Contributions sought for the Sustainability Toolkit

Research:

Before you begin, you may want to review guidance articles that form a part of the EPC’s Ethics Toolkit, since we hope that contributions to the Sustainability Toolkit will be fairly consistent in length, style, and tone.  

Guidance articles are meant to be overviews that a reader with no prior knowledge of sustainability could refer to in order to develop a baseline understanding and learn where to look for additional information. They should be understandable to students as well—imagine that an educator might excerpt content from the article to provide their students context on a project or learning activity. 

They should be approximately 500-1000 words and reference relevant open-source resources.  

Overview:

The articles are meant to be able to stand on their own as a piece of guidance on a topic; they are also meant to work alongside other guidance articles so that taken together they form a sort of sustainability in engineering handbook.  

Purpose:

Each article should inform, explain, and provide guidance on the topics. Put yourself in the perspective of an engineering educator who is new to sustainability. 

Content:

The content of the article should be organised and well developed. That is, it should be presented in a logical way and thoroughly explained.  Please click here for more details on the content that we’re seeking.

References and resources:

Where additional explanation could be given, it might point to other resources, and where information is presented from another source, it needs to be properly referenced.  

Format

Guidance articles should follow this format: 

• Premise 
• Body of article, divided up into headed sections as necessary. 
• Conclusion (optional) 
• References: use Harvard referencing 
• Resources 

Research

You may develop the case in any way you see fit, but you should mimic the length, style, and tone of existing case studies found in the EPC’s Ethics Toolkit (scroll to the bottom of this page to view the subset of case studies from the EPC’s Ethics Toolkit which feature themes related to sustainability). While sustainability cases may not have the same learning outcomes as ethics cases, the format and approach should be similar. Remember that the audience for these case studies is educators seeking to embed sustainability within their engineering teaching. 

You may find the current research on good practice in writing case studies to be helpful as you develop your case. The Recipe for Creating an Ethics Case Study provides guidance that could be applied to sustainability cases.  Please click here to download the guidance for sustainability cases. 

Overview

The case study should be presented as a narrative about a sustainability issue in engineering. This issue should allow educators to address large-scale concerns (the SDGs and/or social, regulatory, economic, or environmental concerns) as well as small-scale concerns (individual issues such as personal choices, daily practice, relationships, etc.). Additionally, there should be enough emphasis on the engineering part of the case so that technical material could be introduced.  Further ideas for case study topics could include approaches for maintaining / mending rather than new products, e.g. right to repair, up-to-date case studies from industry, understanding the sustainability implications within educational practice (e.g. 3D printing, cloud use, energy, whiteboards), etc.

Ideally, sustainability cases should provide an opportunity for students to develop one or more competencies that experts agree are essential for demonstrating sustainability knowledge, skills, and attributes. AdvanceHE’s Education for Sustainable Development Guidance and Engineers Without Borders – UK’s Global Responsibility Competency Compass both describe relevant competencies that could be included as learning outcomes or aims in a sustainability case. 

Authenticity

Case studies are most effective when they feel like they are realistic, with characters that you can identify or empathise with, and with situations that do not feel fake or staged. Giving characters names and backgrounds, including emotional responses, and referencing real-life experiences help to increase authenticity. 

Complexity of issue

Many cases are either overly complicated so that they become overwhelming, or so straightforward that they can be “solved” quickly. A good strategy is to try to develop multiple dimensions of a case, but not too many that it becomes unwieldy. Additionally, complexity can be added through different parts of the case so that instructors can choose a simpler or more complicated version depending on what they need in their educational context. 

Activities and resources

You should provide a variety of suggestions for activities to engage learners as well as resources to both help educators prepare and to enhance students’ learning.  

Educational level

When writing your case study, you should consider which level it is aimed at. A Beginner-level case is aimed at learners who have not had much experience in engaging with complex sustainability topics, and usually focuses on only one or two dimensions of a dilemma. An Advanced-level case is aimed at learners who have had previous practice in engaging with sustainability issues, and often addresses multiple levels of complexity. An Intermediate case is somewhere in between.  

Format

The case study should follow the following format: 

• Learning and teaching notes: This is an overview of the case and its dilemma, and how it relates to AHEP’s themes.  
• Learning and teaching resources: You should provide a list of reliable, authoritative open-source online resources that relate to the case and its issue(s). These can be from a variety of sources, such as academic institutions, journals, news websites, business, and so on. We suggest a minimum of five sources that help to provide context to the case and its issues. You may want to flag up certain resources as suggested pre-reading for certain parts of the case, if you feel that this will enrich the learning experience. 
• Summary: This sets out the case’s initial situation and characters. 
• Issue – Part one: This elaborates on the case and provides a dilemma for the character.  
• Questions and activities: This is where you provide suggestions for discussions and activities related to the case and the dilemma. 
• Further issues: Some case studies are sufficiently complex at one dilemma, but if the case requires it you can provide further parts (up to a maximum of three). 
• Further questions and activities: After each part, you should provide further suggestions for discussions and activities related to the case and the issues. 
• If possible, suggest assessment opportunities for activities within the case, such as marking rubrics or example answers.