Hackathons in the formal learning process

Hackathons are short-lived events, typically lasting from 1 to 3 days, where participants gather into groups to tackle a challenge and present a proof of concept in the form of software or hardware prototype, motivated by a common theme. Studies show that learning is one of the primary motivations for people joining hackathons, where situated and collaborative learning take place. The acquisition of knowledge comes as a result of the practice itself and with participants learning from one another. By taking that into account, we considered bringing hackathons into the classroom. This paper presents a case study of an Internet of Things (IoT) undergraduate course where a hackathon is used as a learning instrument, leveraging on challenge-based learning to motivate students to find and develop a suitable semester project. We utilize a mixed-method approach where quantitative and qualitative data are used to analyze the perspective of students about the effectiveness of that approach.