Educational hackathon: preparing students for collaborative competency

ABSTRACT

Collaboration is an essential skill for future education professionals because they will encounter challenges that will require collectively innovative solutions. Thus, this research evaluates the impact of a three-month class hackathon (a one-day event and three post-hackathon workshops) on the collaborative competencies of students of education. Further, the study examines the relationship between the development of collaborative competency and the innovative performance of the student teams (N = 18) that participated in the hackathon. Participating undergraduate students (N = 72) were required to fill out self-reports on five dimensions underlying their collaborative competency, and coaches conducted various observations during the hackathon. The results demonstrate that students’ collaborative competency developed significantly during the entire course period. However, the findings also reveal that some student teams regressed during the hackathon day and overall course period. This study does not reveal any relationship between the students’ perception of collaboration and their innovation ability.

KEYWORDS:

• Hackathon
• education
• collaborative competency
• collaborative learning

Acknowledgement

We wish to thank all the members of the Fabrique, the Pépite Etena, and the Atelier Canopé 67 for their support and help in the research process. We especially thank Laurence Prevost for her time and dedication in the organisation of the experiment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data have not been shared because depositing data into public repositories was not part of the consent process.

Additional information

Funding

This work did not receive funding.

Notes on contributors

Dina Adinda

Dina Adinda holds a PhD in Education from the University of Strasbourg and is now associate professor at the Paris Nanterre University. Her research interests include higher education, adult training, mentoring, learners’ self-direction and collaboration, as well as technology education.

Nathalie Gettliffe

Nathalie Gettliffe holds a PhD in Second Language Acquisition (University of British Columbia) and is an associate professor at the University of Strasbourg (Faculty of Arts). Her research interests include second language acquisition, digital technology for education, and psycholinguistics.

Najoua Mohib

Najoua Mohib is an associate professor of Education and Head of the “Technology and Communication” research team at the University of Strasbourg. Her main research interests are competencies, innovation, technology education, and transformation processes in education systems.