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Today’s higher education paradigm places emphasis on the broader context of globalization, economics, the environment, and society. Divergent from traditional silo-based, discipline-specific models, this broad and complex challenge necessitates the continued investigation of innovative interdisciplinary approaches for higher education. The 360 Degree Model for Educating Socially Responsible Global Citizens developed by the authors (360 Global Ed model) addresses these current needs through a structured approach for developing students as global citizens through purposeful engagement (Breitkreuz & Songer, 2015; Songer & Breitkreuz, 2014).

The 360 Global Ed model includes a theoretical framework, educational environment, academic coursework, and evidence-based outcomes. At the core of the model is an international service learning (ISL) experience. The model’s ISL experience provides a collaborative, interdisciplinary classroom environment combined with an authentic international field experience (Songer & Breitkreuz, 2014).

This chapter presents a case study of building TU/e innovation Space, a unique learning hub for developing, sustaining, and disseminating research-informed challenge-based learning (CBL) practices at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). This learning hub for education innovation fosters the collaboration between students, industry, research, and societal organizations and drives the continued development of the CBL approach at TU/e. The chapter presents insights from the development of CBL at TU/e innovation Space, drawn from postcourse evaluation surveys of two flagship courses, the innovation Space Bachelor End Project (ISBEP; third year bachelor level) and the innovation Space Project (ISP; master's course level). Analysis of the data shows that students generally rated the courses highly. As the main motivation to choose these courses, students cited the desire to do something else than their own major, aiming for interdisciplinarity and breadth of knowledge, and wanting to do something real-life or business-like. Students also liked the ability to choose their own project, but in some cases, struggled with the structure of the assessment. We also briefly describe academics' perspective on running CBL courses at the hub and present additional activities related to the full learning ecosystem of the hub. Finally, we describe some of the future directions in terms of CBL research and educational developments at the hub.

Professional practice doctorates have learning outcomes and capstones that are very different than research doctorates. One type of capstone suited to a professional doctorate is a client-based dissertation in practice (DiP). In this type of capstone, students address a problem of practice faced by an institution or program (the client) in the student’s area of professional practice. Client-based problems of practice have the advantage of being authentic problems whose solution can have a positive impact on the client and those served by the client. For students, the scope of work to be done for the client includes: assessing the current practice; conducting a review of literature to identify best practices; gathering stakeholder perspectives; developing a strategic plan with proposed solutions or interventions; piloting elements of the proposed solution; and maintaining communication with the client. A case is described in which a student work team first authored an invitation to potential clients to propose a problem and then selected a client whose problem of practice was addressed as the DiP.

Over the last 30 years, the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada has advanced sustainable development on campus and created a culture of sustainability, with ambitious goals, and strong collaborative relationships. Launched in 2010, the Campus as a Living Laboratory (CLL) initiative utilizes the campus buildings and infrastructure as opportunities for research, teaching, and learning. Projects under the CLL bring together academic researchers, students, staff, and partners to demonstrate, test, research, and learn from new ideas for sustainable development. These projects range in scale from small and discrete educational or research projects, often led by students, to the design and construction of innovative buildings, with multiyear interdisciplinary research programs. CLL projects are opportunities for UBC students to engaged in applied research and learning that enhances their educational experience at the university, and may serve as models for other universities interested in expanding sustainable development on their campuses.

Brent B. Allred is an Associate Professor of Strategic Management and International Business at The College of William & Mary, in Williamsburg, VA. He earned his Ph.D. in Strategic Management/International Business at The Pennsylvania State University. His current research interests are in technology sourcing and patent rights. He has published in various journals, including the Journal of International Business Studies, Management International Review, the Journal of International Management, Academy of Management Executive, and the Journal of Product Innovation Management.

Society is increasingly confronted with a range of complex social problems that need to be addressed using a research process based on collaboration between stakeholders from both science and society and the integration of knowledge from different disciplines. This type of interdisciplinary research is more complex than mono disciplinary research and requires skills at the cognitive, inter-personal, and intra-personal levels. We present the experiences with an interdisciplinary master’s program. The research question we address is what educational strategy prepares students for interdisciplinary research on complex social problems? Since tasks which are too complex can frustrate students and create resistance, we argue for a gradual approach to inquiry-based learning. We interviewed both students and lecturers, and included curricula evaluations. We found that students can be trained in interdisciplinary research based on a gradual approach to open inquiry and we found a relationship between the complexity of cognitive tasks and the amount of learning in other domains. We argue that when students are challenged at the right level with appropriate guidance, the learning domains will reinforce each other. To keep students optimally challenged, it is crucial that the teachers adjust their role while directing students from structured inquiry towards open inquiry.

This chapter describes the development and evaluation of an interdisciplinary group-based inquiry-based learning (IBL) project across two professional degree programmes in Scotland – educational psychology and social work. After outlining the policy and practice contexts for interdisciplinary inquiry-based learning, we articulate how IBL can facilitate professional identity development, mirror key aspects of professional practice such as interprofessional collaboration, and provide deep interdisciplinary learning. It is argued that the process of IBL provides an authentic and complex practice scenario which allows for the articulation and development of professional knowledge, values, identities and roles in collaboration with another professional grouping. The process of IBL development is described and we report on the results of a small-scale qualitative evaluation of the short-term outcomes of the IBL approach to teaching and learning. The IBL activity enhanced students’ appreciation of interdisciplinary collaboration and allowed them to practice relevant skills. The views and reflections of students are reported and reinforce the relevance and efficacy of the approach. The chapter concludes with a series of suggestions and advice for the replication of using IBL as a tool to enhance and facilitate interdisciplinary learning.

Interdisciplinary higher education is becoming more important in learning across subject boundaries. This is occurring in global, national and institutional contexts. In Malaysia, interdisciplinarity is clear in the country's National Higher Education Strategic Plan (2007). While varying interpretations of interdisciplinary learning and teaching exist, there are also commonalities. These common elements address complex problems and focus questions by drawing on the disciplines. They also integrate insights and produce new understandings of complex problems. In this chapter, 21 senior administrators (deans, deputy deans and program chairs) from three public universities in Malaysia were surveyed, and 10 respondents were interviewed to determine their views on their use of the interdisciplinary approach: that is, their level of awareness, their perceptions of interdisciplinarity, and their self-reported level of knowledge of what interdisciplinarity means. The findings showed that 76% of the respondents were aware of interdisciplinarity, and that most respondents had a ‘moderately sufficient’ level of self-reported knowledge about the application of interdisciplinarity in current courses. The interview sessions also revealed that respondents interpreted the interdisciplinary approach in different ways. The implications of the results from this exploratory study suggest that public universities in Malaysia have various obstacles to deal with before effective interdisciplinary learning and teaching can be implemented.