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Problem Based Learning Systems and Technologies

We are pleased to offer the first installment of this mini-track at HICSS-38. We believe the Problem Based Learning activities can easily be implemented in an electronic environment. In turn, this can lead to a better understanding of learning in general, and more specifically the newer technology-based learning environments like distance learning. The breadth of these applications seems almost without limit. This year’s mini track has our general introduction and two examples of the environments. Problem Based Learning (PBL) is used to enhance student involvement, student learning, student comprehension and overall knowledge retention. PBL takes on many forms, from simple hands-on, in-class exercises to semester long projects and/or case studies. Mel Silberman’s Active Learning Credo sums this up well with his point that states: “What I hear, see, discuss, and do, I acquire knowledge and skill”. With PBL, students are actively engaged in exercises or real-world examples to help them better assimilate the material by showing them the potential application of that material. For example, you can explain to a student how spreadsheets are a series of rows and columns with figures and formulae and give them some exercises to do. With the PBL approach the student might be required to use a spreadsheet to set up, or run a business. Granted, this may be more work for the student but serves to show the student how powerful spreadsheets can be. The goal is to actively engage the student. Problem Based Learning helps students see how their education relates to career fields and daily work tasks. It helps students see that they are not simply being asked to do busywork, but are being prepared for the real world. Utilizing technology for PBL allows a couple of advances. We can now add supporting tools to the process. Students are better able to see what is going on in the problem. In the classroom, students can use the tools that they will be required to use in their future jobs. This allows them to get some real-world experience, and apply that to real-world types of problems. And the use of technology allows us to reach a broader based audience, even to the extent that we are bringing in professionals in the field. We start with the paper “Problem Based Learning and the Business School Environment”. Martz and Shepherd bring up the benefits of using PBL in the business school, and how research streams can come from it. The tie between PBL and action research is also explored. The paper finishes by presenting a model for using and justifying PBL in the business school curriculum. In their paper “Cases as Minimalist Information”, Carroll and Rosson describe using cases to enhance learning in an undergraduate usability engineering class. The paper covers orienting information toward action, anchoring information in activity, leveraging errors and increasing user autonomy. The concept of using a minimalist design for cases is also covered. The next paper “Model Driven Development of Cooperative Problem-Based Learning Situations – Implementing tools for teachers and learners from pedagogical models” describes how technology can be used to support PBL. Sallaberry et al. describe how they built on the Cooperative Problem-based learning Meta-model (CPM) to better allow instructors to describe a learning scenario and document it. They discuss the advantages to tutors and learners of this system, and further discuss the technical architecture which they used to implement other educational tools.