European ENGAGED University pioneers with digital challenged based innovation

Seventy students and teachers engage with companies from six European regions in the first education pilot developed by European ENGAGED University. Students from different countries work together in interdisciplinary and intercultural teams. They contribute to real challenges from companies in the engaged regions. Research, education, innovation and regional development come together on a European level. Digitally and innovative.

Challenged based innovation

The digital and innovative challenged based module has just premiered and is designed by the European ENGAGED University. Companies from ENGAGED regions in The Netherlands, Portugal, Finland, Germany, Romania and Ireland have submitted their challenging assignments for students to work on. These challenges were presented during the second EEU webinar organised by the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança. Many students applied for the module after that. Over seventy students and teachers kicked off on Friday March 26 2021. They will work on possible solutions regarding active ageing, sustainable tourism or citizen participation in town halls. Every team is composed by a mix of students from different countries and a variety of bachelor and master studies.

The final pitch is planned to happen on June 4th 2021 and everyone is invited. If you are interested to join, please send an email to EEU@org.hanze.nl.

Digital platform

Students, teachers and challenge owners participate now in a learning experiment with an online mass collaboration arena. This online arena was initially designed for a global hackathon, a gathering of software and website developers, designers and business strategist to work together on a theme. The goal is to come up with an innovative and creative solution for a specific theme or to solve a company’s problem. Now European ENGAGED University wants to use the platform called Momentum to engage students and support collaborative learning digitally in a creative and effective way. This is an exciting an innovative pilot during the educational challenged-based module of European ENGAGED University.

Joint Research

The use of Momentum for education is subject of applied research. Communication, interactive learning, collaboration and teambuilding are therefore key factors that should be facilitated by the digital tool that is used to support challenge-based learning. What tool can actually support all these things? Here comes the experiment with Momentum in place. Hanze University of Applied Sciences coordinates this within European ENGAGED University.

Next to that, Hanze UAS participates in another experiment with Momentum in the Netherlands with five Dutch educational institutions such as a secondary school, vocational schools and universities. All participating schools with their students and teachers are pioneering new ways of working and learning together with different educational settings and goals. From accountancy university lectures to teaching geography to 14-years old students and piloting innovative educational methods such as the challenge-based innovation module of EEU.

The question is if Momentum can be an inspiring and helpful educational technology for our students, teaching staff and problem owners of 21^st century practice-orientated education and research. For more information about the research, please contact Madelon van Oostrom, researcher at Hanze University of Applied Sciences.