Use of Concept Maps to Assess Student Sustainability Knowledge

Abstract

Abstract Assessment of Student Sustainability Knowledge using Concept Maps As the global landscape continues to evolve, engineers will be required to adapt their skills and professionalpractices to meet the needs of present and future generations. As a result, it is imperative that engineering educatorsstrive to equip their students with the knowledge necessary to act as sustainability-conscious engineers. Accuratesustainability knowledge assessments can aid in this endeavor by informing the design and evaluating theeffectiveness of efforts to infuse sustainability content into undergraduate courses and curricula. A study was conducted to demonstrate the efficacy of using concept maps (cmaps) to examine studentsustainability knowledge. Specifically, seniors enrolled in a Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) capstonedesign course at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) participated in a concept mapping workshopwhere they completed cmaps on the focus question: "What is sustainability?" Cmaps were analyzed using threedifferent scoring approaches found in the literature: the traditional method, the holistic method, and the categoricalmethod. Results indicated that inter-rater reliability, based on Krippendorff's alpha, was acceptable for all threescoring approaches. For CEE at GT, these results support the need for educational interventions to guide students indeveloping sustainability knowledge networks that are balanced (in breadth and depth) and interconnected. Broadly,this study elucidates for engineering educators how to administer and score cmaps as sustainability knowledgeassessments.