BA in Climate & Environmental Sustainability CBL

A reflection from Module Coordinator Dr Darren Clarke

Background to programme and justification for CBL

The BA in Climate & Environmental Sustainability (BCES) is one of several DCU Futures programmes that aims to radically re-imagine undergraduate education for the 21^st century to address complex global challenges and empower students to thrive in an increasingly unscripted world defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. When we first set out to develop a new undergraduate degree programme in 2020, we were keen to ensure that challenge-based learning was a core part of the student learning experience across all years of the programme because complex challenges around climate-and sustainability-related topics is what our future graduates will deal with when they graduate and go on to work in this area. With this in mind, we developed a stepped approach to challenge-based learning in our programme across the three years of the programme.

Since 2021, our students have been involved in the DCU Hack4Change Social Innovation Series hosted by DCU Business School, a challenge-based learning hackathon built around themes of sustainability. As part of the challenge each year, 1^st year BCES students work in interdisciplinary teams to identify a sustainability challenge facing the world and come up with ideas that could address that specific challenge within their designated theme. We also build in student assessments to the challenge to make it more meaningful, which includes practical pre-hackathon and post-hack assignments. 

In 2^nd year of the programme, we build on the hackathon by integrating challenge-based learning into a residential one-week environmental fieldtrip. During the week, students receive hands-on experience and a range of talks involving experts, landowners, community groups and lecturers on environmental issues. Following this, they work in small teams, with each team choosing one environmental issue that they are interested in examining for the remainder of the fieldtrip. Using the DCU challenge-based learning framework they then work through the challenge and deliver pitch presentations with recommendations to those stakeholders for their challenge at the end of the fieldtrip. To keep a competitive element between groups, the presentation pitches are adjudicated by staff and those experts and community groups in attendance on the final day.

In the final year of the BCES, we developed a full module (5 ECTS) called Challenge-based learning for transformative change. This module built on smaller CBL components undertaken in 1^st and 2^nd year of the programme. It was designed to take the CBL experience further for students over a 12-week period by allowing them to engage in a sustainability challenge for the duration of a semester and to apply the CBL framework in a more rigorous way than is possible for a short-duration challenge e.g. one-week. We provide an overview of how this module is run below.

Who we involved in CBL?

We partnered with three partner organisations in both the public and private sectors to identify broad sustainability challenges they currently face for our module. Our fourteen final year students self-selected the challenge they were interested in working on for the duration of the module. Challenges included:

• How do we quantify nature impacts?
• How can local authorities maintain the significance of adaptation to ensure it is prioritised on a footing equal to mitigation?
• Climate literacy

As is evident from the challenges above they were broad enough to allow students to direct their own research on the topic over the course of the module. The partners also agreed to act as mentors to student groups on their chosen challenge (3-4 meetings) to tease out their challenge further and to workshop potential solutions as they were emerging. The challenge setters were open to students experimenting with a range of approaches and solutions, even if they did not align with what is considered a ‘traditional’ solution to the challenge in their own organisation.

How we did CBL?

We used the DCU CBL framework to guide the process. Having identified challenge setters and broad challenges prior to beginning the module, we met with each challenge-setter prior to beginning the module to gauge expectations and to get a sense of the types of challenge they might propose. Based on these discussions we provided each challenge-setter with a challenge-based learning mentor information booklet to communicate how challenge-based learning differs from problem-based learning and to set expectations. We are happy to share this information booklet with colleagues if useful. 

We held some short traditional lecture content at the beginning of weekly classes to provide a basic grounding to students on the three CBL stages (10-15 minutes). Over the course of the semester, we used the remainder of each two-hour timetabled class to workshop progress and obstacles. Specifically, students submitted formative assessments using pre-defined templates at each stage of the challenge. These templates were developed to capture how students were progressing during each stage of CBL i.e., Engage, Investigate, Act. It allowed students the opportunity to consolidate the learnings to that point, identify research gaps and next steps. These templates were used as an initial starting point for workshop discussions and were useful for the development of their written report.

How we assessed CBL?

Our module is 100% continuous assessment, and is broken down into five components: 

1. Preparation, participation and engagement in Q&A with the challenge-setter for their specific challenge (5%)
2. Initial personal reflection video highlighting transversal skills being developed (5%)
3. End-of-module personal reflection video highlighting how transversal skills have developed from initial video reflection (5%)
4. Group written report for challenge-setter on recommendations and peer review of each group member’s contribution to the challenge (55%). For the peer review, we used the Group Review function Loop to set up the peer review. The weightings (60% lecturer/40% peer) were chosen based on class consensus.
5. Interactive oral assessment (30%)

How successful was CBL?

For 2023-24, it was our first time running the module given that the BCES programme had its first student intake in the 2021-22 year. Overall, the buy-in from challenge setters was very good. Each challenge-setter received the final student report for their specific challenge and feedback from the challenge-setters was positive. One student was able to use the learnings they encountered during their challenge to apply for a related graduate position in a local authority and were successful in securing the role, demonstrating the usefulness of both the challenge and the module to real-world settings. 

From a student perspective, feedback was largely positive too, albeit that the learning curve was steep. We advised students at the outset that the module was distinctly different to other modules and that they would be leading the delivery of the module given the workshop nature of the timetabled hours. Students struggled with independent learning and it was not until the latter part of the module that they were able to see the benefits of the module and the skills they were developing but in-class discussions suggest that it was a largely positive student experience. They had significant freedom to lead out on a sustainability challenge and identify a potential solution, something which they had been building toward in 1^st and 2^nd year of the programme but to a lesser extent. We were also able to embed DCU transversal skills throughout the assessments to demonstrate the skills students were developing.

Given the nature of the challenges, it would have been beneficial for students to undertake some primary research as part of identifying their recommended solution. However, the nature of ethical approval for primary research means that it would not have been possible to obtain this in time to allow students to complete their challenge on time. The students were therefore only able to engage with secondary research and discuss their solutions with the challenge-setter, which limited the potential of the ideas they were able to generate. They were not able to ‘test’ their solutions as such in a real-world setting and adjust them if necessary but instead had to rely solely on feedback from the challenge-setter as a test of their solution. This is something we will reflect on in future years as we believe primary research would add value to any future challenge.

From a module coordinator perspective, the module is enjoyable to run, albeit the learning curve was steep for me too. I tried to take a hands-off approach so that students could lead the module but this was sometimes difficult. I also think it’s important to vary the challenge setters every year or two to avoid risking their fatigue and to ensure their goodwill is maintained. Finally, I would consider reducing the assessments in future iterations of the module, perhaps removing the need to complete an initial video reflection. 

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