Entrepreneurship Education: The Effects of Challenge-Based Learning on the Entrepreneurial Mindset of University Students

The aim of this paper is to investigate the implications of Challenge-Based Learning programs on entrepreneurial skills, and on the mindset and intentions of university students, through a quantitative approach. Resorting to an original database, we analyzed the pre- and post-levels of entrepreneurial skills, mindset and intention of 127 students who attended a Challenge-Based Learning program. Results show a positive and significant effect of Challenge-Based Learning programs on the entrepreneurial mindset and skills—that is, financial literacy, creativity, and planning—of the students.

iWeek experience: the innovation challenges of digital transformation in industry

Information Technology, communication, and innovation require specific, essential competencies that employers look for in engineers. Responding to this, Tecnologico de Monterrey has been implementing the Tec21 Educational model to foster students' competencies by involving them in challenge-based learning (CBL). The iWeek is one of the first implementations of this model, where students experience immersive learning for a whole week. This study presents the iWeek Innovation Challenge to improve students' innovation and information technology and communication skills through a CBL didactic technique. During this iWeek, a group of students developed efficient solutions with Microsoft Power Apps to solve real challenges confronting a global company. The results proved that students could quickly learn and apply knowledge and develop practical, innovative solutions to real problems in Industry. It was a revelation to the stakeholders to notice how fast students can become familiar with new information technology tools to propose solutions that positively impact the company. Strong partnerships between academia and industry are crucial to developing student disciplinary and transversal competencies by challenging them to solve real-life problems in real-world environments. This work presents a roadmap for planning and designing a CBL iWeek with an educational partner from Industry. It includes the implementation details, assessment instruments, and results analysis. Finally, we also highlight the significant contributions of iWeek to explain the value of this immersive experience in the teaching–learning process.

Sustainability: A Public Policy, a Concept, or a Competence? Efforts on the Implementation of Sustainability as a Transversal Competence throughout Higher Education Programs

The concept of sustainability emerged globally in the 1987 Brundtland Report. Initially, it comprised three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Over time, sustainability became a global necessity that led to the establishment in 2015 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that sustainability became a public policy of extreme urgency. Thirty-four years later, there is an imperative need to expand the original concept not in a public policy but in a competence that graduates of higher education develop, regardless of their studied academic program. We propose sustainability as a transversal competence. Our work describes the path that a higher education institution in Mexico, Tecnologico de Monterrey, has followed to accomplish this task. The new educational model Tec21 based on challenge-based learning experiences has a focus on the development of sustainability competences and actions ownership towards solving the problems described in the 17 SDGs. Our proposed definition for the sustainability transversal competence is: “The student possesses the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the successful performance of the task and the resolution of problems related to the challenges and opportunities for sustainability in today’s world”. Thus, education is both an objective and a means to achieve all the other SDGs.

Effects of challenge-based and activity-based learning approaches on technical college students’ achievement, interest and retention in woodwork technology

This study examines the effects of challenge-based and activity-based learning approaches on technical college students’ achievement, interest and retention in woodwork technology. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The study constituted a total number of 122 subjects, 63 for Challenge-based learning, while 59 were for activity-based learning. The study revealed that students who taught woodwork using the challenge-based learning instructional approach had a higher mean score than students taught using the activity-based learning teaching method in cognitive achievement tests, psychomotor achievement tests and tests for retention of learning. Consequently, the research recommended that the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) should consider a review of the Woodwork work curriculum for Technical Colleges with a view to incorporating the challenge-based learning instructional approach into the teaching of the woodwork.

Revisión de la Metodología para la Mejora de la Enseñanza Universitaria = Review of the Methodology for the Improvement of University Teaching

El presente trabajo pretende indagar qué aspectos de la metodología del aprendizaje basado en retos resultan mejor valorados por parte de los alumnos y qué aspectos son susceptibles de mejora. Para ello se realiza una encuesta abierta. Se detecta que valoran especialmente la cercanía del planteamiento de la asignatura con la realidad profesional y el acompañamiento de los alumnos a lo largo del proceso de aprendizaje. La mitad considera que la carga de trabajo es adecuada, mientras que la otra mitad la considera excesiva. El resto de los aspectos mejor valorados son el enfoque de la asignatura y la innovación educativa. Las características y habilidades de los profesores reciben una valoración media; son peor valorados la coordinación con otras asignaturas, los recursos facilitados, las cuestiones organizativas y el excesivo número de alumnos en clase. Se concluye que la opinión de los alumnos es una ayuda inestimable para evaluar la metodología utilizadaAbstractThe present work aims to investigate which aspects of the challenge-based learning methodology are best valued by students and which aspects are susceptible to improvement. For this, an open survey is carried out. It is detected that they especially value the closeness of the approach to the subject with the professional reality and the accompaniment of the students throughout the learning process. Half consider the workload adequate, while the other half consider it excessive. The rest of the best valued aspects are the focus of the subject and educational innovation. The characteristics and abilities of the teachers receive an average evaluation; Coordination with other subjects, the resources provided, organizational issues and the excessive number of students in class are less valued. It is concluded that the opinion of the students is an invaluable help to evaluate the methodology used.

Comparing Competency Assessment in Electronics Engineering Education with and without Industry Training Partner by Challenge-Based Learning Oriented to Sustainable Development Goals

This study assessed the “creation of technological solutions for electronic devices” competencies evaluation when faculty–industry liaison is available. This experience at Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) was developed with challenge-based learning provided by the automotive electronics industry addressing subjects oriented toward some objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Electronics Engineering faculty and project engineers from automotive electronics and instrumentation companies promote design competencies in college students. This study analyzed the competency performance and outcome results of students who took applied electronics courses for the undergraduate level under the “i-Semester with industrial partner” for one semester and compared results with students that took the course under the traditional program. The competence evaluation was classified into three preliminary domain levels: 1 or low-level, 2 or medium-level, and 3 or high-level. Students were exposed to the conceptual, procedural, and attitudinal contents applied to solve the challenge assigned by the industrial partner. Students with an industrial partner showed a higher engagement, and they were more motivated in learning the subject, compared to students having classes in the traditional way. This study showed that in developing the competency “create technological solutions for electronic devices”, 55 students with an industrial partner obtained higher domain levels than 61 students with the traditional course.

University Teachers’ Digital Empowerment for Blended Teaching: An Online Training Design

Because of the impact of the pandemic in the different sectors of society, blended training solutions have acquired, in the field of education, an important relevance, speeding up a change that would normally require years to be developed.Teachers from all levels of education had to adapt and develop their practices using digital technologies without enough knowledge to do it properly. Considering this context, this paper will present the design of an online training that seeks to empower university teachers to take advantage of the potential of digital technologies to design and implement educational practices in blended settings while they acquire Digital Competences. This training will be applied with a challenge-based learning methodology and from a collaborative perspective. In addition, participants will develop the role of students and teachers at the same time in order to design blended educational practices that respond to the needs of their own students.The proposed training, that will be designed by teachers from the Open University of Catalonia with wide experience on training in Digital Competences and online teaching, will be implemented in 6 countries around Europe (Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus and Finland), will be developed in the framework of the European project Empower Competences for Onlife Learning in HE (ECOLHE).

A Challenge-Based Learning Experience in Industrial Engineering in the Framework of Education 4.0

Current tendencies of product, project and services development focus on a higher consideration of the User Experience (UX). Therefore, traditional training and teaching methodologies need to adapt to prepare the students to develop strategies for problem solving for their professional education. Such needs have risen and interest in tendencies such as education and Industry 4.0 has grown. This paper presents and analyzes the process and results of a teaching implementation methodology based on Challenge-Based Learning (CBL). The paper describes the process followed, explaining the methodology precedents that led to the final implementation case. It also mentions previous experiments on product analysis and home automation developments that are linked to implementation of the technology. This case’s implementation, analysis and experimentation integrated the use of Emotional Domotics (ED) Tools for the UX analysis, to grant feedback and compare the students’ results with the bio-metrical and emotional computational analysis. The methodology, described through this document, allowed the students to better understand and experience some of the implications of an interconnected system with instant information feedback. This allowed them to better grasp part of the impact that the tendency towards the Internet of Things (IoT) is currently having, and the impact of the improvement proposals from the students.