Designing a holistic process of learning for implementing sustainability: An experience in an engineering doctoral program

Education is a key element of reaching sustainability. The incorporation of sustainability into doctoral programs can be promoted using new learning methods through the practices carried out by the PhD students. These methods include learning by doing, blended learning, collaborative learning, and project based learning, all of which are presented in the practical experience described in this article. This study describes the training that students receive in the doctoral program “Energy Efficiency and Sustainability in Engineering and Architecture,” which is offered in the Engineering School at the University of Vigo. The study includes an analysis of the facility and its operations, the teaching methods used and the students' perceptions of sustainability's incorporation into the program. In this practice, students worked with an experimental facility that could be controlled and supervised both manually and remotely. Students performed numerous tasks, including studying the main problems related to the combustion of biomass and its impact on sustainable development. On the one hand, students have used different measuring devices to control and monitor facilities, and, on the other hand, they have discussed and analyzed data, thereby improving the work capacity with the facility equipment, team work skill and communication with each other effectively. As a conclusion, students showed sincere interest in development of the practice, and they participated actively in each of its phases. The learning methodology used was found to increase student motivation.