Challenge-Based Learning and the Industry Liaison as Educational Partners

In today’s rapidly changing world, educational institutions have the responsibility and commitment of preparing young professionals with the knowledge and skills to solve problems that do not exist with tools that have not yet been invented. In response to this challenge, our university has recently implemented its new educational model based on four pillars: Challenge-Based Learning (CBL), flexibility in when and where the learning experience takes place, inspiring trained faculty, and a memorable educational experience. The objective of CBL is to develop students’ competencies by engaging them in real-life contexts to solve real-life problems. In this educational model, industry plays a relevant role as training partners, also known as educational partners at our university, by providing a real context with a real need and guiding students along the challenge-solving process. This study describes the liaison process to plan and implement the university-industry collaboration for each engineering course. Employing a mixed-methods approach, this work analyses the experience and impact of engaging industry and external organizations as educational partners within engineering courses of different engineering programs at three different campuses of our university. The research instrument is a perception survey analyzed from the educational partner perspective. Results highlight the benefits, challenges, and improvement areas of this collaboration.