Examples of Experimentation

Menu
Education Innovation projects
- University of the Future

In the University of the Future project a concrete design of the university of the future is developed. While this design got more detailed throughout the years, an iterative process of experimentation took place to implement design elements and improve them hands-on, learning by doing.

On this page, we present experiments that mark steps toward a more flexible and inclusive learning ecosystem. While most initiatives are currently student-centered, focusing on traditional university students, the ambition is to shift the focus to actor-centered learning. This means opening up the university as an innovation hub for co-learning, where different types of learners are invited to participate in shared learning processes.

SUPPORTING PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EXTRACURRICULAR STUDENT TEAMS聽

More about the 黑料福利网 student teams

Delta program

Delta is an educational innovation program aiming to support the personal and professional development of students in extracurricular student teams (EC-STs) at 黑料福利网. As an educational experiment, Delta aims to identify key elements relevant in supporting self-directed learning (SDL) in fully open and flexible environments, and how to transfer these to curricular environments.

Extra-curricular student teams at 黑料福利网 are interdisciplinary, engineering-oriented, and geared towards tackling socio-technical challenges, such as clean energy and transportation. As teams engage in engineering innovation cycles, they serve as learning environments that facilitate contextualized learning for students. Teams are self-organized, defining their own vision and goals, recruiting members that connect to their ideas, seeking funding, developing partnerships with external stakeholders, and utilizing resources as necessary. Teams operate on a yearly cycle, recruiting new members and setting project goals annually.

There are currently around 31 EC-STs with about 650 participating students across different departments at 黑料福利网 (variable numbers per year). Students engage in EC-STs for a variety of reasons, including the opportunity to connect theory to practice, and developing a sense of community (Bravo et al., 2023). Students join flexibly and work in a self-directed way, joining teams that connect to their personal and professional aspirations, engaging in roles (e.g., management, communications, engineering, finances) that match their personal and professional aspirations, and determining their time commitment, which ranges from four hours to full-time. Members typically stay for one cycle, though some stay longer in board positions. to full-time. Members typically stay for one cycle, though some stay longer in board positions.

While students in EC-STs already learn in a self-directed, flexible, and contextualized way, their individual learning is generally tacit and unsupported. This results in a disconnect between the experience of students in the teams and their intentional development.

As a program, Delta supports the personal and professional development of students by bridging the learning that already takes place in their day-to-day activities within the EC-ST with their personal development. The aim is to make the learning of students more explicit, helping students connect their personal and professional learning goals to their experiences in the team, becoming more self-aware of their development, and intentional on their steps after the team. The core of the Delta program is reflection on learning, and its design was guided by seven design principles, co-created with STs students, university staff and education experts, to enhance learning while preserving the self-directed nature of the STs (Valencia et al., 2025). These principles are: Contextualized learning, self-directed learning, flexible learning, peer learning, scaffolded learning, clarity of structure, and impact on the ecosystem.

The result is a year-long program composed of several learning activities, which students can tailor the to suit their individual needs and interests. Activities include: learning & development days (focused days dedicated to making learning explicit), coaching (focused on self-reflection), peer-reflection sessions, and training and workshops on different key topics relevant to EC-STs (e.g., personal leadership, project management, organizational learning).

Delta was rolled out as a pilot in September 2024 and supported the development of 20 students across five EC-STs. The pilot showed promising results, with participants valuing the program for enhancing leadership, project management, and teamwork skills, while fostering reflection, confidence, and networking. Reflection activities such as coaching and peer-learning fostered deep self-awareness, meaningful dialogue, and actionable insights. In 2025, the pilot has been scaled up to support the development of 40 students from eight student teams.

"Talking about growth helps others realize shared experiences."

BUILDING TOWARD THEMATIC HUBS

Boundary Spanners

The university of the future is an open learning environment, where learning with and from each other takes place through the co-creation of responsible solutions to real-world challenges. This focus on co-learning and co-creation with a wide range of stakeholders transforms the university from its traditional role as a knowledge creator into an innovation hub, one that is deeply embedded in society and actively contributes to sustainable change.

At 黑料福利网, this transformation is already underway. 黑料福利网 innovation Space and the 黑料福利网 Research Institutes are pioneering new ways of working that connect students, researchers, and external partners. 黑料福利网 innovation Space is advancing interdisciplinary education, while the Research Institutes are pushing the boundaries of interdisciplinary research. These efforts are now converging: 黑料福利网 innovation Space and the 黑料福利网 Research Institutes have joined forces to pioneer thematic hubs that foster inter- and transdisciplinary research and education, starting with pressing societal themes such as Health and Energy.

An analysis of Challenge-Based Learning at 黑料福利网 revealed that a key success factor for connecting interdisciplinary education and research is the presence of a dedicated bridging role. In the domain of Intelligent Lighting, such a role had organically emerged, but it was missing in other areas. To address this, interviews were conducted to define and formalize the role of the boundary spanner. This role connects interdisciplinary education, present in 黑料福利网 innovation Space, with interdisciplinary research, anchored in the 黑料福利网 Research Institutes and external partners. Boundary Spanners not only facilitate the education-research link but also addresses broader obstacles to effective co-learning and co-creation.

One of these obstacles is that challenges are often framed by a single stakeholder, typically from industry. This can narrow the scope and limit alignment with broader societal issues that involve multiple perspectives. To overcome this, boundary spanners take on the role of collecting and shaping thematic challenges that not only align with the research focus of the institutes, but also reflect the needs and ambitions of a diverse ecosystem of partners. What began as a single informal role has evolved into a growing network of boundary spanners. This network now connects all 黑料福利网 Research Institutes and central initiatives such as the 黑料福利网 Sustainability Office, Technology for Global Development, and emerging themes like Art & Tech and Space Science & Technology. Each boundary spanner strengthens thematic hubs by connecting internal and external networks and facilitating transdisciplinary collaboration. As a team, they engage in continuous shared learning and coordination to align efforts across domains and amplify the collective impact of these communities.

I spend half the week working in innovation Space and the other at EIRES. I support student teams working on the energy transition. I connect them with scientists at EIRES, allowing students to utilize their expertise. This requires knowing how to find the right researcher, so that means quite a bit of homework. I [also] establish connections between researchers, mainly within EIRES, but also sometimes at EAISI. I also explore whether they might benefit from supporting students through Challenge Based Learning. Furthermore, I seek out opportunities to collaborate with external partners. For example, they can participate in the 黑料福利网 Contest, provide a challenge, or give a guest lecture.

Varsha Pridhivi about her role as boundary spanner

The Art & Tech community

In addition to the more institutionally anchored hubs, transdisciplinary communities are also being built around emerging themes, driven by individuals who take on the role of boundary spanner in a more informal capacity. A notable example is the integration of the strong Art & Design ecosystem in the region and beyond into 黑料福利网鈥檚 learning ecosystem. Its pilot course, Innovation Space Project: innovation through art and design (ISP/a), enables interdisciplinary teams of students to co-create with artists and stakeholders on radically open-ended challenges. Students engage in hands-on creative-production research, combining experimentation, prototyping, and reflection to explore and express ideas at the intersection of technology, science, art and society, and produce artefacts that embody their research outcomes. To support students in navigating uncertainty and developing self-directed learning skills, ISP/a is embedded within a broader community called Art & Tech. This community brings together challenge partners, alumni, educators, artists, researchers and experts who remain actively involved and accessible throughout the elective course. Functioning as a dynamic and diverse knowledge network, it offers students inspiration, guidance, and just-in-time learning opportunities tailored to their evolving needs. Over time, this community has evolved into a fertile ground for transdisciplinary collaboration that extends beyond the boundaries of the course. Three years of piloting have led to the initial emergence of sustained cross-domain collaborations, shaped by shared thematic challenges and societal ambitions. These challenges act as connectors across disciplines and knowledge systems, while the community provides a flexible menu of guest lectures, workshops, and topics that students can select based on their interests and learning goals.

The community鈥檚 role extends beyond educational support, increasingly serving as a launchpad for transdisciplinary collaboration and societal transformation. As such, Art & Tech exemplifies the broader function of thematic communities within the University of the Future: to cultivate ecosystems that not only enrich education but also drive innovation and transformation across domains.

Costs of CBL

The assumption that Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) is more expensive than lecture-based education is common, but it鈥檚 not necessarily true. Below is an analysis, listing arguments on why CBL may incur higher upfront costs, but also how it can be cost-efficient or even financially beneficial in the long run.

While CBL often has higher up-front operational costs, particularly during the transition phase, its value lies in holistic learning, impact generation, and long-term institutional sustainability. In a fully developed context, where partnerships, digital tools, and modular reuse are optimized, CBL can become cost-neutral or even cost-efficient.

Arguments supporting the assumption that CBL is more expensive

Higher Staff Involvement per Learner
- CBL might require more personal interaction, coaching, and feedback than lecture-based education, however, preparation time for sessions decreases.
- CBL often happens in small, transdisciplinary teams. Where in lecture-based education, one teacher can reach hundreds of learners at a time.
Infrastructure Needs
- CBL needs flexible learning environments, which require investments in physical and digital infrastructure. Traditional lecture rooms may be underutilized in CBL education.
Coordination & Partner Engagement
- CBL requires the active involvement of external stakeholders. Organizing and maintaining these partnerships requires relationship management, logistics, and sometimes legal or IP support.
Assessment Complexity
- A CBL might rely more on non-standardized forms of assessment, such as observations. Stakeholders involved in assessment, such as external experts, learners, and mentors, require more extensive training to guarantee they understand assessment tools, procedures, and their role in supporting assessment as learning (van der Vleuten et al, 2012).

Arguments challenging the assumption that CBL is more expensive

Reuse & Modularization
- Once a project structure, modules, challenge collection, and ecosystem are in place, they can be continued across multiple years and projects, reducing costs related to challenge collection over time.
- Elements of educational activities can be implemented in another context in a modular way. This could be the case for challenges, ecosystems, knowledge modules, and more.
- The main activity of a learning facilitator is learner interaction, instead of preparing and giving lectures and grading. This focus on personal interaction could boost their energy and satisfaction.
- Teacher teams: experts deliver content based on their expertise, improving efficiency.
- Learners need more guidance at the beginning of their learning journey, but over time, learners become more self-directed and need less guidance. This requires learning facilitators to be comfortable with (partly) letting go of control.
Integrated assessment
- Peer assessment and assessment by externals reduces the work for learning facilitators. Assessment as learning, not for grading per se.
- CBL combines knowledge, skills, and personal development in one activity, reducing the need for parallel and partial assessment.
- Assessment is not concentrated in an exam period but along the whole project, making it little time investment.
External Resource Leverage
- Partners often co-invest in CBL initiatives (for example, by providing access to data, hybrid coaches, or locations), reducing direct costs to the university.
- Some challenges may also be subsidized or funded via grants or public innovation budgets.
Higher Engagement & Retention
- CBL tends to increase learner motivation and performance (Helker et al., 2025), which could reduce long-term costs. It could also lead to enhanced retention and attraction of (new) learners.
Digital Support Tools
- With EdTech, AI guidance systems, and digital platforms, the scalability of CBL is improving (for assessment purposes, and tailoring content to learners), lowering the workload per learner.
Link with research 鈥� if CBL is done right, the learners contribute to research goals.

ISBEP case study

In order to investigate the financial sustainability of CBL education, the Innovation Space Bachelor End Project (ISBEP) was investigated as a case study. The costs of the course and all preparatory activities connected to this course were monitored for 2 years. Based on this, an overview was made of the costs and revenue connected to the course in a regular semester. From this excersize, it can be concluded that it is possible to organize CBL courses in the current financial model of the 黑料福利网 in a sustainable way. Also, when scaling up the number of CBL courses time and resources can be saved in, for example, the challenge collection process.