The Smart Solutions Semester at Saxion is a pioneering educational initiative aimed at equipping students with the skills necessary to tackle complex, real-world problems through interdisciplinary collaboration. The primary goal of the Smart Solutions Semester is to teach students how to investigate a complex practical issue that requires interdisciplinary collaboration and how to contribute to solving that issue.
Design of the program
The Smart Solutions Semester is structured as a student-oriented semester where students engage with real clients. Interdisciplinary teams of 6-8 students from different study programs work together on authentic challenges from professional practice and Saxion research groups. The set-up of the Smart Solutions Semester is shifting from working in separate project teams to learning communities (LC’s), in which different project teams, experts from programmes, Saxion research groups, and partners from professional practice work together on challenges connected to an overarching theme. One of these LC’s is the focus of this case; LC Innovation of Infrastructure and Construction for a Circular Economy. This LC concentrates on partners with primarily linear business strategies, addressing challenges they encounter in transitioning from ambitious circular economy goals to strategic and practical decisions in design and operational management.
Learning Objectives
As of September 2024, the Smart Solutions Semester has set three overarching learning goals:
1. Providing insight into the relevance of your own discipline:
You articulate the added value of your discipline and bring expertise from your field while working with representatives of other fields.
2. See matters from different perspectives:
You also look at things from the perspective of other fields and stakeholders and can appreciate and use these perspectives while working on the issue at hand.
3. Combining expertise:
You carry out research and design activities combining expertise from the different fields involved to reach or work towards a solution to the issue.
Scale and Structure
The Smart Solutions Semester caters to third and fourth-year students, offering 20 European Credits (EC) over a semester. Annually, approximately 2000 students and 150 tutors participate. Per semester, approximately 26 students, divided over 4 project teams are part of the LC Innovation of Infrastructure and Construction for a Circular Economy.
Successes and Challenges
As part of the movement to learning communities and working with a dedicated pool of teachers, the LC Innovation of Infrastructure and Construction for a Circular Economy has already initiated and implemented promising changes. Preliminary connections with research groups are established and translated into concrete activities; an account manager is involved; and efforts are being made to involve tutors who are experienced with the Smart Solutions Semester. As for matching students to project teams, challenges are pre-screened and reformulated, in order to align with the curriculum.
Current challenges involve (better) alignment of challenges with the curricula, (improved) guidance of tutors (increasing competence in guiding role in student-centered learning), transition of the client role (form client to learner).
Vision for the future
The Smart Solutions Semester is currently being redesigned; changes will be implemented as of academic year 2024-2025. The intended outcome is to provide all full-time undergraduate students with a rich interdisciplinary learning experience in a joint educational semester, resulting in future-proof, agile professionals who can adequately collaborate with professionals from other disciplines, and impact for the region.
Within the LC Innovation of Infrastructure and Construction for a Circular Economy, the ambition is to work towards a learning environment in which the central theme and solutions or outcomes serve as main starting point for the subsequent semester.
