Impact Education: The Pressure Cooker Challenge
Students who study at a university will take many different courses throughout their degree. Some might have a clear idea of their future career direction, while others are still exploring their field of interest. However, the gap between the university and the field of work can feel quite big. For both companies and students it can be a challenge to figure out how the acquired knowledge can be best put into practice. How can you translate academic skills to professional ones? And in what way can insights from research benefit a company? Teachers and students of UvA who participated in the course ‘Pressure Cooker Communication Science’ collaborated with the Municipality of Amsterdam for a valuable exchange: a great opportunity for students to gain some real-life experience and the benefit of fresh perspectives and ideas for companies.
About the course
‘The Pressure Cooker’ is the first project in the UvA’s Honours programme of the Bachelor of Communication Science. It involves around seventy students being given the chance to work with an external client. This past semester, small teams of students worked for the Municipality of Amsterdam Chief Technology Office (CTO) on a specific issue over the course of two months. In the middle of that period there were three ‘Pressure Cooker’ days where students were pushed to deal with challenges, which ultimately led to great collaborations and inventive solutions.
Analyzing a complex societal problem and taking a problem-solving approach to developing and presenting a solution gives students a huge boost for their professional skills. Naturally, getting challenged and being motivated to work hard for good results is the way to experience great progress. The course is divided in three main parts - each with its own specific focus. The students first formulate the problem, then develop a solution and finally, present their findings.
Special training and workshops to apply knowledge
One of the greatest benefits of this exchange is that students are challenged to utilize their academic skills. The students practiced applying an interdisciplinary viewpoint on a given subject, applied their research skills and gained experience and insights into working in teams effectively. Special training and workshops helped them apply the knowledge they obtained in the university and turned this collaboration into a success.
Creativity and innovation from students
‘‘What is great about this course is that you get to be very creative and inventive,’’ says Emile Mikutaitė, who participated this semester. ‘‘You’re able to just throw out ideas and see what sticks. The set up was very different, since there were a couple of specific deadlines and an intensive three-day Pressure Cooker weekend. We worked hard but we actually really enjoyed that, because it was fun to work on a big project together with my classmates outside of office hours.’’
Justin Yueng, who worked on the same project, agrees. ‘‘During the Pressure Cooker you work from 9 am till late at night on a complex problem. Normally you meet with other students for two hours and you're gone, but in this course you develop a relationship with each other.’’ Emile continues that the lack of guidelines pushed them to be proactive and figure out things by themselves. ‘‘I had never worked with a real client before. In other courses we work mostly task-based, but in this course we had to solve a complex issue from many different angles. I really learned to tackle a very multi-faceted task and topic, while developing my critical thinking skills.’’
Motivation and hard work
According to course coordinator Dr Zeph van Berlo, one of the greatest benefits of this kind of learning is that students automatically get motivated to work hard for an external client, without needing a grade. He says it’s quite unique, because it turns out students get more motivated to work hard when they see the results they can achieve with a bold approach. ‘‘We took the grade away to avoid students playing safe. This way we stimulated them to try out things, take risks and be creative,’’ he says. What is also unique about the Pressure Cooker is that there is a lot of room for input of the students. ‘‘As teachers in this course - by design - we don’t write out all the details. Rubrics can become a blueprint of an assignment, and then there is no creativity, just meticulousness. Students are pushed to think about what is important in a problem analysis and why. You see students work hard while they’re experiencing issues. But then they persevere, have a ‘eureka!’ moment and then suddenly, you see such motivation and pride. That is the most beautiful thing about the course.’’
Could your company or organisation benefit from fresh insights? Want to know more?