Comparing Measures of Student Sustainable Design Skills Using a Project-Level Rubric and Surveys

Abstract

Civil engineers are poised to impact sustainable development. Consequently, there is a need for curricular materials to scaffold students in developing sustainable design skills. Previously, a sustainability module, based on Kolb’s learning cycle, was integrated into a civil engineering capstone course in the United States. The purpose of this study was to analyze the extent to which students engaging in the module (intervention cohort) were able to improve their sustainable design skills, as compared to a group of capstone students not participating in the module (control cohort). A Sustainable Design Rubric was used to assess students’ sustainable design performance, as captured in capstone reports. In addition, students reflected on their confidence related to several sustainable design competencies via a survey. Based on an evaluation of capstone design reports, improvement in the intervention teams’ consideration of sustainable design criteria was somewhat limited, as they more extensively addressed only 2 of the 16 sustainable design criteria compared to control teams. Intervention students reported improved confidence in more sustainable design competencies than control students (10 of 12 for intervention students; 1 of 12 for control students). For future implementations, clearer and more extensive sustainable design expectations need to be set by instructors and project sponsors to increase the execution of sustainable design and close the gap between students’ perceptions of improved skills and teams’ actual application of sustainable design criteria.

Higher Perceived Design Thinking Traits and Active Learning in Design Courses Motivate Engineering Students to Tackle Energy Sustainability in Their Careers

“…Results from this study complement previous findings using this survey [49,50] and deepen our understanding of factors that influence senior engineering students' interests in engaging in designing for a sustainable future. In this study, we evaluated participants' interests in energy sustainability, namely (a) redesigning conventional processes in order to minimize energy consumption; (b) developing technologies that improve energy efficiency; (c) creating ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and (d) working on renewable energy technologies, such as solar and wind power.…”

“…This study focused on the impact of perceived design thinking traits and active design learning strategies to increase senior engineering students' motivation to engage in energy sustainability in their career. A representative sample of senior engineering students in the United States (n = 4364) participated in the study (for more details about survey distribution and validation see [49,50]). Students were asked about their interests in addressing the following sustainable design problems in their future career: (a) redesigning conventional processes in order to minimize energy consumption; (b) developing technologies that improve energy efficiency; (c) creating ways to reduce carbon dioxide emissions; and (d) working on renewable energy technologies, such as solar and wind power.…”

“…This study does not focus on teaching sustainable design as in [49][50][51]. Rather, it explores the relationship between (1) perceived design thinking traits, (2) learning strategies in design courses, and (3) the motivation to develop sustainable design solutions in one's future career.…”

Traversing the Evolution of Research on Engineering Education for Sustainability: A Bibliometric Review (1991–2022)

“…The third school (blue cluster) includes 48 authors associated with Engineering Curriculum Assessment and Benchmarks for Sustainability. This school is led by Azapagic (103 co-citations), Watson (102), Sutherland (93), Perdan (84), Pierrakos (84), Haapala (74), Noyes (71), Rodgers (71), Pappas (68), and Shallcross (60). Scholars located in this school have focused on evaluating the effectiveness of efforts to embed sustainability into engineering education programs [67][68][69][70][71][72].…”

“…Their studies have utilized surveys to evaluate students' development in conceptual knowledge, design capabilities, and attitudes toward sustainability [67][68][69]71]. This research has validated survey scales and scoring rubrics for use in assessing students' knowledge, skills, and attitudes [67,71].…”