Sustained innovation in teaching and learning is needed to achieve high-quality outcomes in student learning. However, despite extensive research in teaching and learning practice, challenges are ...faced to translate teaching research into scholarly practice, especially in professional degrees. This article develops and proposes a new conceptual framework for sustainable change in teaching and learning in higher education professional disciplines. This is designed to assist change managers to identify achievable goals and develop the most effective strategies, to deliver the greatest benefits to student learning. The new model activates collaboration between change managers and stakeholders at all stages of the change process, systematic consideration of interrelated variables across a range of organisational levels, selection of more effective change strategies and regular reviews of progress so strategies can be adapted in response to context changes. A key component of the framework is collaboration which enables contextualisation of change to the professional disciplines. Its nested structure also provides an implementation framework. Such a framework provides a useful contribution as it assists change managers in adapting teaching and learning to the changing future needs of universities, staff, students, graduates, and the professions.
This paper explores what work readiness means for two cohorts of graduate engineers, one from a traditional curriculum, the second from a largely project-based curriculum. Professional bodies and ...employers have defined a set of attributes for engineering graduates so that graduates will be 'work ready'. Problem-based learning (PBL) is claimed to be a suitable approach to develop such skills. The graduates were interviewed some months after starting work, along with their managers. All the graduates recognised the benefits of taking PBL subjects as well as vacation work, with success in communication attributed more to PBL. Both cohorts had similar learning outcomes, high skill levels in project management, problem solving, communication skills, research and sustainability. A skills gap in ethics was identified for both cohorts of graduates and their managers. Further work is planned to link skill development with undergraduate learning experience.
The aim of this article is to report a comprehensive review of life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) implication on residential buildings. It discusses the contemporary issues, and ...its relationship and significance of system boundary, assumptions, and reports how it effects on economic and environmental impacts. The tools, frameworks and processes of LCA and LCC of buildings are also discussed. It critically illustrates the existing LCA and LCC studies on residential house designs to determine the causes for the widely varying results of numerous previous studies. It evaluates life cycle cost and life cycle environmental impacts of a case study building, and compares with very similar LCA and LCC studies. Finally, it reports the implications and perspectives of LCA and LCC studies on building designs.
•This paper evaluates residential house design by varying floor and roofing design.•It describes life cycle assessment and life cycle costing analysis for Australian houses.•Life cycle environmental ...and cost are significantly affected by floor and roofing design.•GHG and CED impacts are decreased when star rating is increased.
This paper describes life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle cost (LCC) analysis for typical Australian houses. It reports how different roofing (i.e. roof and ceiling) and floor designs affect the life cycle environmental impacts and cost (LCEI & LCC) over the various life stages of buildings (i.e. construction, operation, maintenance and final disposal). A case study house, called Base House, was modified with 8 alternative roofing and 4 floor designs to generate 12 variant houses. Specifically, one variable either from roofing or from floor was varied at a time while keeping wall and other components as in the Base House. The four life cycle environmental impacts were greenhouse gas (GHG) emission, cumulative energy demand (CED), water use, and solid waste generation, evaluated by LCA approach. The LCC was estimated based on life cycle costing approach. The results of LCEI & LCC of each house were evaluated on a whole of life cycle basis. A number of trades-off on the houses modified with roofing and floor designs were identified based on LCEI & LCC results. For the houses modified with roofing and floor designs, the high star skillion flat roofing and mixed floor houses were the attractive trades-off.
Project based learning (PjBL) can be an effective approach to developing graduate attributes, but it depends on how it is implemented. Chemical Engineering of RMIT University has a stream of PjBL ...subjects from first to final year. The projects are incrementally more complex but have the same goal: to choose a best process design, using management decision making tools to justify their choices. The tools include GEMI Metrics NavigatorTM. This paper reports an evaluation of whether students’ understanding of sustainability is enhanced by undertaking multiple projects, as well as use of sophisticated analysis tools. Student learning outcomes from intermediate and final subjects were compared using ConceptMaps and a focus group. The students’ understanding of sustainability increased substantially from 2nd to final year, similar to results reported in European studies. The spread of results was broad, attributed to range of student ability and differences between student cohorts. Development of understanding of sustainability was attributed to undertaking multiple projects and use of spread-sheeting tools. Use of the GEMI tool was identified as facilitating application of sustainability principles to process design decisions. Concept maps are a useful way to evaluate innovations in teaching sustainable engineering.
This paper contends that one key reason for the lack of adoption of comprehensive change models based in higher education (HE) teaching and learning is that they lack a strong theoretical ...underpinning, thus potentially impeding their effectiveness in dealing with the complexities of human and organisational behaviour. Change theories that articulate the specific roles and influences of context, time and key actors in the change process are interrogated to highlight barriers to sustainable change in HE. A new theoretical framework for sustainable change is proposed that integrates these change theories in the context of HE professional disciplines. The findings provide several recommendations for university management in implementing change models including the provision of reciprocal feedback loops, enhanced learning for staff and students through scaffolding, developing workplace and professional networks, and implementing study and work unit flexibility.
AbstraitCet article soutient que l'une des principales raisons de l'absence d'adoption de modèles de changement complets basés sur l'enseignement et l'apprentissage de l'enseignement supérieur (ES) est qu'ils manquent d'un solide fondement théorique, ce qui entrave potentiellement leur efficacité pour faire face aux complexités du comportement humain et organisationnel. . Les théories du changement qui articulent les rôles et influences spécifiques du contexte, du temps et des acteurs clés dans le processus de changement sont interrogées pour mettre en évidence les obstacles au changement durable dans l'enseignement supérieur. Un nouveau cadre théorique du changement durable est proposé qui intègre ces théories du changement dans le contexte des disciplines professionnelles de l'enseignement supérieur. Les résultats fournissent plusieurs recommandations pour la direction de l'université dans la mise en œuvre de modèles de changement, notamment la fourniture de boucles de rétroaction réciproques, l'amélioration de l'apprentissage pour le personnel et les étudiants grâce à des échafaudages, le développement de réseaux professionnels et de travail et la mise en œuvre de la flexibilité des études et des unités de travail.
•We evaluate residential house design by varying wall claddings and star rating.•LCA and LCC approach evaluate life cycle environmental impact and cost on building.•LCA and LCC results are ...significantly affected by wall claddings and star rating.•GHG and CED impacts are decreased significantly per star house improvement.•LCA and LCC along with optimization algorithm can identify best possible design.
This paper describes the life cycle assessment and life cycle cost analysis of a typical Australian house designs. It evaluates the effect of selected alternative wall assemblages on environmental impacts and life cycle cost over the various life stages of buildings (i.e. construction, operations, maintenance and final disposal). A case study house was used as the base case for all the alternative wall assemblage designs. This paper also reports on alternative wall assemblage designs that were produced with variations in external wall cladding, insulation type and thickness, air gap thickness and position. Each design was varied such that it achieved a chosen star rating. Five exterior wall claddings were selected, typical of the Australian building industry. These claddings were brick, autoclave aerated concrete block, fibro-cement sheet, pine saw logs and weatherboard. The results were analyzed for the whole building on a whole life cycle basis in terms of economic and environmental impact. The implications of life cycle environmental impacts and life cycle costs were evaluated and the optimum assemblage design is reported using optimization algorithm. A set of best solution is found depending on factors: the model assumptions, range of environmental and economic indicators considered, and the chosen quantitative criteria.
•This paper describes optimization approach of balancing LCC and LCEI for buildings.•We evaluate the effects of various wall, floor and roofing assemblage designs.•LCC and LCEI along with ...optimization algorithm can identify optimum solution.•Weighted-sum MOO approach provides a multi-criteria decision making options.
This paper describes an optimization approach of balancing life cycle cost and environmental impacts for typical Australian houses. It evaluates the effects of various alternative wall, floor and roofing assemblages to select an optimized house design. A Base House was modified with 18 alternative wall, 4 floor and 8 roofing designs. Each design was varied in such a way that it achieved specific star rating based on materials and assemblages. Two sets of objective functions, namely life cycle cost and environmental impacts were evaluated for each design using life cycle costing and life cycle assessment approaches, respectively. The use of Linear Programming helped to identify alternative best designs depending on single-objective (SOO) or multi-objective optimization (MOO). Outcomes from SOO depended on the choice of particular objective function, while outcomes from MOO depended on the decision-makers preferences in terms of weightings. A high star-rating weatherboard house with ceramic tiles and wooden floor, and skillion flat roofing was the best design if the weighting of all five objective functions were equal. A house designed with these optimal wall, floor and roofing had a much higher rating (by 1.3 stars), lower environmental impacts (by 10–20%) for the same life cycle cost.
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