| The world we live in is rapidly changing, both in terms of technology in society as well as the world itself. Engineering students are expected to grasp more concepts in a faster manner than ever before in order to adapt to this rapidly changing world. For future engineers to stay relevant in society, they must be taught important concepts in such a way that they can gain all necessary information in their relatively short college years. The field of sustainability is a key engineering topic gaining attention in recent years due to our changing world conditions. Current teaching methods intended to introduce Architectural Engineering students to in-depth sustainable building design concepts do not typically begin until the later part of students' academic careers.;This research sought to improve sustainability education of engineering students through the development and implementation of an augmented reality-based simulation game called ecoCampus. ecoCampus allowed first-year engineering students to create different "what if" design concepts, visualize those designs in the context of an existing space, and receive performance feedback about those concepts related to sustainability and other key building metrics. The findings from the implementation of ecoCampus were compared to two other, paper-based experimental treatment activities to understand the benefits of this type of tool.;ecoCampus was shown to help students resist the tendency toward design fixation within the context of a self-directed, time-constrained learning environment better than with the use of paper-based design methods. Additionally, through the design brainstorming process, students demonstrated a tendency to critically assess their design concepts to improve their developed designs more than students who completed the paper-based methods were able to do. In addition to the educational contributions, this research documented the process for creating this type of new educational tool, which included the specific steps followed to create ecoCampus as well as the pitfalls that were observed during development. The findings from this research have helped to create an understanding about how these types of technologies can be used in future educational research efforts and also an understanding of a process that can be followed for developing future applications like ecoCampus. |
