How does Scrum fit into Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)? Join the Academy for Learning and Teaching (ALT) and innovation Space as we explore this and other questions in a world café led by teachers from different departments. The following statements – sometimes deemed controversial – will be up for discussion with participants:
- Acquiring knowledge vs. problem-solving skills. Do you agree that CBL is not about acquiring new disciplinary knowledge, but rather about connecting what students know to problem-solving methods and dealing with uncertainty? (Topic leader: Federico Toschi, full professor at Applied Physics and Science Education)
- Scrum as a scaffold for collaborative problem-solving skills. Do you think that the Scrum / Agile Development approach is an ideal scaffold for students to get into the CBL method? (Topic leader: Elena Torta, assistant professor at Mechanical Engineering)
- What is a reasonable teacher-student ratio for CBL? Some say we need a teacher-student ratio of 1:25 (at most) to run a CBL course well, so a 150-student CBL course will need 6 experienced teachers. Others prefer to involve student assistants (SAs) and aim at a teacher-SA-student ratio of 2:15:150. What do you think is reasonable? (Topic leader: Pieter Cuijpers, assistant professor at Mathematics and Computer Science)
- Once again, dealing with uncertainty. CBL is about letting students experience and handle uncertainty, and teachers and TAs alike need training on how to supervise this. A moderately experienced teacher can probably only do this for a 20-student course, as individual interaction with students is necessary. Meanwhile, a TA supervising a group of students will need training before, and encouragement and guidance throughout the entire course. How do you deal with uncertainty in CBL? (Topic leader: Dirk Fahland, associate professor at Mathematics and Computer Science)