Easily offer your students real-world challenges and make your course more relevant
VU Connects in collaboration with Master Challenge
The Master Challenge platform, developed by experienced university lecturers, enables effortless integration of real-world challenges, such as group projects and writing assignments, into your courses. VU Connects is collaborating with this platform to streamline the process of finding a societal partner for our teachers to collaborate with and lower the threshold of adopting an Engaged Learning approach. To engage with societal partners and showcase your course, you can register on the Master Challenge platform at the bottom of this page. Would you like to see how it works first, or do you need help filling out the form? Schedule a demo with Bram Kuijken of the Master Challenge platform by clicking on the 'schedule a demo' button above.
What's in it for you
Save time
By using the Master Challenge platform, lecturers can more easily and efficiently find societal partners to collaborate with in their courses, saving time and effort.
Improve your course
Students enjoy collaborating with societal partners during their courses because it allows them to apply their theoretical knowledge in practice, acquire practical skills, expand their networks and be of value to society.
Grow your network
The Master Challenge platform facilitates connections between teachers and societal partners which enables you to expand your network. This could be of value for research purposes and inviting guest speakers to your lectures in the future.
How it works
Step 1.
Create a 'Challenge Space'
In this space, you describe the objectives, topics, and duration of your course by completing the form. Additionally, you specify the type of assignments (challenges) and partners you are looking for.
Step 2.
Receive challenges from societal partners
Once you've published your 'Challenge Space', you only need to wait for assignments to be submitted by societal partners.
Step 3.
Review and publish the assignments
Once the deadline for receiving challenges has passed, you can review the submitted questions. Accept the ones that are suitable and, in consultation with the partner, refine the ones you are interested in but that are not yet suitable.
Step 4.
Student team signup (optional)
Request your students to sign up, review the assignments, and submit a ranking of their preferred assignments.
Step 5.
Matching teams to assignments (optional)
Rest assured, this will be automatically handled based on the preferences submitted by the student teams and the societal partners. If you prefer to create your own teams, this is also possible, of course.
Step 6.
Run the assignment
Now it's time to incorporate the assignment into your course. We recommend organizing a kick-off event where teams and partners can meet, discuss arrangements, and plan further steps.
Register below to get started
