The first international Blended Intensive Programme focused on a challenge issued by the City of Ghent: how could the city neighborhood Meulestede become climate neutral? Discover their story here and how you could develop a similar course yourself!
( 08-06-2022 ) The first international Blended Intensive Programme focused on a challenge issued by the City of Ghent: how could the city neighborhood Meulestede become climate neutral? Discover their story here and how you could develop a similar course yourself!
The ENLIGHT network focuses on interdisciplinary and international study tracks that tackle big societal challenges. The subject covered in the last course was: energy and circular economy. The Faculty of Bioscience Engineering created the new course "Interdisciplinary Study of the Climate Neutral City Mission" for the 38 students hailing from all 9 European ENLIGHT partners. The course included 7 weeks of online classes and ended with a physical immersion week in Ghent. Check out their experience below.
Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme
The format was new: it was the first ENLIGHT Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) at Ghent University. A BIP is a course in which students from different institutions work together alongside their lecturers in both online and physical classes. The format comes with inherent challenges, but also creates many opportunities!
What I especially remember is how, when we, as lecturers, take a step aside to offer students an opportunity, they never fail to seize that opportunity. The curiosity and motivation exhibited by students to engage in research, networking and communication in such an authentic framework are priceless and without a doubt have a lasting pedagogical effect. (Mieke Uyttendaele, Director of Education at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering)
During the course in question, Ghent University partnered up with ENLIGHT, CircuCity and the City of Ghent to formulate a concrete challenge: "How can we make the Ghent neighborhood of Meulestede climate neutral in terms of water, energy and mobility?"
Interested in putting together a BIP of your own and applying for accompanying funding? Read all about it on our intranet and contact Geneviève Cochez ( genevieve.cochez@ugent.be ). Get inspired to organise cooperative projects with ENLIGHT partners at www.ugent.be/enlight.
Challenge-Based Education
The course was based on so-called "Challenge-Based Education". This study format divides students into groups to get to work on complex, authentic challenges in order to arrive at creative, innovative solutions. In the course in question, the challenge was issued by Ghent’s Mayor De Clercq. Several study tracks at Ghent University have been using Challenge-Based Education for a number of years. The cooperation in the context of the ENLIGHT network, however, is entirely new.
The advantages of a BIP using a Challenge-Based Education work format are:
International students from differing disciplines working together offer new perspectives on problems and richer solutions.
The lecturers of all the partner institutions work together intensively, which stimulates the exchange of knowledge and best practices.
Have questions about the BIP "Interdisciplinary Study of the Climate Neutral City Mission" Contact Evelyne de Caluwé , Activo-antenna at the Faculteit of Bioscience Engineering and Elise Meerburg , training coordinator at CAPTURE.