The instructional models and guidelines for developing a curriculum in eco-design

The environmental conscious has been prevailed through the world in recent years. Moreover, the related issues, including environmental regulations, energy development, the technology of eco-materials and manufacturing, Eco-design methodologies, etc., also have raised their importance among the professional and educational fields. During the process of planning eco-design instructional models and curriculum design, the educator may have to face the professional and complicated eco-design body of knowledge. Therefore, there is a need to establish the curriculum structure and set up curriculum aims for providing eco-design educators a guideline. The author has conducted the study of eco-design education models based on the author´s experience on participating several eco-design related workshops and collecting teaching materials. This research tries to compare these two educational models of workshops and formal instruction in the university level. It is suggested that the curriculum structure can be categorized into three levels: fundamentals (such as Introduction of the Ecology and Environmental Psychology), design practice (such as design guidelines and methodologies), and advanced research (such as advanced eco-design strategy and management, and advanced eco-technology). In this research, a systematic instructional model for product eco-design education, including the review of related factors such as time schedule, capability of students, curriculum aims, teaching materials, and grading of assignments, has been established. Eventually, this research will provide a curriculum design guideline for the eco-design educators