PXL University College has opted for an educational concept revolving around authenticity, innovation, and co-creation. To support the design process, it has developed its own PXL model in which several elements play a distinct role: authentic context, authentic learning tasks, professional processes, reflection, and articulation of the thought process. This means that every component of the programme must feature a certain degree of authenticity, taking account of the above elements.

The model comprises five core elements:

1. The continuous coordination of conceptualisation and contextualisation (horizontal axis);
2. On the one hand, the university college as a place of learning and on the other, the professional field as a place of learning and working (dark grey range vs green range);
3. Critical reflection throughout all the authentic teaching and learning activities (blue line);
4. Five clusters of authentic teaching and learning activities (clusters A, B, C, D, and E):
   • Developing discipline-based building blocks;
   • Exploring the professional field;
   • Project-based working;
   • Participating in actual practice;
   • Practice-oriented research;
5. Clusters C, D, and E account for at least one-third of the activities.

The community-driven educational model within the Information Technology cluster of programmes is a pre-eminent example of how the PXL Authentic Teaching Model is being substantiated. This model focuses on integrating the daily practices of the business community and the research centres. The collective creation of education for and by the community of junior co-workers (students), co-workers, companies, and researchers is the linchpin within the operation of the cluster of programmes.

The Applied Computer Science professional bachelor’s programme and the System and Network Management first degree programme of the Information Technology cluster have used the model to authenticate their curricula. Figure 2 provides insight into the division of authentic learning activities across the various components. The model affords the programmes the opportunity to render authentic teaching quantifiable, comparable, and open to discussion.

Within the Applied Computer Science professional bachelor’s programme, the model is implemented via programme components (clusters A and B) and via authentic projects (clusters C, D, and E). Cluster A equips the students with specific building blocks (knowledge elements and basic skills) of the Information Technology discipline. Theory is given meaning by establishing links with reality through, e.g., Pluralsight courses, guest lecturers, and authentic assignments that tie in with the students’ social environment (developing MasterMind games, setting up a databank for a cinema et cetera). In cluster B, the students explore the professional field. In seminars, workshops, and innovation routes they observe IT professionals and/or workplace processes. They sample new/modern technologies (chatbots, clean code, test automation, social engineering et cetera) that are subsequently explored, analysed, and ultimately linked to theoretical concepts. Furthermore, with effect from the 2020-2021 academic year, the programme has embarked on designing and teaching a full programme component in collaboration with the professional field. Taking the attainment targets as their point of departure, business professionals develop authentic curriculum content of the eBusiness programme component in collaboration with lecturers and equip students with the essential building blocks in a co-teaching process. In the lessons, they continuously establish links with the actual professional practice.

The third-year IT Project programme component is situated within the clusters C, D, and E; it is a pre-eminent example of authentic teaching. Within the IT Project, junior co-workers collaborate in multi-disciplinary teams (cluster C) on a project basis, working on an authentic assignment for a client/principal in a realistic professional context (cluster D). The result is a final product/prototype providing an innovative solution to a complex, actual practical problem (cluster E). For example, students have developed an omni channel shop prototype, in co-creation with the Elision company, aimed at helping customers find the product they are looking for in a shop while reducing the boundary between their physical and digital experience:

PXL iSpace is creating a realistic professional context at Corda Campus, the IT site of the Dutch province of Limburg, the Euregio Dutch-German collaborative network, and the Belgian community of Flanders. iSpace spans more than 1000 m² and features such facilities as an open project hall, a classroom, and innovation labs. It offers students a place to experiment and collaborate in an authentic framework, 7/7 and 24/24. Furthermore, iSpace is being enhanced with additional project halls embedded within companies based at Corda Campus.

Within the System and Network Management first degree programme, the Authentic Teaching Model is being implemented via flanking programme components (clusters A and B) and work-based learning (clusters B, C, D, and E). It goes without saying that the programme has also embraced community-driven education. The learning process in work-based learning features a four-phase structure, as reflected in Figure 3.

In the Work-based Learning 1 phase, students are offered learning activities that enable them to get to know themselves and become acquainted with the professional field (cluster B, exploring the professional field). The emphasis is on becoming acquainted with the profession of system and network manager and on exploring technological evolutions within the domain. During guest lectures and company visits, hands-on experts explain their jobs and introduce students to present-day technologies. In addition, several workshops are organised to have students gain insight into their personal and professional identity and talents. In the Work-based Learning 2 phase, work-based learning is simulated via an authentic project (cluster C, project-based working). The project brief is formulated in consultation with the professional field. The professional field partners regularly provide interim feedback and assess the final product in collaboration with the learning coaches. The realistic professional context is once more created by iSpace at Corda Campus. The simulation projects ensure that students are sufficiently prepared before transferring to actual work situations in the Work-based Learning 3 and 4 phases (cluster D, participation in actual practice).

Students

Throughout the curriculum:

• Students are learning at and across the boundaries of school context and workplace. This expands their learning potential;
• Students are encouraged to adopt a project-based approach to finding solutions to practical problems;
• Students are practicing integrated professional skills, professional expertise, and professional mindsets in a realistic professional context;
• Students are learning to devise, field-test, and implement new methodologies and products that will result in the desired innovations;

Teaching staff

• Preserve a strong link with the professional practice;

The programme

• An up-to-date curriculum that ties in with the evolutions in the professional practice;

The professional field

• Influence on the study programme and the formation of excellent professionals;
• Graduates ready to start work immediately upon graduation;
• Opportunity to present themselves more distinctly to students (war for talent).
  

• Continued investment in the collective interests of co-creation;
• Coordinating and continuing to focus on the collective goal;
• Transparency in the collaboration in terms of expectations and responsibilities;
• Continued commitment to attracting good partners;
• Expanding collaboration with organisations/companies that are not active in the IT domain.

• Co-creation is conducted by educational professionals, students, researchers, and actors from the professional field and/or from society.
• Co-creation is aimed at finding solutions to complex issues that the individual actors cannot manage to resolve on their own (no co-creation for the sake of co-creation).
• All the actors involved have an impact on the process and on its results; they contribute to the process; and they enhance one another based on their own expertise, experience, and talents (equality, mutuality).
• Co-creation serves the pursuit of a collective ambition and a collective result; the goal is to produce win-win situations.
• Extensive attention is focused on the quality of the process and of the relationships. This is a prerequisite for combining a range of perspectives and forms of expertise into collective intelligence in the pursuit of a new, valuable solution.
• In addition to the development of something new (product, service, policy, …), a co-creation process also results in the participants having learned (new knowledge/skills).

Co-creation is not a self-evident process. Various success factors determine whether or not the co-creation will be successful. An important factor is the point of departure for a co-creation process, i.e., an explicit urgency that is perceived by all the partners. Other pertinent factors include shared goals, trust, courage, and decisiveness (Ehlen, van der Klink, & Boshuizen, Co-Creatie-Wiel: instrument voor succesvolle innovatieprojecten, 2015)

Every student and future professional needs a Theoretical knowledge basis. However, this will be limited in terms of both breadth and depth, because no-one is capable of knowing everything about his field of expertise nor of following every relevant innovation. It is important for students to learn how to cope with such limitations while still at school. They need to be able to find missing information and to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration with other parties commanding complementary knowledge and skills.

A 21st-century professional is only worthy of this title when capable of applying the appropriate Technology in his professional practice. This will enhance the quality and the efficiency of said practice.

Universities of applied sciences are Practice-oriented in terms of their teaching, their permanent education, and their research. However, this practice is in a continuous state of flux. Here, too, students must seek a balance between delving into one particular section and appreciating what is happening in other sections of the practice.

All this can only be achieved in close collaboration with Partners who are willing to translate their know-how into state-of-the-art practice. Such partners are convinced of the necessity and added value of co-creation, with each participant contributing on the basis of his own expertise, experience, and talent.

Students must learn to deal with different Contexts, as the amalgamation of theory, technology, and practice cannot be taken for granted. Students must, therefore, proactively enter into relationships, engage in open communication with respect for each party’s individuality, and be allowed room to make mistakes.

Creation means: contributing to something new, something that is challenging and relevant to both the professional field partner and the programme’s students, lecturers, and researchers. This extends beyond applying knowledge and skills in the work placement practice.

The university of applied sciences aims to provide congruent education, to set a good example, to clarify the choices that it makes based on its views to students and to partners, and to substantiate such choices by reference to sources.

Reflection, finally, both individually and in a group, enables learning across specific theories, technologies, practices, partners, contexts, and creations. This is the only way for students to become sustainable, flexible, inquisitive, and enterprising professionals.

A growth path towards co-creation logically entails that the values of each of the factors in the process will continue to change. For example, in the first stage of the programme, comparatively more attention will perhaps be focused on theory rather than on creation. However, in the final stage of the programme, a student engaged in co-creation with a partner from the professional field and with a researcher from the programme will still be pursuing specialist knowledge to be applied in new, appropriate ways. The second important evolution in the process involves the increasing interaction, throughout the programme, between the factors identified in our definition. For example, a student will reflect on responses from various partners to a creative solution that he is proposing with respect to a shared shop floor issue. Students learn to recognise the interconnectivity between all these factors; learning to deal proactively with such factors in a complex reality undoubtedly requires an analogous growth process among teachers as well as considerable mutual trust.