WIP: Engineering Students' Perception of the Competencies Development After a Challenge-Based Learning Educational Experience

This research WIP paper provides an innovative, clear, and practical methodology for instructors who wish to assess their teaching practice's impact on their students' competencies. It was carried out in a Mexican Higher Education Institution. It compares students' perceptions from two undergraduate engineering programs participating in a six-week Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) concentration. Studies on CBL in engineering programs analyze its effectiveness compared to traditional and other innovative methodologies and its impact on disciplinary, soft, and cross-disciplinary competencies, mainly in undergraduate programs. To answer the following questions, this study examines the effect of CBL educational experience on the Technical, Methodological, Participatory, and Personal competencies perceived by participant students: Q1) What is the impact of CBL on the perceived acquisition of cross-cutting competencies in students in two engineering programs? Q2) How do students in two interrelated engineering programs perceive the dimensions of crosscutting competencies, and how might these interrelationships influence academic performance? A descriptive, comparative, and correlational approach was used to examine two groups of students from two engineering programs in Biotechnology and Chemical Engineering who learned using a CBL approach. The data corresponded to the responses of 31 students to the Competencies Acquired through CBL (CA-CBLQ) questionnaire, adapted in the wording of the items for the present study. The results showed the positive effect of the CBL approach on the development of methodological competencies. It was also identified that an increase in methodological competencies reinforces the development of technical, personal, and moderately participative competencies. Furthermore, our analysis revealed that contextualized and authentic learning experiences enable students to develop competencies that allow them to apply their theoretical knowledge to practical situations in their personal and professional lives. Given that CBL is supported by other favorable methodologies, such as collaborative learning and situated cognition, future studies can explore contrasts between groups in quasi-experimental conditions by comparing CBL with other associated variables.