Challenge-based Learning Approach Research Articles

Integrating Challenge-Based Learning in a Vertical Classroom

The paper presents a case study illustrating the implementation of a combined master's level and third-year bachelor's Lab-on-a-Chip Microdevices course using a Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) approach. We describe the course's design, the implementation, and the observed impact of adopting this innovative approach. We use a survey and a focus group discussion to investigate students' perceptions of learning through the CBL approach. The gathered insights highlight the appreciation for practical application and industry collaboration in the course. Some issues related to class preparation and clarity of guidelines for working on challenges have also been identified, and a re-design addressing these issues was co-created between the instructors and students during the focus group session. Our study offers a blueprint for designing hands-on experiment-oriented courses in collaboration with industry and highlights the potential of CBL to enhance technical proficiency and foster innovation in interdisciplinary engineering education.

Developing competences in a cross-border interdisciplinary project: student and teacher perceptions of the Ocean i3 project

The aim of this research was to analyse students’ perceptions of the competences developed by taking part in the cross-border interdisciplinary Ocean i3 project. The objective of the Ocean i3 project is for students to acquire learning, research and sustainability competences while contributing to reduce plastic pollution along the Basque-Aquitaine coast. The project uses a Challenge-Based Learning approach in which social actors from the surrounding cross-border area propose challenges that students have to solve. The research methodology used is exploratory and descriptive; for the data collection qualitative and quantitative instruments have been used. The main result is that students and teachers perceive that the former have improved the sustainability competences engaging and working on the project. Mostly they perceive to have developed active listening, analysis, creativity and negotiation competences.

Challenge-based learning approach to teach sports: Exploring perceptions of teaching styles and motivational experiences among student teachers

The present study analyses how experiencing challenge-based learning (CBL) may affect student teachers' basic psychological needs and the perceptions of their teachers’ styles in comparison with being involved in a traditional teaching (TT) methodology. A quasi-experimental study with experimental and control groups was carried out. A total of 128 responses (ncontrol = 71; nexperimental = 57) were reported by 83 student teachers from the Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Degree (Mage = 20.07, SD = 1.82; range = 17–27 years) who completed some self-reported validated questionnaires. Analyses based on non-parametric test to compare independent and related groups showed that, after the 14-week intervention, student teachers in the CBL condition exhibited higher competence satisfaction (MCBL = 4.21vs.MTT = 3.80) and lower competence (MCBL = 1.87 vs. MTT = 2.46) and relatedness (MCBL = 1.58 vs. MTT = 1.99) frustration than the TT group. As for teaching styles, student teachers in the CBL-based experience perceived their professors as using more strategies supportive of autonomy and structure than student teachers in the TT group. The results of the study outline that CBL might be a valid methodological approach for student teachers to achieve motivational consequences in university context and in their future as teachers.

Argumentative-driven assessments in engineering: a challenge-based learning approach to the evaluation of competencies

Argumentative-driven assessments in engineering: a challenge-based learning approach to the evaluation of competencies

Shaping the entrepreneurial mindset - the cases of Social Entrepreneurship HUBs within higher education in Thailand and Myanmar

Background: The full potential of social entrepreneurship remains challenging to achieve, despite continuous efforts in various economies, including South-East Asia. Several obstacles need to be addressed, such as the scarcity of skilled employees, limited business understanding among founders, difficulties accessing funding and infrastructure, and the absence of proper social impact measurement. Higher education institutions (HEIs) often face constraints in engaging and supporting early entrepreneurial activities, exacerbating the imbalance in the social entrepreneurship landscape. This imbalance has been observed in both Thailand and Myanmar.
 Research objectives: The Erasmus+ funded project, STEPup, running from 2020 to 2023, recognized an opportunity to foster innovative social entrepreneurship practices tailored for disruptive business settings in these two countries. By applying the challenge-based learning approach through interactive case challenge proceedings involving social entrepreneurs, faculty mentors and students, the development of the entrepreneurial mindset of the latter group was studied.
 Research design and methods: To accomplish this, a multi-method research design was chosen, which involved a case-challenge experience within the framework of 6 universities, a questionnaire-based survey conducted among the student population which took part in the case-challenge experience and desk research.
 Results: The study revealed the necessity for a self-organizing and organic support system for social entrepreneurship. The objective of this paper is to present recommendations and strategic guidelines to enhance access and opportunities for existing social enterprises and social entrepreneurs seeking to establish and sustain a social enterprise ecosystem. The proposed framework leverages the support, expertise, and structure of existing higher education institutions.
 Conclusions: Higher Education Institutions can serve as excellent cases demonstrating how to design and develop resource hubs for social enterprise practitioners and engage stakeholders from all sectors to address social issues and promote awareness.

Development of education for sustainable fashion design using a challenge-based learning approach

ABSTRACT This study proposes a model for sustainable education in fashion design through the development, implementation, and assessment of a specific curriculum. It employed the challenge-based learning (CBL) approach to facilitate the learning of concepts involving sustainability and sustainable fashion design, using a postgraduate course in South Korea as an illustrative case study. Qualitative research was undertaken, including observational evidence for describing students’ learning experiences and outcomes and assessing the effects on students’ sustainability competencies using a grounded theory-based interview analysis. The results demonstrate that CBL provides learners with sequential and organised design thinking procedures, compared to the traditional method in which defining each step of a design process is not crucial. CBL promotes the development of competencies in sustainability involving metacognition and metadisciplinary studies from students’ genuine experiences, contributing to creative and problem-solving skills. This study provides concrete evidence for CBL’s potential as a pedagogical model for sustainable fashion design.

Challenge-Based Learning in Higher Education

Higher education institutions (HEIs) have a pivotal role in fulfilling the social dimension of sustainability and contributing to a complex changing society. To meet these challenges, Malmö University has in interdisciplinary groups researched the role of challenge-based learning (CBL) in relation to staff, students, disciplines, and stakeholders. This position paper is based on that work. Malmö University argues that with a CBL approach, HEIs will actively contribute to the building of a sustainable learning society through collaboration in education, research, and innovation. This paper theoretically explores the CBL approach as a collaborative learning exchange within HEIs and society at large. CBL is defined through eight key elements, clustered as entities of three domains: diversity and inclusion, co-creation and collaboration, and change agents and contextual challenges. These are discussed and empirically exemplified with the purpose to support designing, planning, and accomplishing CBL in teaching and learning in HE for a global learning society.

Implementation of the challenge-based learning approach in Academic Engineering Programs

Implementation of the challenge-based learning approach in Academic Engineering Programs

Engineering Students as Co-creators in an Ethics of Technology Course

Research on the effectiveness of case studies in teaching engineering ethics in higher education is underdeveloped. To add to our knowledge, we have systematically compared the outcomes of two case approaches to an undergraduate course on the ethics of technology: a detached approach using real-life cases and a challenge-based learning (CBL) approach with students and stakeholders acting as co-creators (CC). We first developed a practical typology of case-study approaches and subsequently tested an evaluation method to assess the students’ learning experiences (basic needs and motivation) and outcomes (competence development) and staff interpretations and operationalizations, seeking to answer three questions: (1) Do students in the CBL approach report higher basic needs, motivation and competence development compared to their peers in the detached approach? (2) What is the relationship between student-perceived co-creation and their basic needs, motivation and competence development? And (3) what are the implications of CBL/CC for engineering-ethics teaching and learning? Our mixed methods analysis favored CBL as it best supported teaching and research goals while satisfying the students’ basic needs and promoting intrinsic motivation and communication competences. Competence progress in other areas did not differ between approaches, and motivation in terms of identified regulation was lower for CBL, with staff perceiving a higher workload. We propose that our case typology model is useful and that as a method to engage students as co-creators, CBL certainly merits further development and evaluation, as does our effectiveness analysis for engineering ethics instruction in general and for case-study approaches in particular.

The implications of entrepreneurship education on the careers of PhDs: evidence from the challenge-based learning approach

We analysed the academic and business outcomes of 73 PhDs who attended an entrepreneurial education program, co-designed by two universities in collaboration with an international research center, in the last five years, and compared these results against 73 PhDs who did not attend the program. We based our analysis on a mix of quantitative and qualitative data regarding scientific and entrepreneurial achievements, as well as interviews with former program participants. Evidence from our analysis shows a positive effect of the entrepreneurial education program on the academic and business outcomes of PhDs.

STRUCTURE AND PECULIARITIES OF THE CHALLENGE BASED LEARNING APPROACH

Today’s students are presented with content-centric assignments that meet standards but lack a real-world context and opportunities for active participation. Because these assignments often fail to engage students, they can lead to uninspired work and a gradual process of disengagement. To address this need, Apple Inc. worked with teachers and leaders in the education community to develop a new approach to teaching and learning called Challenge Based Learning. Challenge-based learning (CBL) is a pedagogic approach for K12 education pioneered by education staff at Apple, Inc. that has its roots in problem-based learning and the work of John Dewey. The approach focuses on increasing student engagement. Unlike problem-based learning, CBL is a collaborative learning experience in which teachers and students work together to learn about compelling issues, propose solutions to real problems, and take action. The approach asks students to reflect on their learning and the impact of their actions, and publish their solutions to a worldwide audience. This article discusses the formation and characteristics of the Challenge Based Learning approach.

Effect of Activity-Based and Challenge-Based Learning Approaches on Technical Colleges Students’ Psychomotor Achievement in Furniture Craft Technology

This study adopted the quasi-experimental research design, precisely, pre-test, post-test nonequivalent control group design. The population for the study was 210 National Technical Certificate (NTC II) furniture craft technology students (175 males and 35 females) in Technical Colleges. This study was carried out in Zamfara and Katsina State. The analysis was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The data were obtained with Furniture craft technology Cognitive Achievement Test (FTCAT) and Furniture craft technology Interest Inventory (FTII). The lesson plan, FTCAT, and FTII were subjected to face and content validation by three experts. The instrument was trial tested on a sample of 22 NTC II furniture craft technology students of Government Technical College FCT-Abuja. Kuder-Richardson 20(K-R20) and the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient were utilized to establish the coefficient of internal consistency and stability of the FTCAT. The values were found to be 0.72 and 0.81 respectively. Data obtained from the administration of the instrument was examined with mean to answer the research questions and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the Challenge-based learning approach is more successful in enhancing the students' achievement in furniture craft technology than the Activity-based learning approach. It was recommended that the Ministry of Education and National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) should organize workshops, seminars and in-service training for technical teachers regularly

Instilling innovativeness, building character, and enforcing camaraderie through interest-driven challenge-based learning approach

This study aims to identify how student teachers were impacted by an interest-driven challenge-based instructional design of an Educational Technology course over three semesters. The instructional design of this course was foregrounded by the Interest-Driven Creator Theory, anchoring on the two out of three concepts, namely Interest and Creation. Over the course of 14 weeks, the learning activities in each class meeting started by applying the Interest Loop. This was done by inviting students to participate in bite-sized challenges, at the same time making sure that students can extend the newly constructed knowledge from the activities to their final project. The objective of such design was to let students learn by doing or completing the weekly challenges given to them during class. Then, the students were guided to complete their final project through a series of workshops and personal group consultation with the course instructor. A focus-group discussion was conducted to gather data from the students over the course of three semesters, centering on answering the question of: How does an interest-driven challenge-based framework for learning design of an Educational Technology course impact learners? Interviews were conducted qualitatively, and the findings of the analysis that emerged were (i) instilling innovativeness, (ii) building character, and (iii) enforcing camaraderie. These findings suggests that a mesh-up between the interest-driven creator theory and challenge-based learning framework, then named as InDeC framework for learning design, could furnish learners with skills that are beyond those targeted in the course outcome. Among others, learners’ heutagogical skills can be improved when they are given the opportunity to realize their capacities and stretch their capabilities. Implicitly, this research may benefit instructors in their emerging responsibility of producing and readifying learners for future demands and challenges.

Helping Students to Build Multicultural and Multidisciplinary Competences: A Pilot of Challenge-Based Collaborative Learning on a Digital Gamified Platform

Global issues such as poverty, hunger, and environmental problems are inextricable and cannot be solved comprehensively by homogeneous groups. With the advance of technology, collaborations with peoples at different geographical locations can be achieved effectively. Higher education in the 21st Century must therefore facilitate students to learn how to eclectically connect their creativity and problem-solving skills with technology, and most importantly to work with heterogeneous groups to solve complex global issues.This paper will elaborate on a pilot study of a project in Hong Kong, titled the CCGame Project, which aims to heighten students’ multicultural and multidisciplinary competences by deploying gamified learning and challenge-based learning. Team-based, self-guided learning is the core of the challenge-based learning approach. To preserve students’ interest in learning and accomplishing the tasks for the team, cloud-based learning platforms have been deployed. In the pilot, the online learning platform collected data for analysis of individual and team behaviour. The pilot demonstrated that students could work in a diverse team to complete a challenge. Evidence-based results supported with data analytics will be presented and the project’s plan of work will also be elucidated in this paper.

Challenge based learning: a real-world approach for secondary students to solve complex problems using geoscience knowledge and skills

Students are regularly confronted with ethical and environmental issues of a global, regional or local nature which require knowledge of the geosciences to solve. Having the skills to engage, explore and evaluate these problems enhances student’s capacity for creative, real-world problem solving. At the Australian Science and Mathematics School, a Challenge Based Learning approach has been used across a range of learning programs including those with a focus on geoscience. Challenge Based Learning in the context of this paper is defined as a method of teaching and learning which allows students to engage in learning goals through meaningful contexts. An unfamiliar ‘ill-structured’ problem is presented to the students by the teacher and the students are required to determine for themselves how they will go about solving the problem. This process occurs through small groups of students working collaboratively and allows sharing their prior knowledge, skills and understandings to identify gaps in their collective understanding as they attempt to offer solutions to the problem. The example chosen is based around a problem requiring significant time in the field where secondary students come to know and understand the problem in greater depth while developing scientific field investigation skills.

Mathematical Creative Thinking and Student Self-Confidence in the Challenge-Based Learning Approach

The new curriculum (K13) requires a teacher to develop students’ ability in order to learn and fully understand Mathematics. The important abilities needed for a student in understanding Mathematics are the creative thinking and self-confidence. The certain study is essential in order to enhance students’ ability of mathematical creative thinking and self-confidence. Challenge-Based Learning is not only demanding a student to discover a solution to a problem, but also to be confident in what he has done. The qualitative method is used in this research to describe the students’ mathematical creative thinking ability and self-confidence. The subjects are six students chosen from 21 students of seventh grade at one of Junior High Schools in Aceh, Indonesia. They are the student with high, moderate, and low creative thinking ability. The research instrument is a test for creative thinking ability, a questionnaire of self-confidence and an interview guideline. The result indicates that the students with high and moderate level meet at least three indicators of creative thinking ability. They are also confident in solving the problem. In contrast, the student with low level did not reach any indicators of creative thinking ability and have poor self-confidence. Keywords: Challenge-based Learning, Creative thinking ability, Self-confidence.

PENERAPAN CHALLENGE-BASED LEARNING DALAM UPAYA MENINGKATKANKEMAMPUAN PEMAHAMAN KONSEPMATEMATIKA SISWA SMA

This Research examined students's understanding of mathematical concepts ability. Samples are tenth grade students in one of state high school in Cirebon City. Experiment class received Challenge-based Learning (CbL) approach while control class received Conventional Approach.The instrument used was understanding of mathematical concepts ability test. The data earned were analyzed statistically. The results showed that students's understanding of mathematical concepts ability who received CbL approach is better than students who received conventioanl approach (1/2 sig = 0.0005<0.05). In term indicators of understanding of mathematical concepts,highest enhancement that achieved by students was indicator of classify objects based on fulfilled or not requirements that form that concept, while the lowest enhanchment that achieved by students was indicator of make example or counter example from the concept learned.

A modified challenge-based learning approach in a capstone course to improve student satisfaction and engagement.

Advanced Biochemistry, a senior capstone course for biochemistry majors, was first offered in 2011. The course objectives focused on students’ ability to access and use primary literature. Despite engaging conversation and excellent student presentations, evaluations of the course content were lower than what this instructor usually receives (3.65/5 compared to 4.3/5 from the previous semester). However, the evaluation of just the instructor was equivalent to historical results. In an effort to improve the course, a challenge-based learning (CBL) design was implemented in 2013 to frame the course around four big questions relevant to our world and local community. This change was made to test if a CBL course design would increase student engagement in the course and therefore their achievement of learning outcomes. Collected data show an improvement in students’ perception of the course. Most significantly, course evaluation results increased when compared to the previous year (4.5/5 as compared to 3.65/5 in 2011). Students also rated the CBL approach as highly effective in achieving core course outcomes and related skills (all queried outcomes averaged 4.2/5 at midterm).

Teaching medical device design using design control

The design of medical devices requires an understanding of a large number of factors, many of which are difficult to teach in the traditional educational format. This subject benefits from using a challenge-based learning approach, which provides focused design challenges requiring students to understand important factors in the context of a specific device. A course was designed at San Diego State University (CA, USA) that applied challenge-based learning through in-depth design challenges in cardiovascular and orthopedic medicine, and provided an immersive field, needs-finding experience to increase student engagement in the process of knowledge acquisition. The principles of US FDA ‘design control’ were used to structure the students’ problem-solving approach, and provide a format for the design documentation, which was the basis of grading. Students utilized a combination of lecture materials, industry guest expertise, texts and readings, and internet-based searches to develop their understanding of the problem and design their solutions. The course was successful in providing a greatly increased knowledge base and competence of medical device design than students possessed upon entering the course.