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This study aims to bring together the available scattered knowledge about teaching and learning in Living Labs within higher education, and to explore their potential for supporting students’ sustainability-oriented transformative learning.

A literature review was conducted, applying a realist approach. A sample of 35 articles was analyzed qualitatively, mapping the data according to the realist constructs “context,” “intervention,” “mechanism” and “outcome” and using the constant comparison method for data analysis.

This study identified multiple characteristics of teaching and learning in sustainability-oriented Living Labs, namely, two socio-physical teaching and learning contexts, two pedagogical approaches as interventions therein, four learning processes as (potential) mechanisms and six sustainability-related learning outcomes. Two main challenges were also identified.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that brings together the scattered results from previous studies into a comprehensive description of characteristics and challenges of teaching and learning in Living Labs as sustainability-oriented learning spaces in higher education. The findings can support educators in making scientifically grounded informed choices for teaching and learning in Living Labs and inform future empirical studies to examine when, how and why certain characteristics of teaching and learning in Living Labs, as identified in this study, can support sustainability-oriented transformative learning in higher education.

Previous research has evidenced that communication design students wish to engage further with sustainable practices but struggle to understand how (Newton and Ellis, HER conference 2023). Whereas other design disciplines (fashion, product, furniture) can often focus on a “physical” output, communication design embraces multiple outcomes, distributed throughout a range of platforms, representing an area of industry and study which can prove difficult to define. This study aims to add further clarity as to how students consider sustainability aligned to their practice.

Previous focus group research sought to uncover how communication design students implicitly consider “sustainability”, uncovering that their knowledge is limited. Suggestions from participants emphasised that it was the role of the institution, not the student, to fully integrate sustainability into practice and to define methods they can deploy. This paper notes a subsequent workshop conducted with 33 Level 5 undergraduate students asking them to reflect on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 12/13 in relation to meaningful practice and institutional responsibility.

Workshops demonstrated the need to engage with sustainable thinking throughout every stage of development. It is clear that students demand more from academic staff at programme level, and from the institution at large, to provide further solutions to sustainability concerns which are relevant to their specific practice.

Discussion surrounding pedagogical practice across communication design lacks interrogation, yet the discipline represents a significant aspect of both design and contemporary society. It is paramount that methods for reinforcing implicit engagement with sustainable best practice within students, their development and their future beyond university are therefore developed.