Abstract:

The University of Trento and HIT (Hub Innovazione Trentino Fondazione) started the INNOCORE project (KA2 Erasmus+ programme) together with 5 other European partners from the academy and business world to shape qualified professionals on both cutting-edge enabling technologies and innovation management for Biotech Core Facilities. Among the tools to promote a more profitable synergy between universities and the business world, INNOCORE has designed education formats and implemented a pilot challenge. This activity has also benefited from the participation of some partners in the BOOGIE-U project (Boosting Innovation and Entrepreneurship through European Universities, Higher education Initiative calls), a project aimed at increasing the capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship (I&E) education within the consortium of 6 European universities.

For that initiative, we chose to innovate the challenge experience by introducing self-directed learning. The 25 participants of the INNOCORE challenge were then monitored at the beginning, during, and immediately after the challenge experience (from March to June 2022), through self-assessment techniques and the EPIC tool offered by the HEI.

This paper aims to show critically some results of the participants’ learning outcomes through a pilot international biotech challenge. To measure these effects, we used self-assessment tools in the self-directed learning approach, such as learning agreements, learning diaries, reflection report, and EPIC questionnaire.
In particular, at the beginning participants were asked to fill in an entry EPIC questionnaire and a learning agreement. The former stands for “Entrepreneurial Potential and Innovation Competences” and it is a self-assessment tool that was designed to help educators to measure the effectiveness of their entrepreneurship courses.

Participants in the first few days of the challenge were asked to fill out the learning contract, an agreement between the INNOCORE team and participants in order to identify the main learning goals, activities, and strategies and evaluate their achievement.

During the challenge, teams had to monitor their progress and teamwork through learning diaries and focus on what went well (strength points of their teamwork), what did they learn, what should be improved (weak points of their teamwork), and what they would take into practice (strategies to improve actions for the next steps).

After the experience, individuals had to fill in again the EPIC questionnaire and a final reflection report which guided them through a six-stage process aimed at learning from the experience that they have just left behind and at allowing putting some order by identifying what went well and what did not go well and by planning their next actions. This individual report matched the student’s learning contract and is completed by students after the course.

Through this pilot, teachers can get the opportunity to see how self-assessment tools can be used in challenges and what their strengths and limits are. We will present the main lessons learned and further development of this educational experience.

Keywords:

Self-directed learning, competence evaluation, skills innovation, challenge-based learning, innovation and entrepreneurship education.