Assessing and improving a multidisciplinary environmental life cycle analysis course

Abstract

We describe learning and assessment from the spring 2006 Environmental Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) course, an upper-level undergraduate multidisciplinary course taught to students from a variety of engineering disciplines at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). The interdisciplinary background of the students and their general lack of exposure to the systems-based concepts of the Life Cycle Assessment method pose challenges for effective teaching and learning of the course objectives. We assessed the overall effectiveness of the current teaching materials and methods with respect to students achieving the learning objectives in this class. The data and conclusions are primarily based on a pre- and post-course survey one provided to the students on the first day of class and a second with identical questions given at the end of the class. The survey responses and data analysis provide objective data demonstrating that the class objectives were met as well as support for course changes considered by the instructor. While the surveys provided useful assessment information, we found that a lack of clarity in the specific survey questions was a limitation. Moreover, the surveys were not designed to provide information to assess multidisciplinary learning and team skills. These skills need be explicitly stated as learning objectives and also assessed specifically to be more effectively learned. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2007.