20 Education for Sustainable Development: An Assessment Approach

Dr Róisín Vize shared how sustainability has been embedded into assessment design for digital marketing students, focusing on the Smarter Travel national competition organised by Transport for Ireland. The initiative challenges third-level students to create campaigns that promote sustainable and active travel to and from campus.

Students begin by completing the SULITEST tool, reflecting on their own sustainability literacy and values. They then design a poster and develop a detailed, implementable behaviour change campaign, drawing on marketing theory and the GreenComp framework. This links classroom learning directly with real-world action and provides an external platform for students to showcase their work, as entries are judged by industry experts.

Examples of student projects include carpooling reward systems, social media advocacy campaigns such as Active April, app designs to improve public transport accessibility, and gamified staff initiatives that track transport-related carbon savings. Many projects aligned not only with SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), but also with health, wellbeing, and equality goals.

Reflection is built into the assessment, with students reporting how participation gave them a sense of agency in tackling sustainability issues and reduced climate anxiety. Several described changing their own commuting behaviours as a direct result.

Dr Vize concluded that assessment for ESD should go beyond measuring knowledge: it can engage students in meaningful, action-oriented learning that prepares them to become ethical, sustainability-conscious professionals.

About the author

name: Dr Róisín Vize

institution: TU Dublin

Dr Róisín Vize is a Lecturer in Digital Marketing, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship at TU Dublin.