Experiences from implementation of sustainability in a civil engineering course at the University of Agder

Abstract

Design and assessment of sustainability is expected to be a mandatory part of the competence of the engineers of the future. Sustainability in design and engineering education has often been solved by choosing environmental friendly materials without use of fact based assessment methods. This case study explores experiences from a new developed mandatory course in the civil engineering education at University of Agder (UiA). This course is based on problem- and project based learning, and the learning of sustainability has therefore focused on how the students have applied assessments of sustainability in their project reports. Analyzing the educational and learning situation consist of multiple elements. The didactic relation model is therefore selected as theoretical framework for analyses of selected elements and their relations. Students reported that the support of software technology motivated them to consider several designs before selecting or recommending solutions, and that these experiences are positive. The students project reports included a more mature and holistic assessment of solutions for the built environment. Problem based learning supported by software technology contributed to enable specialization in different directions when it came to how the students solved the problem. The authors conclude that this type of teaching learning environment can be applied in many different teaching situations, where there is no fixed solution. Examples of subjects are; circular economy, product design, architecture and many more.