CBL and Other Educational Approaches
Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) can be considered as an evolution of our education. It has its conceptual roots in Problem-Based Learning (PBL), Design-Based Learning (DBL) and Project-Based Learning.
All these educational concepts share important elements. The underlying pedagogy all emphasize active, experiential, self-regulated, and learning within an authentic (real-world) context. And the shift from teacher centered education to student centered education leads to changes in learning, teaching and assessment activities.
However there are also some differences. In CBL, learning starts from an open-ended, real-world challenge that ideally involves multiple stakeholders. Students are challenged to act as a team, and given the freedom to think out of the box when defining the problem and to design a project entirely by themselves.
TU/e has chosen CBL as a way to realize its educational vision. If you already have a DBL or PBL course, then this course is already in the right direction of TU/e's educational vision. The step to CBL is small, but necessary. Therefore, we invite you to discover how you can optimize your DBL or PBL course.
Typical Things That Need to Be Optimized
Challenge based learning is first and foremost all about improving the quality of learning. And we do this by positioning a challenge at the core of the learning process.
TU/e defined the CBL concepted through its 10 dimensions. All dimensions need to be considered when evaluating and improving the quality of learning. Three dimensions are important when optimizing your course or project. Make sure that:
- Your CBL course or project starts with an open-ended real-world challenge, where teams of students are challenged to define their own problem, organize their process and design a project by themselves.
- Involve (external) stakeholders to represent different perspectives that need to be taken into account when defining the problem, organizing the process and/or developing solutions.
- Connect the challenge to bigger, global themes and let students reflect how their engineering solutions can have an impact to the bigger themes.