Design and implementation of the CBL approach in the interdisciplinary Master's programme ‘Sustainability Transformation in Engineering and Management’ (STEM) at the „Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen“, Germany

In the workshop, we will first introduce our newly developed Master's programme 'Sustainability Transformation in Engineering and Management' (STEM) at the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM), which will start in the winter semester 2025/26. The interdisciplinary English-language Master's programme was designed in collaboration with eight departments of environmental sciences, engineering and economics. The central element is the Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) approach. Students learn to develop practical project challenges in international interdisciplinary teams from the following THM-specific transformation fields of the Sustainable Development Goals and to work on them increasingly independently: • Energy and resource supply and provision •Sustainable cities and communities | Industry, innovation, infrastructure • Sustainable consumption | Sustainable production The lecturers act as learning guides and support the students on their way to their role as 'agents of change'. The project challenges are based on real challenges and are worked on in cooperation with partners from industry, administration and NGOs. The aim of the degree programme is to provide students with subject-related and interdisciplinary skills, to develop a holistic perspective on sustainability in order to be able to work in different areas of sustainability with their respective specialisation. In this session, we would like to test our 'challenges in the degree programme concept' with the participants and critically reflect together on the introduction and concrete implementation of the CBL module. We consider the following key questions to be central to our planning status and the further development of the degree programme. In the workshop we would like to focus primarily on the first four questions: 1. Organising interdisciplinary cooperation in teaching and learning teams o What factors and measures promote effective interdisciplinary collaboration and ensure effective cooperation, collaboration and communication? How to account for the teaching load in interdisciplinary contexts? 2. Involvement of external stakeholders o How to involve external partners (NGOs, business, etc.) into the course and what are the best ways of selecting and working with them to give students access to authentic issues? 3. Specialist and process support for CBL projects o Which forms of supervision optimally support students without restricting their self-direction and personal responsibility in the CBL process? What roles do teachers have and how can these be differentiated in the learning process? 4. Preparation of students and challenge development o How can students be gradually introduced to the CBL concept and how can challenges be designed and expanded over the course of the programme? What criteria should be taken into account when designing challenges? 5. Measurability and evaluation of learning outcomes o Which indicators and methods are suitable for measuring learning success and the sustainable impact of the CBL approach? 6. Technology and digitalisation in the CBL approach o How can digital tools support and optimise the CBL process? To what extent can developments in the field of artificial intelligence be integrated and what influence do they have on learning success? Workshop format and methods We have chosen an interactive format with moderated topic tables to work together on these questions. In small groups, the first four questions in particular will be discussed, with a focus on possible conflict potentials and conditions for success, and ideas and measures will be developed, visualised and written down on metaplan boards. In order to integrate different perspectives, the results are reflected in a peer-feedback round, in which the findings are categorised according to their feasibility and impact. Participants can use their experiences to contribute to CBL implementation and the structuring of transformation processes. The detailed workshop planning remains customisable, depending on the time frame and number of participants as well as the interests of the participants in relation to the content focus. This session will provide an opportunity to reflect on the current state of development of our programme and to identify concrete ideas for further improvement. We look forward to exchanging ideas with colleagues from different contexts in order to further develop the CBL module and to generate new impulses. The results will be documented and discussed with the teaching team so that the ideas and perspectives developed by the participants can be directly integrated into the further development of the programme concept. In particular, suggestions for structurally embedding CBL and optimising cooperation within the teaching team as well as the involvement of external stakeholders will be reflected upon and contribute to increasing the effectiveness and operability of the teaching concepts. In addition, the results will be made available to all participants via a digital tool, so that they can use them to successfully implement their own interdisciplinary and practical approaches in the CBL context, and remain in dialogue with us about further developments.