This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This engineering education research award to Arizona State University will employ researchers to develop cyber infrastructure to infuse sustainability concepts into electrical engineering courses. A central challenge in incorporating sustainability in a greater range of engineering courses is the need to develop effective multidisciplinary and broad systems-based education models. In this research a gaming environment will be created as a learning tool to help students understand the complex interactions of multidisciplinary sustainability concepts. The research will also improve the process of on-line self-assessment through cognitive load theory and develop a problem-based learning database. This project has the potential to serve as a transformative educational model, offering a realistic mechanism by which sustainability can be included in a wide range of engineering classes. This research will increase student motivation, reduce barriers to collaborative multidisciplinary learning, and improve student learning outcomes. Sustainability is an increasingly significant societal issue, and it is important that engineering graduates understand and are able to apply sustainability principles in their engineering jobs.
