Document Type
Conference Proceeding
Publisher
Edith Cowan University, Western Australia in association with Khon Kaen University, Thailand and Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat University, Thailand.
Abstract
Project Based Learning (PBL) is increasingly becoming popular as a teaching aid in many universities across Australia. The theory associated with the Stormwater Management course is taught to students by solving practical problems associated with real life situations. Persistent drought has resulted in treating stormwater as a valuable resource when securing sustainable water futures for capital cities across Australia; including Melbourne. Based on feedback from potential employers of Civil and Environmental Engineering graduates the Stormwater Management course at RMIT University was reorganized to be structured around a major stormwater project to facilitate learning. The project involves arrangements to manage stormwater quantity and quality, when an undeveloped (Greenfield Area) was transformed from barren land to a fully developed urban area consisting of domestic and industry infrastructure and open space. The introduction of PBL to the course has improved the students‘ satisfaction rate with the course and the overall score obtained for the ‗Good Teaching Scale‘. The paper covers the description of the project, changes made to course content and delivery arrangements from the previous year, adopted teaching approach, students‘ feedback and challenges faced in delivering the course. A 66% student satisfaction rate confirmed the benefit of introducing PBL for facilitating sustainable stormwater management learning at RMIT University in Australia.
Comments
EDU-COM 2008 International Conference. Sustainability in Higher Education: Directions for Change, Edith Cowan University, Perth Western Australia, 19-21 November 2008.