Distance and presence in interdisciplinary online learning. A challenge-based learning course on sustainable cities of the future

Figures & data

Figure 1. Classroom view from the background camera in the virtual classroom.

Table 1. Overview of students’ (N = 13) study background.

Bachelor program	N	University
Sustainable Innovation	4	Eindhoven
Philosophy Politics and Economics	1	Utrecht
Human Geography and Spatial Planning	1	Utrecht
Architecture, Urbanism and Building Sciences	1	Eindhoven
Environmental Science	1	Wageningen
Industrial Design	1	Eindhoven
Educational Sciences	1	UU
Science and Innovation Management	1	UU
Chemical Engineering and Chemistry	1	Eindhoven
Nutrition and Health	1	Wageningen

Figure 2. Coding process.

Table 2. Means and Standard Deviations for student experience (N = 13).

	M	SD
MS Teams	3.7	0.48
Interdisciplinary learning	3.5	1.33
Challenge-based learning	2.9	0.76
Minecraft	1.9	1.26
Brightspace	1.6	1.12
Virtual Classroom	1.4	0.88
Tygron	1.0	0.00

Note: Range from 1 = no experience, 2 = novice, 3 = intermediate, 4 = advanced, 5 = expert. M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

Table 3. Means and standard deviations for students’ prior knowledge.

	M	SD
SDGs	3.2	1.30
Energy Transition	3.1	1.12
Sustainable cities	2.6	1.26
Urban Agriculture	2.5	1.05
Air Quality	2.2	0.59

Note: Range from 1 = no experience, 2 = novice, 3 = intermediate, 4 = advanced, 5 = expert. M = mean; SD = standard deviation.

Table 4. Means and standard deviations for items on the transactional distance scale (N = 13) after 7 weeks.

	Transactional Distance Student Teacher (TDST)
Item	M	SD
1. During lectures and workshops the teacher pays no attention to me. [R]	3.85	0.99
2. I receive prompt feedback from the teacher on my performance.	3.08	1.11
3. The teacher was helpful to me.	3.92	0.49
4. The teacher can be turned to when I need help in the course.	4.54	0.52
	Transactional Distance Student Content (TDSC)
Item	M	SD
5. This course emphasized synthesizing and organizing ideas, information, or experiences into new, more complex interpretations and relationships.	3.77	1.17
6. This course emphasized using and reflecting on existing knowledge for creating new sustainable solutions.	4.23	0.59
7. This course emphasized applying theories and concepts to practical problems or in new situations.	3.54	0.88
	Transactional Distance Student Student (TDSS)
Item	M	SD
8. I get along well with my team members.	4.00	0.71
9. I feel valued by my team members in this online course.	3.77	1.17
10. My team members in this online course value my ideas and opinions very highly.	3.54	1.05
11. My team members respect me in this online course.	4.38	0.87
12. My team members are supportive of my ability to make my own decisions.	4.23	0.83
Overall scores	46.85	4.47

Note: Scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), R = recoded negatively worded item.

Table 5. Means and standard deviations for items on the presence scale (N = 13) after 7 weeks.

Item	Teaching Presence
	M	SD
1. The teacher clearly communicated important course topics.	3.23	0.93
2.The teacher clearly communicated important course goals.	2.38	1.12
3.The teacher provided clear instructions on how to participate in course learning activities.	3.46	1.05
4.The teacher clearly communicated important due dates/time frames for learning activities.	2.92	1.44
5. The teacher was helpful in identifying various disciplinary approaches and views on course topics that helped me to learn.	2.62	1.12
6. The teacher was helpful in guiding the class towards understanding course topics in a way that helped me clarify my thinking.	2.85	1.14
7. The teacher helped to keep students engaged and participating in productive dialogue.	3.69	1.03
8. The teacher helped keep the students on task in a way that helped me to learn.	3.31	1.11
9. The teacher encouraged students to explore new concepts in this course.	3.77	0.83
10. Teacher actions reinforced the development of a sense of community among students.	3.31	1.03
11. The teacher helped to focus discussion on relevant issues in a way that helped me to learn.	3.38	1.33
12. The teacher provided feedback that helped me understand my strengths and weaknesses relative to the course’s goals and objectives.	3.15	0.99
13. The teacher provided feedback in a timely fashion.	4.23	0.83
	Social Presence
Item	M	SD
14. Getting to know other students gave me a sense of belonging in the course.	3.62	1.45
15. I was able to form impressions of some students.	4.31	0.63
16. Online communication is an excellent medium for social interaction.	2.23	0.83
17. I felt comfortable communicating in this online course.	3.69	1.03
18. I felt comfortable participating in the course discussions.	3.54	1.05
19. I felt comfortable interacting with other students.	4.31	0.95
20. I felt comfortable disagreeing with other students while still maintaining a sense of trust.	3.77	1.17
21. I felt that my point of view was acknowledged by other students.	3.92	1.19
22. Online discussions help me to develop a sense of collaboration.	3.69	1.03
	Cognitive Presence
Item	M	SD
23. Sustainability challenges posed increased my interest in course issues.	3.77	1.01
24. Course activities increased my curiosity.	3.62	1.19
25. I felt motivated to explore content related questions.	3.31	1.18
26. I utilized a variety of information sources to explore problems posed in this course.	4.00	0.71
27. Brainstorming and finding relevant information helped me resolve content related questions.	3.92	0.86
28. Online discussions were valuable in helping me appreciate different perspectives.	3.77	1.01
29. Combining new information helped me answer questions raised in course activities.	3.69	1.11
30. Learning activities helped me construct explanations/solutions.	3.08	1.12
31. Reflection on course content and discussions helped me understand fundamental concepts in this class.	3.62	0.87
32. I can describe ways to test and apply the knowledge created in this course.	3.38	0.77
33. I have developed solutions to sustainability challenges that can be applied in practice.	3.77	1.24
34. I can apply the knowledge created in this course to my education or other non-class related activities.	4.31	0.48
Overall scores	119.62	16.92

Note: Scale ranges from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree); a high score implies high perceptions of presence which is desirable.

Table 6. Types of interdisciplinary competences mentioned in 14 student papers.

Type of interdisciplinary competence N = 14; R = 38	Typical Quotes from student reflection papers
Appreciation of disciplinary perspectives N = 9; R = 15	“First, you see that there are different approaches to problems. Often in other courses you work with people form the same study so you share paradigms and theoretical knowledge”. [ID5] “The course also helped me to look at problems from a different perspective, especially when the problem involves sustainability. My study is very much focused on sustainability, and we create a quite clear focus on such problems, but this course taught me to look at it from different angles in order to find a better solution”. [ID13]
Integrative skill N = 8; R = 10	“This course taught me the importance of including different disciplines, aspects into a project like economic, social and environmental aspects in order to come up with an inclusive solution”. [ID18] “By integrating the different disciplines we got a more inclusive design then when you do it with just one discipline. Everyone has a different view on the project which is very interesting”. [ID2]
Reflectivity N = 4; R = 5	“Through this course I did thus learn that design thinking can be experienced differently within another discipline”. [ID7] “The course has showed me that language when it comes to certain concepts can be an obstacle in interdisciplinary collaboration as it sometimes occurred group members failed to communicate the ideas they had, possibly due to a misunderstanding in used terminology”. [ID14]
Awareness of disciplinarity N = 3; R = 5	“Sometimes our methods were quite different. I am really used to having one hypothesis and then doing literature research. The system approach we took now is very different from what I would usually do”. [ID2]
Recognition of disciplinary limitations N = 2; R = 2	“You learn how you can use your knowledge in such multidisciplinary teams. Where your knowledge starts and where it ends and how you can use it. For example, I think I learned that I am quite a generalist with knowledge about different aspects, but that I lack some knowledge on a deeper level for certain aspects”. [ID5]
Ability to find common ground N = 1; R = 1	“We resolved this by really listening to each other and playing by our strengths”. [ID2]
Appreciation of non-disciplinary perspectives N = 0; R = 0	-

Note: N= number of student papers the competence was mentioned in; R= total number of times the competence was mentioned.

Table 7. Number of strengths and weaknesses reported in 15 student reflection papers.

Related to …	Strength	Weakness
Online Learning	N= 3; R= 3	N= 5; R= 7
Interdisciplinary learning	N= 10; R= 22	N= 9; R= 14
CBL	N= 15; R= 59	N= 13; R= 39
Course Design	N= 13; R= 35	N= 15; R= 83
Inter-university	N= 5; R= 5	N= 6; R= 9
Covid/Other	-	N= 1; R= 2

Note: N= number of student papers a strength/weakness was mentioned in; R= total number of times a strength/weakness was mentioned.

Table

Step 1

Read the personal reflection paper with research question 2 in mind. After you have coded/highlighted text relevant to RQ2, you will continue with research question 3. Paper Lattuca et al. (2012) will be used for deductive coding the interdisciplinary (ID) competences. Highlight text that relates to interdisciplinary skills in green and add as a comment which of Lattuca’s interdisciplinary competence dimensions it is. Text will only be coded as a competency if the student is writing that (s)he acquired/developed this interdisciplinary competency through/during this course.

Table

1	Awareness of disciplinarity
2	Appreciation of disciplinary perspectives
3	Appreciation of non-disciplinary perspectives
4	Recognition of disciplinary limitations
5	Interdisciplinary evaluation
6	Ability to find common ground
7	Reflexivity
8	Integrative skill

Table

Step 2

Strengths and weaknesses will be coded in an inductive way (emerging from the students’ texts). Read the personal reflection paper with research question 3 in mind. Each strength and weakness will receive a code indicating the “type” a code for the “level” and a code for “relation”.

Table

	Types of strengths	Code description
	Open creative & critical process	Includes text units that focus on the CBL approach, creativity and critical thinking during the learning process.
	Collaboration skills: communication & planning	Text units focusing on collaboration skills students acquired/developed due to collaboration.
	Teachers & Teaching	Includes teaching quality, coach support, diversity of teaching team etc.
	Applying prior knowledge & skills	Prior skills and knowledge students were able to apply in this course
	New knowledge & methods	New (interdisciplinary) knowledge and methods students learned from peers and/or the course content/lectures/assignments. Also includes online tools such as Tyrgon, Minecraft or video making tools.
	Collaborative Learning	Text units that highlight the benefits of collaboration. Does not focus on skills but collaborative learning as such.
	Lecture content	Strengths related to the content that was shared and discussed during lectures.
	Personal Development	Focuses on the personal growth a student has gained due to this course.
	Motivation & Energy	Text units that indicate high motivation and energy gained through this course.
	Student-team constellation	Includes text units about the interdisciplinarity of student teams and student drop out within their teams.
	Course set-up & organization	Text units focusing on all aspects that are related to the course design in terms of organization, deadlines, grading, teacher communication.

Table

	Type of weakness	Code description
	Open process	Includes text units that focus on the CBL approach, the openness, feelings of getting lost, a lack of critical thinking during the learning process.
	Collaboration skills	Text units focusing on the lack of collaboration skills of peers within a student-team. For example poor communication, not showing up for team meetings, task division etc.
	Collaborative writing	Challenges related to collaborative writing within the student team.
	Time management	Personal time management issues that are caused by students themselves or factors outside of the course.
	Student-Team constellation	Includes text units about the interdisciplinarity of student teams and student drop out within their teams.
	Assignment clarity & difficulty	Text units that focus on course assignments and improvements that could be made regarding the clarity of requirements and the difficulty.
	Overlap prior knowledge	Students writing about too much overlap between their existing knowledge and the topics covered in this course.
	Lecture content & quality	Text units focusing on the topics that were (not) covered in the lectures and their quality in terms of how interesting/appealing they were.
	Motivation/energy level	Text units that indicate high motivation and energy gained through this course.
	Interdisciplinary collaboration	Collaboration challenges caused due to interdisciplinary differences.
	Course set-up, communication & organization	Text units focusing on all aspects that are related to the course design in terms of organization, deadlines, grading, teacher communication.

Table

Student perceives this strength/weakness originating at a …
Individual level	Purely personal aspects such as illness, stress, COVID-19, parallel courses, personal shortcomings etc.
Team level	Affects the student team and was created/caused by the team itself
Course level	Affects all students of the course. It was created/caused by the course design/teachers.

Table

Strength/weakness related to
(1)CBL approach	CBL learning in general; in general team work
(2)Online learning	Learning in an online setting: online lectures, online collaboration etc.
(3)Interdisciplinary learning	Learning between students from different disciplines
(4)Inter-university learning/working; parallel-course	Learning between students from different universities or courses
(5)This course design	Everything that relates to the practical aspects e.g. lectures, grading, assignments, schedule; group size
(6)Covid/Restriction/Other

Table

Type of strength N = 15; R = 114	Typical Quotes	Summary of all quotes
Open, creative & critical process N = 13; R = 25	“the course of Inter-University Sustainability challenge has been an out of the box thinking period”. [ID16] “I got to experience and work with new perspectives. For me, this was the main added value of this course”. [ID 7]	Students were invited to be creative and innovative when working on a challenge solution. Looking at a challenge from different perspectives and being required to integrate different disciplines, students learned to critically think about the choices they made. The CBL approach gave students space to roam free and try out different things. Working in interdisciplinary teams on an interdisciplinary challenge required out of the box thinking.
Collaboration skills: communication, planning N = 11; R = 24	“During the course, I learned that I can recover from the chaos that I felt, but only with the help of my team members. Communication is key and your team members might be struggling with the same things you are”. [ID12] “I learned about teamwork and working with students from other universities”. [ID17]	Working in (interdisciplinary) groups, students learned about the importance of open communication, friendly discussions and mutual understanding. They learned to divide their tasks, manage their time and build good connections with their team mates.
New knowledge & methods N = 10; R = 18	“The knowledge and skills I gained was of multiple uses and disciplines. One of the most important insights are related to group work but also, I improved my analytical and writing skills”. [ID11] “I have learned a lot about operating in a multidisciplinary setting and the research methods of students doing another bachelor than me”. [ID14]	Working in interdisciplinary teams and getting lectures from an interdisciplinary teaching team enabled students to broaden their knowledge and certain sustainability topics but also provided them with new information research methods and applications
Applying prior knowledge & skills N = 8; R = 10	“I really enjoy creating, therefore I was the one for our group to edit the video. It had been a while since I edited a video, but it was a great opportunity to get back into it”. [ID12] “The knowledge from my psychology elective courses helped me to understand and predict consumer behaviour and potential changes which was relevant for the long-term solution proposed in our project”. [ID4]	According to the students, this course gave them the opportunity to make use of their prior knowledge regarding several aspect e.g. CBL, teamwork, interdisciplinary learning, video editing skills and data analysis
Personal Development N = 7; R = 8	“My biggest achievement while attending this course is personal growth as a team worker and as an individual researcher”. [ID11] “I was forced to work quickly and efficiently, which is definitely an important skill to learn and improve”. [ID17]	Students reported personal growth in several areas such as: being a team player, flexible, working efficiently, communication and writing skills.
Teachers & Teaching N = 7; R = 7	“I am glad we had the tutor meetings on Tuesday afternoons since those typically gave us some direction on where to go next”. [ID4] “The Virtual Classroom is an amazing tool, and it was always refreshing to participate in the lectures in that environment, rather than the mundane Microsoft Teams call I am growing tired of”. [ID17]	Lectures were given in the Virtual Classroom at [anonymized] which students experienced as interactive, refreshing and high quality. They enjoyed the enthusiastic teachers and felt motivated.
Lecture content N = 5; R = 6	“the materials of the course are complementary to my study. Furthermore, the subjects given in the course were interesting and very diverse”. [ID3] “It really re-ignited my love for projects around the topic of sustainability”. [ID12]	Interactive lectures provided students with diverse, new and interesting information. Students enjoyed the topics and lectures given.
Collaborative learning N = 4; R = 4	“thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with people from all different disciplines. I had a different look towards this report compared to any other report I had ever written”. [ID12] “However, I personally learned a lot about education and child psychology from this member through discussions and debates about the topic”. [ID17]	Learning from others; learning with others helped
Student-team constellation N = 4; R = 4	“I also got to know other students, normally this is not really my strength as I tend to be a bit shy and do not really make steps to meet new people”. [ID5] “Our group was a nice mix of different disciplines, which was essential in reaching our final product, as the system we focused on had both social, technical, political and economic aspects”. [ID8]	Students enjoyed the different disciplines in their team and saw the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Course set-up & organization N = 2; R = 6	“We were extremely well-informed about weekly tasks, and happenings, which is uncommon in my experience. The fact that there were so many teachers involved, both as mentors and as guest lecturers, was incredibly impressive and valuable”. [ID17] “It is very great however that you took the many deadlines we have into account and that you offered flexibility in terms of offering options for postponement”. [ID18]	The course was well organized and provided students with the needed flexibility regarding deadlines. Students felt well informed about tasks and deadlines and enjoyed the diversity of the teaching team.
Motivation & Energy N = 2; R = 2	“The energy then increased being in a new team and dealing with a new project”. [ID4] “I was excited of the fact this was a new course and I never followed a challenge based course”. [ID18]	Students felt excited to work in a team/project

Table

Type of weakness N = 15; R = 164	Typical Quotes	Summary of all quotes
Course set-up, communication & organization N = 13; R = 41	“Some aspects of the course were not thought through enough. These aspects are planning of the course, lectures, and requirements. I see the planning of the course to be imperfect because our team was always in an environment of time limitations”. [ID11] “An improvement I would recommend for this course, entails the before-mentioned clarity. A schedule including all aspects of the course would have helped me in the first place, but a clearer course guide including the assignment descriptions (and rubrics) would have helped even more”. [ID7]	Communication regarding the course structure was perceived as unclear. Students did not know what was expected from them, were unsatisfied with the weightage and deadlines of the deliverables.
Assignment clarity & difficulty N = 12; R = 17	“What the course can improve is that at the beginning of the course it was not clear what the reports should look like”. [ID18] “Tygron was a bit hard to do and did not get the results that I wanted”, [ID3]	Unclarities about the group assignment were reported. Some requirements were perceived as unclear and vague but also irrelevant.
Collaboration skills N = 10; R = 24	“Since other students are from other disciplines, one cannot always help the other to do their part. Missing both knowledge of their expertise and insight into these students’ perspective created misunderstandings on both ends. For me this was the most difficult part on the inter-disciplinary aspect of the course”. [ID7] “Our group did not function optimally in terms of work division and communication. However, this can hardly be attributed to the interdisciplinary nature of the course, but rather our personalities and work ethic”. [ID17]	Student collaboration was not always easy. Students experienced difficulties with task division, speaking up, connecting online, low quality input, low motivation of peers as well as poor communication with their team.
Motivation & energy level N = 9; R = 14	“Throughout this quarter I have struggled with staying focussed, Covid has not allowed me to be in a productive environment for most of my time”. [ID6] “I had several other deadlines and exams. Because I was very busy, my energy levels were lower than ever before in the course”. [ID16]	Low(er) motivation and energy levels were experienced due to deadlines in parallel courses. Additionally, students struggled with following complete online education for months.
Open process N = 8; R = 19	“Personally sometimes I got lost in the structure of our project. We all had different ideas and in the end we wanted to implement so much that our project got quite extensive”. [ID2] “While we clung to the idea for weeks and wrote paragraphs about this aspect of the project, we soon realized that it was not truly fitting to our solution, and we were forcefully trying to include it in order to check the interdisciplinarity box, rather than realistically and logically assessing the situation”. [ID17]	The student-centred, open process was experienced as challenging. Students found themselves struggling with deciding what to do and how to do it. They got lost in the vagueness and had difficulties creating a clear strategy.
Student-team constellation N = 7; R = 18	“the benefits of interdisciplinary might not work at such a small scale with such little students (merely 5, with 4 from the TU), if not all students keep a constant critical look on the research conducted by the other students”. [ID10] “Working with three students with the exact same background, especially Sustainable Innovation, in a course titled Sustainability Challenges, might have been overwhelming and discouraging for those members”. [ID17]	The lack of interdisciplinarity, in some student teams was perceived as disappointing and difficult to manage. This was caused by student drop out and an overrepresentation of students with the same study background.
Lecture content & quality N = 7; R = 10	“As for the lectures, I found many lectures to be irrelevant to our specific topic and the fact that they were compulsory was confusing and disrupting to the process of group work”. [ID11] “I would say the lectures could be connected better to the research of the students”. [ID16]	The added value and connectedness to the research topics of some lectures was questioned.
Time management N = 6; R = 7	“creating the artefact in Minecraft, although it was easy it took more time than I had previously expected”. [ID6] “The last week was very challenging due to the fact that 3 courses had their deadlines at the same moment”. [ID16]	Students experienced difficulties managing their tasks within this course in combination with obligations in parallel courses or due to personal reasons.
Overlap prior knowledge N = 5; R = 6	“I often found myself unengaged during lectures as I wasn’t truly intellectually stimulated due to my pre-existing experience with many of the topics”. [ID17] “I had difficulties keeping up with the lectures. This was mainly because almost every topic was already discussed in my study at least one time, and some even more”. [ID13]	Students with a sustainability background were familiar with parts of the course lectures. This overlap was experienced as boring.
Collaborative writing N = 4; R = 4	“I think the one of the most difficult parts of the course was ensuring that all of the work that the group had created had a clear narrative in our written assignments. Mixing various writing styles was a drawback of working together, it took more time than expected to review, clarify, edit and accept the texts from all people involved”. [ID16]	Writing a paper with an interdisciplinary group of students was perceived challenging. Students struggled to write in a structured way and to handle different writing styles.
Interdisciplinary collaboration N = 3; R = 4	“Before realizing what my role was, I found myself struggling with finding my way to contribute”. [ID7] “certain challenges to this such as some terminology and theories being unfamiliar to me and having to catch up with that”. [ID4]	Collaborating in an interdisciplinary team requires students to understand each other’s perspectives. Students perceived it challenging to find a common ground and to find ways to integrate their own knowledge and skills in the team process.

Lattuca LK, Knight, DB, Bergdom IM. 2012. Developing a measure of interdisciplinary competence for engineers ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition June San Antonio, Texas. American Society for Engineering Education. doi:10.18260/1-2–21173.

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Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, J.Kasch. The data are not publicly available due to them containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants.