Addressing the Student Disengagement Crisis

University leaders everywhere are growing increasingly concerned about what has become known as ‘the global student disengagement crisis’. In 2022 Wiley Research found that more than half (55%) of undergraduates admit to struggling with staying engaged and interested in their classes.¹

Why is the Student Disengagement Crisis Happening?

There are non-academic reasons for declining participation, such as financial and emotional stress, as well as rising mental health challenges—these are external “uncontrollables.”

Then there are the internal “controllables”—institutional factors that contribute to disengagement. These include a reduced sense of school belonging, the growth of virtual classrooms, a perceived lack of relevance in course material, and the increasing reliance on non-stop lecturing. As educators, it is our responsibility to address these challenges.

How Can We Overcome the Student Disengagement Crisis?

Foster A Learning Culture

Stanford d-school have identified four important pillars of a learning culture, each of which are supported by academic research. 

1. We learn when we care/when things have relevance to us.²
2. We learn when we engage our emotions.³ 
3. We learn from and with others (not just from the teacher/leader).⁴ 
4. We learn by doing and trying new things (and reflecting on those experiences).⁵

Challenge-Based Learning (CBL)

CBL is a high-impact solution to the disengagement crisis. This proven pedagogy integrates Stanford’s four pillars in a way that fits seamlessly into the lives of both educators and students. At its core, CBL is a real-world, immersive, and active learning framework that compliments traditional lectures by embedding hands-on, problem-solving experiences into module design, delivery, and assessment. Beyond engagement, CBL also fosters the most in-demand workforce skills today: creative thinking, critical thinking, and collaboration.⁶

Research further supports CBL’s effectiveness in deepening topic comprehension. García García et al. (2020) found that students develop a stronger grasp of concepts when they apply them in real-world, immersive challenges. This approach has been shown to result in a higher level of knowledge retention compared to the traditional educational model.⁷

However, there are some barriers to CBL. Implementation can be time-consuming, requiring careful planning and facilitation expertise. When done manually, it is typically only effective in small group settings, in order for educators to maintain oversight and provide meaningful guidance. Additionally, students often perceive the experience as ‘messy’ or disconnected, which can create uncertainty around the process and diminish the impact of the learning experience.

Anytime Creativity removes these barriers by enabling educators of any discipline or topic to seamlessly design real-world problem-solving experiences that align with their class content. Our platform effectively engages and guides classes of any size through CBL, offering:

1. Enhanced student learning outcomes
2. Reduced educator workload
3. Alignment with institutional strategic objectives

Explore our use cases here or book a demo to see how Anytime Creativity can help you integrate CBL effortlessly into your teaching.

References

1. Wiley. (2022). State of the Student 2022: Navigating Careers, Courses, and Campus Life in a Changing World.
2. How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures by The National Academies of Sciences (2018)
3. Emotions, Learning and the Brain: Exploring the Educational Implications of Affective Neuroscience by Immordino-Yang, M.H. (2015)
4. A Social Theory of Learning, and Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning and identity by Etienne Wenger (2018)
5. How We Learn: Why Brains Learn Better Than Any Machine…for Now by Stanislas Dehaene (2020)
6. World Economic Forum: The Future of Jobs Report (2023)
7. García-García, I., Forcada, L., Álvarez-Rodríguez, J., & Gallego-Durán, F. (2020). Perdurable and Long-term Knowledge Retention Using Project-Based Learning. 2020 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)