This project examines how students, lecturers, and external stakeholders experience challenge-based learning (CBL) in the context of educational sciences, focusing on its educational value and perceived challenges.

Background information

Challenge‑based learning is increasingly adopted in higher education to address real-world problems collaboratively and experientially (Gallagher and Savage, 2020). However, while its benefits are recognized, there is limited insight into the difficulties encountered by different stakeholders participating in CBL courses. This project aimed to fill that gap by capturing multi-perspective experiences within a CBL framework.

Project description

To better understand and improve the implementation of challenge-based learning in educational sciences, the project explored the experiences of students, lecturers, and external stakeholders involved in a CBL context. Data were collected through open-ended surveys from students and stakeholders, focus group discussions with lecturers, and written self-reflections from students, both individual and group, on their cooperation, communication, and learning outcomes. The collected data was analyzed to capture perceived benefits and challenges, applying a micro–meso–macro framework to distinguish between individual, institutional, and societal perspectives. This approach provided a nuanced view of how different participant groups navigate CBL, highlighting areas of success as well as points needing further development to enhance learning quality and stakeholder collaboration.

Aims

This project aimed to answer the following research question:

• How do students, lecturers, and external stakeholders experience the challenge-based learning course, and what challenges do they perceive within this context?

Results & Conclusions

Findings showed that CBL offered valuable opportunities for bridging theory and practice, but also revealed challenges across three levels:

• Micro level (individual): Students reported gains in professional skills such as collaboration, communication, and problem-solving. However, they also experienced difficulties with group dynamics, managing workload, and aligning expectations with external stakeholders.
• Meso level (institutional): Teachers identified the theory–practice gap as a central challenge and noted the need for clearer alignment between course design and real-world partner expectations.
• Macro level (societal/external): Stakeholders valued student contributions but faced time constraints and communication issues, limiting the depth of engagement.

Overall, this project highlights the potential of CBL to foster authentic, skill-based learning, provided that collaboration processes, stakeholder roles, and time management are addressed more systematically in course design.

We thank the course coordinators for their support during data collection and for the feedback provided to the SoTL application. We also thank the teachers, students, and external stakeholders for their valuable time.

References

• Gallagher, S. E., & Savage, T. (2020). Challenge-based learning in higher education: An exploratory literature review. Teaching in Higher Education, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2020.1863354

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