ArcGIS StoryMaps as geospatial artifacts for education for sustainable development: evidence from undergraduate geography courses in the UAE

Geography educators often face the challenge of making the Sustainable Development Goals meaningful to students as place-based and measurable problems. This paper reports a pedagogical intervention across three undergraduate geography courses at United Arab Emirates University in which ArcGIS StoryMaps served as the primary project-delivery format. Across two semesters, 99 female undergraduate students produced 76 StoryMaps, of which 72 formed the analytical dataset. Drawing on constructivist learning theory, project-based learning, and UNESCO’s Education for Sustainable Development framework, the study examines the SDG integration and spatial reasoning evidenced in the completed artifacts. Data sources comprise assignment rubrics, course learning-outcome mappings, systematic coding of final StoryMaps, and aggregate student evaluation scores. Of the analysed outputs, 25% reached an evaluative level of spatial reasoning, 53% were interpretive, and 22% were descriptive. These descriptive findings do not isolate the effects of the StoryMap format or its online accessibility, but they provide a multi-course assessment model and operational codebook for geography and sustainability education in an underrepresented Gulf and MENA context.