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The study investigates the comparative efficacy of the culturo-techno-contextual approach (CTCA) and the lecture method in students’ understanding of the human resource management (HRM) curriculum in Ghana.

A quasi-experimental design is employed to gather data from 245 4th-year undergraduate students studying HRM at a Ghanaian public university. The experimental group with a population of 115 students was taught with CTCA, whilst the control group with a population of 130 students was taught using the lecture method. The data was collected using the HRM achievement test (HRMAT). The data were analysed using the descriptive analysis of covariance technique with pre-test scores added as a covariate.

The findings reveal that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the study of HRM, affirming the effectiveness of the CTCA over the lecture method.

This study is novel because it is the first paper to apply the CTCA to the study of HRM in the Ghanaian higher education space. It will, therefore, benefit HRM education in the country when educational stakeholders adopt a sequential and methodical approach to teaching and learning HRM using the CTCA.

The importance of multidimensional and engaging instruction for sustainable development goals (SDGs) in higher education cannot be overstated. Such instructions should motivate students not only to memorize and contemplate these goals but also to actively participate in addressing SDG-related challenges. Consequently, this study aims to develop practical and appropriate instructional approaches to education for sustainable development (ESD) in higher education to enhance students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors concerning sustainability.

By using a quasi-experimental design, this ESD study was conducted at a university in central Taiwan. A total of 121 students from diverse academic backgrounds participated in the 16-week experiment, which was divided into three groups. Lecturing, thematic teaching and design-thinking strategies were applied to these respective groups.

The thematic-teaching and design-thinking groups displaying improved cognitive performance. However, the quantity results revealed that the design-thinking group surpassed the other two groups in sustainability knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and mind map tasks. The qualitative findings further indicated that design thinking – through multiple practical problem-solving activities – guided college students to think independently and sustainably, as well as enabled them to internalize the value of sustainable development. By implementing these effective approaches, the core goals of ESD-related personal and societal transformations may be realized.

This study proposed a goal-oriented ESD instructional model for educators, demonstrating the efficacy of design thinking in cultivating higher-order thinking and affection for ESD in students. Additionally, this study introduced an innovative evaluation approach – mind mapping – to the ESD domain, which may compensate for the limitations of the survey method.

This study provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of design thinking and thematic-based pedagogies in sustainable development higher education. Additionally, it also offers a practical ESD instructional model with reference value for scholars and multi-domain instructors. Moreover, the study highlights that by examining organizational governance from the perspectives of design thinking and higher-order affection, sustainable and economic development need not be mutually exclusive concepts. Instead, pursuing SDGs can be viewed as investment opportunities for organizations rather than mere costs.

This paper presents two educational gamified virtual labs and investigates different methods of including gamified elements in virtual labs used for teaching. The purpose of this study is to investigate if immersive gamified virtual labs can be used as effective pedagogical tools by properly incorporating them into higher education curricula to assist low-risk active learning and student engagement.

This research design comprises two gamified virtual labs including nine essential experiments of biology and chemistry integrated into the higher education curriculum of the Foundation of Science at an international University. Students filled in a survey after participating in the lab to shed light on appropriate ways of using gamification approaches in virtual labs.

From the predominant findings of the study, gamified virtual labs increase student involvement thereby enhancing knowledge development with active learning and may be a potentially suitable pedagogical tool for low-risk interactive learning.

Limitations of the study include findings based on gamified virtual labs but not comparing the gamified virtual labs to simple virtual simulations to further investigate the pedagogical approach and understand the student perceptions in a simple virtual simulation and a gamified virtual lab.

The findings of this study will provide evidence that gamified virtual labs integrated into higher education curricula as supplementary tools for laboratory experimentation improve the educational delivery process.

This research highlights an appropriate way of integrating 3D virtual labs into practical curricula while discussing the benefits.

Project-based learning is one of the most effective methods of transferring academic knowledge and skills to real-world situations in higher education. However, its effectiveness is not much investigated focusing on the students' narrative. This study aims at evaluating the students' experience and perspective on adopting project-based learning in master by research and doctoral programmes for proactive skills development.

This study evaluates the self-reflection of 10 postgraduate students and their supervisor who have participated in developing a software tool for solar photovoltaics (PV) integrated building envelope design, management and the related education.

Findings reveal that the students have effectively improved their knowledge on the subject via collaborating with the industry, self-learning/observation, peer learning, problem-solving and teamwork. Dividing the project into student-led tasks has improved the decision-making and leadership skills, risks identification, planning and time management skills. The overall experience has (1) built up confidence in students, (2) enhanced their creativity and critical thinking and (3) improved their proactive skills and context knowledge.

A clear research gap can be seen in exploring the effectiveness of project-based learning for master by research and doctoral programmes, which mainly focus on extensive research. These programmes do not necessarily focus on developing students' proactive skills, which is the main requirement if they intend to work in the construction industry. This paper addresses the above research gap by demonstrating the effectiveness of project-based learning for developing the proactive skills in a research-intensive learning environment.

This paper describes the development of a digital role play game (RPG) designed to help construction apprentices to better communicate with their supervisors about issues with the potential to impact on their physical and psychological health and safety.

A participatory approach was adopted to utilise the knowledge and insights of the target users to inform the digital RPG development. Apprentices and supervisors were interviewed to identify characteristics of effective supervisor-apprentice communication, which became the RPG’s learning objectives. The scenarios constructed in the RPG were drawn from lived experiences shared by the apprentices in the interviews. During the development process, consultations were conducted with an advisory committee comprising of apprentices and supervisors to improve the realism of the RPG scenarios.

Three scenarios were developed for the RPG. In each scenario, players are asked to make decisions at various interaction points about how the characters should respond to the unfolding and challenging situations. Scripts were developed for the game, which were acted out and motion captured to animate digital MetaHuman characters embedded in a virtual construction site. Two example situations are introduced in this paper to illustrate the development process.

To our knowledge, the RPG introduced is one of the first applications of digital game-based training in the construction industry. The adoption of a participatory design approach ensures that the game content relates to real-world experiences. The digital RPG is highly interactive and engaging in nature and presents a novel approach to developing “soft” skills in construction.

This study aims to present a step-by-step implementation of the culturo–techno-contextual approach (CTCA) in a university classroom to teach industry and competitive analysis in the Ghanaian undergraduate entrepreneurship development curriculum. It further investigates the efficacy of the CTCA in breaking difficulties related to the study of industry and competitive analysis as a difficult concept in the Ghanaian entrepreneurship development curriculum. In doing this, the CTCA is compared with the lecture method.

The study adopts a quantitative approach. A quasi-experimental design is employed to gather data from 215 level 400 (4th-year undergraduate students) entrepreneurship development students at a Ghanaian public university. The experimental group was taught with CTCA, while the control group used the lecture method. The data was collected using the industry and competitive analysis achievement test (ICAAT). As random assignment to experimental and control groups were not possible, the data were subjected to an analysis of covariance approach with pre-test scores added as a covariate.

The results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group. The results further indicate the efficacy of CTCA in improving undergraduate students’ performance in complex concepts of entrepreneurship.

Researchers usually test alternative teaching methods to break down barriers to study difficulties. The study’s uniqueness stems from the CTCA’s ground-breaking application to the study of entrepreneurship development in a Ghanaian public university.

Safety training can effectively facilitate workers’ safety awareness and prevent injuries and fatalities on construction sites. Traditional training methods are time-consuming, low participation, and less interaction, which is not suitable for students who are born in Generation Z (Gen Z) and expect to be positively engaged in the learning process. With the characteristic of immersive, interaction, and imagination, virtual reality (VR) has become a promising training method. The purpose of this study is to explore Gen Z students’ learning differences under VR and traditional conditions and determine whether VR technology is more suitable for Gen Z students.

This paper designed a comparison experiment that includes three training conditions: VR-based, classroom lecturing, and on-site practice. 32 sophomore students were divided into four groups and received different training methods. The eye movement data and hazard-identification index (HII) scores from four groups were collected to measure their hazard-identification ability. The differences between the participants before and after the test were tested by paired sample t-test, and the differences between the groups after the test were analyzed by one-way Welch’s analysis of variance (ANOVA) test.

The statistical findings showed that participants under VR technology condition spent less time finding and arriving at the Areas of Interest (AOIs). Both the eye movement data and HII scores indicated that VR-based safety training is an alternative approach for Gen Z students to traditional safety training methods.

These findings contribute to the theoretical implications by proving the applicability of VR technology to Gen Z students and empirical implications by guiding colleges and universities to design attractive safety training lessons.

We conducted both a field study and an experiment to examine why college students use laptops for note-taking, and how it impacts their performance in a managerial accounting course. Our study is unique because it takes place in an accounting setting, it incorporates the use of an interactive note packet, and it compares the effect of computer use among students in the lower half versus upper half of academic performance. We found that students chose to use a laptop to complete the notes primarily because of its ease, while those taking longhand notes did so because they felt it enhanced their learning. There was no significant difference in average test scores and course grades between the two groups overall or among students in the upper half of academic performance. However, the use of a laptop had a strong negative effect on students in the lower half of academic performance.

This paper outlines the active learning methods used to develop and deliver a sustainable business course to undergraduate students. Moreover, the paper aims to investigate the effect of the sustainable business course on the students’ engagement in sustainable consumption.

From a pedagogical perspective, the paper describes the active learning methods applied in a newly introduced sustainable business course via numerous distinctive assessment techniques. On the empirical front, the research investigates the impact of the sustainable business course on the students’ engagement in sustainable consumption. To test such impact, an online survey was distributed among students who completed the sustainable business course, and as a control group for comparison, students who did not take the course.

The research results indicate a positive relationship between completion of the sustainable business course and engagement in sustainable consumption. Furthermore, the data revealed that female students exhibited more engagement in sustainable consumption than male students.

The study contributes to the literature on student-centered pedagogy, active learning techniques and the relationship between sustainable business education and engagement with sustainable consumption.

The study contributes to the literature on student-centered pedagogy, active learning techniques and the relationship between sustainable business education and engagement with sustainable consumption. Pedagogically, the nonconventional course curricula and assessment methods described in this study can be used as a reference by instructors aiming to integrate active and experiential teaching methods into their sustainable business curricula. For decision makers in higher education who are working in line with the global direction to achieve sustainability, this research provides preliminary evidence that students’ engagement with sustainability is influenced by their course curricula.

By depicting innovative approaches to teaching sustainability in business, the research enriches the field of sustainable business pedagogy which remains under-researched in many countries. Furthermore, the research goes further by investigating the effect of the course on students’ sustainable consumption. This acts as evidence of the effectiveness of teaching sustainable business in changing future leaders’ perspectives and priorities to include environmental and social aspects, which has become a global goal. Accordingly, the research has the potential to encourage more business schools to make sustainable business education mandatory.

This study aims to investigate the integration of education for sustainable development (ESD) into landscape architecture (LA) programs in North American universities to understand its benefits and challenges and provide insights into the implementation of sustainability principles, pedagogies and teaching methods.

This study analyzed survey data from 128 LA faculty members from 85 Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture member schools. The survey assessed the implementation of sustainability principles, pedagogies, teaching benefits and challenges to integrating sustainability into their courses. To complement the survey data, 62 LA course syllabi were analyzed using a grounded theory approach to identify the topics covered, learning objectives and learning activities.

The study revealed that LA programs incorporate sustainability topics in various courses using project-based and interdisciplinary learning approaches. Integrating ESD into LA curricula promotes sustainability literacy, improved understanding of sustainability concepts and the development of sustainability skills. The study also found positive correlations between teaching methods, the enhancement of sustainability literacy and the development of design and planning skills.

This research examined the effects of teaching methods on student learning outcomes and the challenges instructors faced, providing practical insights into the integration of ESD in LA education. It offers recommendations to enhance the ESD knowledge of future LA practitioners, considering the inclusion of ESD as a core value of the standard by the Landscape Architectural Accreditation Board.