On 20-22 November, colleagues from our partner universities worked together to make the first steps towards creating an ECIU University Learning Opportunity (ELOP).
One of the participants was Amanda Heeney, an assistant professor in accounting at Dublin City University Business School. There is little to no CBL in the curriculum of her program.
'We’d like to provide more CBL education, and I'm here to gain that knowledge. To hear what it is, how it works and how to work with it. I’ll take the knowledge I have gained back to Dublin to share with my colleagues and to implement later.'
On day one, four University of Twente (UT) employees presented an idea for an ELO – a 'big problem' for which the solution has not yet been determined.
Ana-Mafalda Madureira is an assistant professor at the University of Twente and already has the necessary experience with challenge-based learning.
'It is a problem with multiple solutions, an open end – and that can be approached from different perspectives.'
It is up to the participants to ultimately come up with a challenge or the first steps towards it.
Ana-Mafalda Madureira is clear.
'I hope for a challenge with short-term mobility experience because this challenge focuses on the UT campus, the local neighbourhood and how we can promote collaboration between them. For that, you have to see everything yourself. You have to be on the spot.'
Natalia Walczak is a PhD student at Lodz University of Technology in Poland. She attended to learn more about ECIU University and CBL methodology.
'We don't have many challenges at our university yet and I hope to learn and share more about them within our university.'
And that is possible. There is no lack of knowledge and expertise within the University of Twente.
Since participants included people both with and without CBL experience, the UT lecturer Tim Jongman presented a step-by-step plan.
‘This is a foundation you can use to gradually develop a challenge. It’s about the educational needs, which students you want to reach, what your budget is, which stakeholders are involved and, of course, what outcomes you want. When is the challenge considered successful? Does an impact have to be made? Or should it be about the students’ satisfaction?'
Becky Coles is from the INSA Toulouse (France).
‘I have no experience with CBL,’ she says. 'But some of my colleagues do, and they are very enthusiastic about it. I want to understand it as well, get to know the process. Together, face to face. I am very happy to take all the knowledge back with me and implement more CBL in the future.'