Interdisciplinary competence is important in academia for both employability and sustainable development. However, to date, there are no specific interdisciplinary education models and, naturally, no empirical studies to assess them. Since problem-based learning (PBL) and project-based learning (PjBL) are learning approaches that emphasize students’ collaboration, both pedagogies seem suitable to enhance students’ interdisciplinary competence. Based on the principle of constructive alignment and four instructional principles on interdisciplinary learning, this paper proposes that students profit more from interdisciplinary PBL (iPBL) than interdisciplinary PjBL (iPjBL). A pre-post study was conducted with a sample of 95 students participating in iPBL and 183 students participating in iPjBL. As expected, multilevel models on students’ development in (a) interdisciplinary skills, (b) reflective behavior, and (c) recognizing disciplinary perspectives show that iPBL enhances students’ interdisciplinary competence more than iPjBL.

Extant research into the efficacy of—especially interdisciplinary—higher education for sustainable development (HESD) is limited. A need exists to investigate students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours. Furthermore, universities have experienced difficulties implementing interdisciplinary HESD because of organisational barriers due to monodisciplinary structures, as well as educators’ and students’ reservations. This study introduces an interdisciplinary approach to HESD and investigates its efficacy regarding students’ development of sustainability knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours at a university in Germany. The approach applies a series of lectures by different sustainability experts accompanied by several tutorials that support students’ interdisciplinary learning and teamwork towards an interdisciplinary sustainability product. Tutors were trained in interdisciplinary teaching methods, as well as interdisciplinary communication and conflict management, beforehand. Before participating in the interdisciplinary course, the students had a moderate level of sustainability knowledge and behaviour, and a high level of sustainability attitudes. The results from the pre–post-test analysis indicate an increase in students’ sustainability knowledge and behaviours, and no change in students’ sustainability attitudes. If typical barriers to interdisciplinarity are mitigated, interdisciplinary HESD can facilitate students’ development.

Innovative ideas are essential to sustainable development. Students’ innovative potential in higher education for sustainable development (HESD) has so far been neglected. Innovation is often associated with an interdisciplinary approach. However, the results of research on diversity and its role in innovation are inconsistent. The present study takes a longitudinal approach to investigating student teams in project-based learning courses in HESD in Germany. This study examines how innovation develops in interdisciplinary student teams in contrast to monodisciplinary student teams. The results of the latent change approach from a sample of 69 student teams indicate significant changes in students’ innovation over time. Monodisciplinary student teams outperform interdisciplinary student teams in idea promotion (convincing potential allies) at the beginning, whereas interdisciplinary student teams outperform monodisciplinary student teams in idea generation (production of novel and useful ideas) in the midterm. There is no difference in the long term. The results indicate that interdisciplinary student teams have an advantage in the generation of novel ideas but need time to leverage their access to different discipline-based knowledge. We discuss practical implications for the design of interdisciplinary learning with strategies to support students in the formation phase in project-based learning in HESD.

Open education, Open Educational Practices (OEPs), and Open Educational Resources (OERs) have emerged as significant opportunities for enhancing global sustainability information sharing. However, the creation and sharing of OERs, as well as the usage of OEPs in Higher Education for Sustainable Development (HESD), remain limited. This study explores the implementation of OEPs in HESD, aiming to empower students to co-produce OERs on sustainable development (SD). This study, drawing on the theoretical approach of the principle of constructive alignment, proposes the development of students’ digital competence in OER production. A two-group pretest–posttest analysis of 409 students (Psychology, Economics, Education, Geography) reveals a significant increase in digital competence over time among students who produced OERs on SD, compared to their peers enrolled in courses unrelated to OER content development. We delve into the practical implications of designing OEPs in HESD and strategize to support students in their OER production processes.

Problem-based learning (PBL) has emerged as a suitable approach to shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered educa-tion. However, higher education institutions (HEIs) experience obstacles stemming from lecturers’ and students’ reservations as well as organizational challenges. Following action research, the author reflects on her implementation of interdisciplinary PBL within one exemplar case study to explore opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinarity in the transition toward a PBL curriculum in a traditional HEI. At the organizational level, interdisciplinarity facilitates collective knowledge creation about PBL by providing interdisciplinary learning spaces and in-house training. At the team level, lecturers as well as students can collectively learn about PBL. At the individual level, interdisciplinary student-to-student and lecturer-to-lecturer learning can enhance personal knowledge about PBL. Monodisciplinary structures, discipline-based differences in teaching and knowledge traditions, as well as individual prejudices are sources of challenges associated with interdisciplinarity in organizational learning.