• Energy Research

This study reports an intervention to initiate environmental learning and facilitate pro-environmental behaviour. The purpose was to examine the impact of ambient learning displays on energy consumption and conservation at the workplace, more specifically the evaluation of learning outcome and behaviour change. Using a quasi-experimental design, the empirical study was conducted among employees working at a university campus. For the experimental treatments, ambient learning display prototypes were varied on two design dimensions, namely representational fidelity and notification level. The results do not provide clear evidence that the design of the displays influences learning outcome or that the displays lead to pro-environmental behaviour change. Nevertheless, the sole deployment of the display prototypes eased the comprehension of the information provided and lowered the need for additional information. Thus, ambient learning displays provide a promising framework in the context of environmental lear...

The paper presents the “Energy Awareness Displays” project that makes hidden energy consumption data visible and accessible for people working in office buildings. Besides raising awareness on the topic and introducing relevant conservation strategies, the main goal is to provide dynamic situated feedback when taking individual consumption actions at the workplace. Therefore a supporting infrastructure as well as two example applications to access and explore the consumption information have been implemented and evaluated. The paper presents and discusses the approach, the developed infrastructure and applications, as well as the evaluation results.

The paper presents a project that sets up to make energy consumption data visible and accessible to employees by providing dynamic situated consumption feedback at the workplace. Therefore a supporting infrastructure as well as two example applications have been implemented and evaluated. The resulting prototype fosters a ubiquitous learning process among the employees with the goal to change their consumption behaviour as well as the attitudes towards energy conservation. The paper presents the approach, the requirements, the infrastructure and applications, as well as the evaluation results of the conducted informative study, comparative study, user evaluation, and design study.

The paper describes work-in-progress on a prototype providing personalised energy consumption feedback at the workplace. Based on a provisional framework developed in the context of an ongoing research project the prototype and the supporting infrastructure are conceptually outlined.

(1) The amount of plastic discharges in the environment has drastically increased in the last decades negatively affecting aquatic ecosystems, societies, and the world economy. The policies initiated to deal with this problem are insufficient and there is an urgency to initiate local actions based on a deep understanding of the factors involved. (2) This paper investigates the potential of massive open online courses (MOOCs) to spread environmental education. Therefore, the conclusions drawn from the implementation of a MOOC to combat the problem of marine litter in the world are presented. (3) This work describes the activity of 3632 participants from 64 countries taking an active role presenting useful tools, connecting them with the main world associations, and defining applied action plans in their local area. Pre- and post-questionnaires explore behavioral changes regarding the actions of participants to combat marine litter. The role of MOOCs is contrasted with social media, formal education, and informal education. (4) Findings suggest that MOOCs are useful instruments to promote environmental activism, and to develop local solutions to global problems, for example, clean beaches, supplanting plastic bottles, educational initiatives, and prohibition of single-use plastic.

The paper discusses the design, implementation and evaluation of a pilot project that integrated inquiry-based learning with mobile game design and introduced mobile devices and sensors into classroom learning