Teaching sustainable energy systems to engineering students

This paper presents the learning outcomes, syllabus, delivery, and assessment strategy for a module of 'Sustainable energy systems' for master-level engineering students. The paper is based on three stages of 'action research'. The first stage is a critical reflection on the planning and the process, based on the experience in delivering the original module and literature review. The second stage is based on semi-structured interviews of 4th-year students, focused on the collection of feedback to improve the module. The third stage is the redesign and peer-review of the module. The key outcome of this work is an approach which further enables students to move from 'surface learning' to a more profound 'deep learning'. Further steps forward toward a true 'constructivism' are also envisaged. Several enhancements are discussed, including an improved syllabus, new methods of delivery, fine-tuning of the learning outcomes, and finally revisiting the assessment strategy.