Some of my most exciting teaching moments include when a student connects what they observe during a field lab with regional land use practices, or when in a heated classroom discussion, a student moves beyond their disciplinary focus to connect biodiversity with energy systems and market trends.

Those moments reflect what makes the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) distinctive: its ability to forge impactful connections across disciplines often siloed in academic departments and industry sectors. 

At SEAS, our educational mission has continually evolved alongside the environmental challenges facing society. Our roots extend back more than a century, through generations of teaching and scholarship in forestry, natural resources, environmental justice, policy, design and sustainability. Although the language and scope of the field have changed, the central purpose remains: preparing people to understand complex environmental problems and, most importantly, to put solutions into practice.

Today, that purpose calls us to rethink how, where and for whom learning happens. 

There has never been a better time to gain environmental and sustainability skills. Sustainability is embedded in more careers than ever before. Global environmental changes are affecting human health, supply chains and societies in unprecedented ways. The widespread integration of sustainable solutions has become not an add-on, but an imperative — for compliance, risk or cost reduction, resource or health protection, and more. 

Many people seeking deeper knowledge about the environment and sustainability cannot relocate or leave their jobs for a two-year residential master’s degree. They may already be working in government, business, education or the nonprofit sector, where new sustainability requirements and approaches are rapidly becoming part of their jobs. How do we meet their need for rigorous, relevant learning that fits into their lives and for credentials that carry meaningful academic value?

Motivated to meet this need, I accepted the role of faculty lead for Digital Learning Innovation at SEAS in January 2026. While continuing to teach field ecology courses and advise client-based master’s projects that grounded me in best teaching practices and the needs of professionals, I carried forward the innovative work in the online learning landscape already started by then Associate Dean Michaela Zint and the previous SEAS Director of Online Learning, Julien Depauw.  

SEAS faculty have developed nine different massive open online courses (MOOCs) — short courses across key topics from climate action and sustainable development, to environmental justice and sustainability leadership. While thousands of global learners have benefited from these courses, MOOCs can’t offer direct engagement with faculty or the university-level credentials that more employers are seeking.

Stackable sustainability credentials

Our new fully online Graduate Certificate in Sustainability Science takes our online offerings the next step, combining the flexibility working professionals need with credit-bearing courses that can be stacked toward their immediate and longer-term goals. This four-course certificate helps professionals build essential skills in the core systems of sustainability: ecological, social, industrial and spatial systems. 

Across the four courses, learners can gain skills across key emerging professional needs in climate mitigation and adaptation planning, restoration and nature-based solutions, geographic information systems (GIS) and data visualization, circular economy and life cycle assessment (LCA), and community engagement and behavior change.

By being online and credit-bearing, the SEAS sustainability science certificate offers a unique combination. Graduate credit signals sustained engagement and high academic expectations and opens the door for a broader educational pathway. For professionals seeking to expand their capabilities, change direction or bring new knowledge back to their organizations, that distinction matters. 

At that same time, the four-course certificate offers a speed and flexibility that a full online degree may not. Students can choose to take individual courses to address specific learning needs, complete all four to earn a recognized credential, or apply their course credit to get a remote head start on the residential master’s degree. 

Developed in collaboration with the Center for Academic Innovation, the certificate courses apply evidence-based best practices in learning and teaching, including asynchronously available engaging multimedia course content, authentic assessments relevant to professionals, and direct faculty engagement through customized feedback and optional weekly live sessions. 

Applications for the certificate are open until Dec. 1, and I am enjoying getting to know our first set of applicants. I’ll be teaching the certificate course on Resilient Ecosystems starting in January 2027, and I am excited to engage with learners on the sustainability issues that matter to them, wherever they are in the world or in their careers. 

Sheila Schueller is a lecturer at the School for Environment and Sustainability, where she teaches courses in Ecosystem Science and Management. She is also the director of the online certificate program and the lead faculty for digital learning innovation. She works at the intersection of biodiversity and human systems, on projects ranging from increasing pollinator habitat in urbanized environments like U-M’s campus to supporting ecotourism across Greek islands. She is motivated by a passion for curriculum design and has created remote field labs and co-developed a problem-solving capstone course for training sustainability professionals.

This article originally appeared in the University Record.