A decentralized and onsite wastewater management course: bringing together global concerns and practical pedagogy

This paper reports on the design, implementation, and results of a course focused on decentralized and onsite wastewater treatment in global contexts. Problem-based learning was the primary pedagogical method, with which students tackled real-world problems and designed systems to meet the needs of diverse populations. Both learning and course evaluations demonstrated that the course was successful in fulfilling learning objectives, increasing student design skills, and raising awareness of global applications. Based on this experience a list of recommendations was created for co-developing and team-teaching multidisciplinary design courses. These recommendations include ideas for aligning student and teacher goals, overcoming barriers to effective group-work, and imbedding continuous course assessments.