidly a reproduction of the course and questions of reflection are asked.

By Christoph S

Oct 25, 2020

This Course Is Great!

The topic covered is tackled in just the right level of detail to make one understand where to dig deeper for the own professional path. I found the videos well done and with "many" interactions in between. This helps to stay focused and to avoid side-activities like checking your phone :-) The sub topics where well structured.

The setup of the quizzes was supporting, as there were test quizzes before the exams. Their difficulty was fair. I enjoyed the course and take a lot from it home for my personal and professional life.

Clear recommedation!

By Shoubhonic D

Aug 8, 2021

I started with this course to try to get a comprehensive idea about the basics of sustainability both as a concept and a subject, and I must say it felt just perfect! The way this course presents to you a really holistic understanding about the subject and covers almost all the basic concepts and ideas was a surprise! I totally loved the approach of proactive thinking with all the quizzes and assignments as well. Thank you Prof. Jonathan Tomkin for creating this course and thank you Coursera for providing the opportunity to experience this!

By Michael S

Aug 30, 2021

This was my first Coursera online course and it was excellent. I was looking for a basic orientation and introduction to the broad topic of Sustainability". I discovered a whole new world and way of understanding all the complexities and relationships between so many environmental, political, economic, human dynamics, that make up the exciting world of Sustainability. I recommend this course for anyone at any level. Great into for new students as well as review for those already more knowledgeable.

By Sankar V

Jun 7, 2020

For a beginner there are chances of an Information overload. But considering the times which we live in the anthropocene , these information overload is a necessity. We all are individuals who have cause some harm to the environment through some or the other way and nobody can deny that. It is in this point of a realization that I urge my fellow comrades to do this course and be aware of where we all are headed. Cheers and thanks to Jonathan Tomkin and other supporters.

By Laird B

Nov 19, 2015

A concise and engaging course which really makes you think! Many people are interested in sustainability and concerned about the issues which affect it, but taking this course has definitely helped me better understand these issues and put many things in perspective. Having a greater understanding of these topics makes me less pessimistic about the future as Inow understand how we can best focus our efforts for the greatest return. Everyone should take this course!