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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 53224

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kris Law

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Guest Editor

Associate Professor, School of Engineering, Deakin University, Deakin 00113B, Australia
Interests: organizational learning and development; knowledge and innovation management; engineering education; entrepreneurship; strategic and operations management in industry

Dr. Yuk-Ming Tang

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Guest Editor

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
Interests: virtual reality; artificial intelligence; digital twin; Industry 4.0; sustainable technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Jukka Majava

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Guest Editor

Associate Professor, Industrial Engineering and Management, University of Oulu, 90570 Oulu, Finland
Interests: innovation management; operations management; product management; business networks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Sustainability was initially referred to environmental concerns and is now accepted as a term compassing social, ethical and economic issues (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices, 2018). Facing multiple challenges in the global competitive market, including market competition and changing needs of sustainability, more and more organizations have started to align their self-interest with the public good in ways that add value to both the firms and society. Organizations are becoming more willing to include sustainability in their management strategies.
However, COVID 19 and similar epidemic make a serious impact on the global environment, in various aspects. COVID 19 crisis is getting worse in some countries with each day and governments are finding it difficult to minimize the unprecedented impacts on human lives, business and on the economy. The remote working and suspension in supply chain impose significant impacts on the industries. The education sector is trying to respond to the crisis while maintaining sustainable developments for the future.
Engineering education is deemed crucial to preparing our next generation engineers with the abilities or competencies to face the challenging environment. The objective of this special issue is to encourage researchers to share their research insights and outputs in the scope of engineering education concerning sustainable development.
The topics relevant to this special issue include but are not limited to:

Empirical research papers on pedagogical designs or learning approaches for engineering education on sustainable development.
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses that include clear research questions, a framework of analysis, and conclusions that reflect the aims of the paper.
Innovative fashions in engineering education or sustainable development, for example, in innovative teaching and learning approaches, as well as papers which take an interdisciplinary approach.
Research papers can also be about the implementation of developed software and/or hardware, with the focus on the context of use, usability issues and evaluations of the user experience and impacts learning and teaching.

Dr. Kris Law
Dr. Yuk-Ming Tang
Dr. Jukka Majava
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

sustainable development
engineering education
sustainability

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Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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15 pages, 1658 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Modeling the Impact of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) Implementation Factors on Continuance Intention of Students: PLS-SEM Approach

by Al-Baraa Abdulrahman Al-Mekhlafi, Idris Othman, Ahmed Farouk Kineber, Ahmad A. Mousa and Ahmad M. A. Zamil

Sustainability 2022, 14(9), 5342; https://doi.org/10.3390/su14095342 - 28 Apr 2022

Cited by 27 | Viewed by 3662

Abstract

The Engineers in Society (EIS) course is a common course unique to Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS. However, every semester, the course receives 300 to 500 students, making managing and delivering it a challenging task. The EIS course is thus in need of a suitable mode of delivery where the teaching and learning process can cater to a large number of participants from a variety of programs. The aim of this study is to address the effect of Massive Open Online Courses MOOC factors implementation on the continuance intention of students. The study employed a survey that was designed from a literature review. The survey adopted a series of questions to gather information about the problem under investigation. One hundred forty-eight responses were collected from the students in different engineering, project and operation management, quality, sustainability, and entrepreneurship programs. In addition, partial least squares regression-structural equation modelling was used to analyze data. Based on the results, there is a significant impact of MOOC implementation factors on the continuance intention of students. Nevertheless, students showed a high intention to continue studying engineering in society courses online MOOC. Therefore, the current study provides practical evidence for management and lecturers of the university to enhance MOOC factors to ensure the high quality of teaching and enhance the continuance intention of students to study in a MOOC environment. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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16 pages, 1879 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of Flipped Learning Approaches on Students’ Learning Performance in Software Engineering Education

by Yen-Ting Lin

Sustainability 2021, 13(17), 9849; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179849 - 2 Sep 2021

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3150

Abstract

Software engineering education plays an important role in keeping students educated with software technologies, processes, and practices that are needed by industries. Nevertheless, the nature of software engineering learning activities in traditional classrooms is limited in scope and time, making it more difficult to achieve a proper balance between theory and practice and address industrial demands. This makes scant provision for assisting students in keeping their software engineering knowledge current. To support software engineering education, flipped learning is a suitable strategy. Prior studies have shown that students’ perceptions in flipped learning environments are better than those in traditional learning environments. Nevertheless, in flipped learning, students may not have sufficient ability to conduct learning out of class. Therefore, the flipped learning strategy should aim to meet the needs of students to ensure that they get the appropriate support or feedback during the learning process before the class. The aim of this study was to propose a flipped learning diagnosis approach to promote students’ learning out of class in the flipped classroom. To explore students’ learning performance in software engineering courses, three classes of students were invited to learn with three different learning approaches (traditional learning approach, flipped learning approach, and flipped learning diagnosis approach). The results showed that the students who learned with the flipped learning diagnosis approach outperformed those students who learned with the flipped learning approach or the traditional learning approach. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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25 pages, 672 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Sustainable Project-Based Learning Methodology Adaptable to Technological Advances for Web Programming

by Juan Carlos López-Pimentel, Alejandro Medina-Santiago, Miguel Alcaraz-Rivera and Carolina Del-Valle-Soto

Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8482; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158482 - 29 Jul 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 3968

Abstract

The fast pace of development of the Internet and the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic have considerably impacted the educative sector, encouraging the constant transformation of the teaching/learning strategies and more in technological areas as Educational Software Engineering. Web programming, a fundamental topic in Software Engineering and Cloud-based applications, deals with various critical challenges in education, such as learning continuous emerging technological tools, plagiarism detection, generating innovative learning environments, among others. Continual change and even more change with the current digitization becomes a challenge for teachers and students who cannot depend on traditional educational methods. The article presents a sustainable teaching/learning methodology for web programming courses in Engineering Education using project-based learning adaptable to the continuous web technological advances. The methodology has been developed and improved during 9 years, 15 groups, and 3 different universities. Our results demonstrate that the methodology is adaptable with new technologies that might arise; it also presents the advantages of avoiding plagiarism in students and a personalized induction for every specific student in the learning process. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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22 pages, 8694 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Game-Based Learning in Project Sustainability Management Education

by Elina Jääskä, Kirsi Aaltonen and Jaakko Kujala

Sustainability 2021, 13(15), 8204; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13158204 - 22 Jul 2021

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 7719

Abstract

Projects and project-based activities account for over 30% of the global GPD and act as significant vehicles in the transition towards a more sustainable future. Sustainability strategies are typically enacted and implemented through projects in project-based organisations and firms. Incorporating sustainability principles into the project, product, and service management processes with successful project decision making is a challenging task and requires new personnel competencies and skills. Project sustainability management education requires the embedding of sustainability principles into project management education in a purposeful, integrative, innovative, and seamless manner. One way to facilitate this process is educational games. Active and experiential teaching methods will enable learning and practising complex project management activities in a simulative environment and are challenging at the same time. To extend knowledge of designing and using educational games for project sustainability management education, we explore the development and use of a novel educational game solution called the Project Business Game. It provides students and teachers with a computer game environment and game-based learning solution in which project planning, stakeholder management, cost management, decision making, and risk management skills can be enhanced by means of experiential, situational, and problem-based learning. The use of the game was explored in the context of educating European students of ‘Junior Expert in Circular Economy’ on a blended learning course in spring 2021. Action design research was applied as a research method. The results describe the requirements and goals for the instruction and the game design process based on these needs and experiences of the implementation. The findings indicate the strong suitability of using game-based learning methods to teach project sustainability management and create positive student experiences of achieving learning goals and improving engagement. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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12 pages, 10962 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Mission in Higher Education in Slovenia: Sustainability in Engineering versus Others Sector

by Kristijan Breznik, Kris M. Y. Law and Jasmina Zeme

Sustainability 2021, 13(14), 7947; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13147947 - 16 Jul 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2394

Abstract

With the proper mission, higher educational institutions can search for their opportunities and eliminate their weaknesses in the market. In the paper, mission statements from engineering institutions are compared with other higher educational institutions in Slovenia. Results of the content analysis reveal that “development”, “education”, “research” and “knowledge” are words with the highest frequency, confirming similar studies in the past. Dimensions of sustainability are not equally distributed in mission statements of engineering and other institutions. The dimension of environmental sustainability is more exposed in engineering higher education institutions. On the other hand, the dimension of social sustainability is more exposed in non-engineering (others) higher education institutions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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14 pages, 5422 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Constructing and Validating Competence Indicators for Professional Technicians in Fire Safety in Taiwan

by Wen-Jye Shyr, Fan-Yu Shih, Hung-Ming Liau and Po-Wen Liu

Sustainability 2021, 13(13), 7058; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137058 - 23 Jun 2021

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2133

Abstract

This study constructed professional competence indicators for technical personnel in fire safety equipment that can be used to guide curriculum planning of fire-protection-related programs in colleges and universities; training of technical personnel in fire safety equipment in the industry; and the mandatory national examinations for technical personnel in fire protection. To achieve the purpose of this study, document analysis, expert interviews, and the Delphi technique were used to verify that there are three first-level dimension indicators. These three primary indicators were categorized as knowledge, skills, and attitude, with an additional 12 second-level orientation indicators and 61 third-level detailed indicators. Furthermore, in relation to the importance–performance analysis, the falling point distribution of the detailed indicators of technical personnel in fire protection in the four quadrants of the IPA model chart was obtained in order to provide a reference for the industry, government, and academia. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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18 pages, 2164 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Maritime Undergraduate Students: Career Expectations and Choices

by Yui-Yip Lau, Cristina Dragomir, Yuk-Ming Tang and Adolf K. Y. Ng

Sustainability 2021, 13(8), 4297; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084297 - 13 Apr 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 11579

Abstract

The following study presents an inquiry into understanding the motivating factors of students to enroll in a maritime university and to further continue with a career in the maritime industry. By collecting data from 378 undergraduate students enrolled in various maritime programs (navigation, electromechanics, electrical engineering, and economic engineering in transport), we aimed to better understand the profiles of students, their information sources, interest, and the prospects of associated programs where they are enrolled. As such, this study seeks to enable educators and industry practitioners to better understand the educational and career paths chosen by undergraduates in the maritime field. It can align the students’ expectations with program delivery. We examined students’ perceptions and assessments according to the program they are enrolled in. Taking into account the fact that there is a world low attraction for maritime careers, the results of this study are useful for maritime education and training (MET) providers during the design and marketing campaign of the educational program to attract students. Additionally, the findings are useful for public administration and the Ministry of Education’s analysis of expanding educational and research programs, as well as for Ministry of Labour forecasting. Employers from the maritime industry can find useful the main motives for which a graduate would choose to work in this sector, business field, or a related business. Moreover, industry practitioners and academia can expand the study at a larger scale, comprising more countries and taking into account national and regional characteristics. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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22 pages, 4800 KiB

Open AccessArticle

For Sustainable Application of Mobile Learning: An Extended UTAUT Model to Examine the Effect of Technical Factors on the Usage of Mobile Devices as a Learning Tool

by Saud S. Alghazi, Amirrudin Kamsin, Mohammed Amin Almaiah, Seng Yue Wong and Liyana Shuib

Sustainability 2021, 13(4), 1856; https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041856 - 8 Feb 2021

Cited by 95 | Viewed by 10961

Abstract

Mobile devices have become an important tool in higher education. Although mobile devices have several benefits for students, the use of these devices is still very limited among students. This low percentage of usage could be attributed to several reasons, both technical and non-technical. Therefore, there is a need to conduct more research in order to understand the necessary factors that would lead to enhanced student usage, thus achieving sustainable mobile learning. In order to achieve that, our study proposes a model by employing the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) to investigate the necessary factors that influence intention to use mobile learning among university students. To evaluate the proposed model, structural equation modelling (SEM) was employed to analyze data collected from 612 students. The results indicated that factors, such as device connectivity, device compatibility, device memory, device performance, network coverage, and network speed have a significant and positive influence on students’ intention to use mobile learning. This research provides important recommendations for university decision makers and developers on understanding the necessary factors for adopting mobile learning and reflect the students’ requirements. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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Review

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19 pages, 3033 KiB

Open AccessReview

Towards Sustainable Mobile Learning: A Brief Review of the Factors Influencing Acceptance of the Use of Mobile Phones as Learning Tools

by Saud S. Alghazi, Seng Yue Wong, Amirrudin Kamsin, Elaheh Yadegaridehkordi and Liyana Shuib

Sustainability 2020, 12(24), 10527; https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410527 - 16 Dec 2020

Cited by 19 | Viewed by 6127

Abstract

Mobile phones have become widespread in the modern era. One contemporary use of mobile phones is in the education field, commonly known as M-Learning. Subsequent to the growth of M-Learning, developers of educational mobile applications need to understand what the user requirements are, and how to satisfy them. In order to measure user satisfaction while engaging with mobiles as learning tools, many models have been created using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, and other models such as the Technology Acceptance Model. However, none of these has focused on the technical factors affecting the users’ intentions to use their mobile phones as learning tools. Due to technical limitations, as well as human psychology, mobile phone learning remains limited to an assistance-only function. This paper presents a review of studies that have been used to measure users’ intentions of engaging with mobile phones as learning tools. One hundred and twenty-seven papers have been reviewed, dating from 2011 to 2020. These papers differ in terms of methodology and results collected. Results showed that many models had been extended by adding factors such as trust, pre-usage or attitude. Moreover, this review concludes that almost none of the above-mentioned studies had identified precisely the technical factors that may affect the intention of using this type of technology in education. However, when classifying the influential factors of M-Learning, almost none of the studies discussed the advantages of the technical aspect in imparting knowledge through mobile learning. This study is significant for the education industry in its identification of the relative importance of these factors where mobiles are involved in the learning process. In addition, it provides a brief history of the involvement of technology in education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Engineering Education for Sustainable Development)

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