Digital Global Classroom, a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Approach: An Innovative Pedagogical Strategy for Sustainable Competency Development and Dissemination of SDGs in Engineering Higher Education

One of the most popular strategies to develop skills such as collaborative work, critical thinking, and problem-solving is the application of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), in which Professors from at least two universities from different countries and cultures develop a period known as "Global Classroom” (GC) in which, through the Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) approach, they solve a real challenge, using digital communication tools. This study held four-week global courses between groups from the Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico and groups from the Corporación Universitaria Minuto de Dios in Colombia. The challenges were related to two fundamental issues in sustainability: 1) Management of natural resources and climate change and 2) Biomimetics. Students were able to solve the challenges, develop skills to communicate effectively through online interaction with people from different cultures and disciplines, and use technological tools that facilitate distance learning in multicultural virtual environments. Current teaching models involve active and experiential learning, developing soft and hard skills. The GC experience is a tool that allowed continuity in the preparation of students during the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of GC is available to those interested as a valuable tool to provide students with the opportunity to live sustainable international experiences and promote the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Education for Sustainability: Calculation of the Digital Carbon Footprint

The COVID-19 pandemic brought confinement that caused a drastic change throughout society. Mobility was reduced, education suffered a substantive change, distance learning, and digital skills were developed. Climate change and environmental pollution indicators indeed decreased. However, the quantification of the environmental footprint of the new form of remote work (digital carbon footprint) has not been considered in systematic studies. There are not many tools to calculate the corresponding emissions. The main objective of this educational research work was to determine the carbon footprint of digital activities in a company during the confinement caused by COVID-19 through a Challenge-Based Learning methodology. A one-semester academic program was designed to develop energy auditing skills for students of Sustainable Development Engineering. A company (training partner) was determined to validate the evaluation instruments. Techniques for data collection, questionnaires, and analysis of energy consumption data were designed. A helpful protocol was defined to determine the digital carbon footprint generated in the pilot company, allowing us to scale our research towards quantifying Greenhouse Gas emissions in Institutions or Companies of greater size. The soft and disciplinary graduation competencies of the students were solidly developed and evaluated through internal instruments and by the training partner standards. Finally, we propose mitigation measures aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals, in line with the new Green and Sustainable Digital Education trend. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Low-cost and high-precision labs to promote active learning in online learning environments

COVID-19 forced online learning at all levels. It raised a problem for the teaching of engineering classes where laboratory work is essential for the learning process. To address this problem, we used the current capabilities of cell phones, visual processing software, and social networks to design a set of lab activities that could be reproduced at home by each student at a low cost. We developed an exploratory study where we implemented one of those lab activities in a physics course and investigated the impact of this activity on the learning gain of students. We implemented the activity in a large group of students (69) and compared with a control group of students (12) that did not participate in the activity in order to evaluate the knowledge gained by the participants. Results showed that students that carried out our proposed lab activity increased their learning gain (20%) and obtained better scores in their knowledge tests (76.98 ± 3.21 pre-test versus 92.56 ± 3.18 post-test). © 2020 IEEE.