Sustainability issues across educational disciplines in learning factories

The learning factory is normally a venue for achieving learning outcomes on the detail and system level in the technical domain. Sustainability issues have often been treated as separate subjects from the core technical curriculum. Hence, learning has traditionally taken place in separate subjects and venues. However, the emerging practice of situated learning in model factories is paving the way for cross-disciplinary learning involving various subjects, thus meeting the industry’s increased demand for cross-disciplinary competence.
This article aims to contribute to the discussion within the field of cross-disciplinary learning in learning factories focusing on sustainability combined with technical product and manufacturing subjects. Through a discussion supported by two case studies from the leading manufacturing industrial clusters in Norway; Raufoss and Kongsberg, this article investigates how sustainability curriculum can be implemented in cross-disciplinary settings to strengthen the students’ learning outcomes in these issues.
This study demonstrates how learning outcomes concerning sustainability can be strengthened within the frames of a learning factory. Furthermore, it demonstrates the importance of proper task design, and how feedback can aid the student’s reflection on sustainability issues.