learning - Academic Conferences Limited

Andrea Benn
Duch et al (2001) suggests that it may be the way that we teach that reinforces a view of learning
which is that the teacher is responsible for delivering content and the students are the passive
receivers of knowledge. Duch continues to argue that the way we test, the expectations we set and
the learning materials we use may also contribute to the level of student motivation and intellectual
maturity.
By making the assessment brief so prescriptive are we restricting the students’ natural inquisitiveness
as well as telling them what we expect the answer to be? These views are seen as a very good
reason to radically review and change what we do in order to bring about the change we are looking
for/expecting from UG students.
2.3 The Resources
Continuing with the literature review, Duch et al (2001) offers some practical advice which has greatly
influenced the design suggestions for writing the problems which will be forwarded to the Course
Team for discussion:
The first question to ask in this situation is: what should the students know; value and be able to do by
the end of the course? Followed by what evidence will indicate that they have reached these goals.
The advice continues that the problems need to be written as open-ended, real-world problems which
will require a certain amount of creativity. At this point, links with the local business community can be
created as professionals in the field could be consulted for ideas of a more realistic nature for
application of the concepts of the course. Alternatively, news articles, journals, current events can be
used and adapted for the purpose.
The problem also needs to provide opportunities for the students to be able to demonstrate the
underpinning skills previously identified. Duch et al (2001) identify five characteristics considered to
be important for a good PBL problem but recognises also that they may vary between disciplines.
Those most appropriate to this course are:
It must engage students’ interest and motivate them to probe for deeper understanding of the
concepts introduced;
Ideally requires the students to make decisions or judgements based on facts, information, logic
and/or rationalization;
It should be complex enough to necessitate cooperation from all members of the group to
effectively work toward a solution;
The initial questions should be open-ended based on previously learned knowledge and/or be
controversial to draw all students into a discussion;
The content objectives need to be incorporated into the problems, connecting previous knowledge
to new concepts.
The intention at BBS is for the whole course to be delivered as EBL therefore it could provide more
time for the students to adapt to this process as they progress. It is of course the freshers’ year that
will require more support and guidance, therefore Duch et al (2001) suggest that the problems be
delivered in stages, allowing the students to cooperate, to make assumptions based on the
information they have and decide what more they need to request. On the problem brief the learning
objectives stated should include those beyond the content objectives and should be more complex
and involve process skills objectives too. Eventually, as they become more familiar with this process
and their knowledge and experience grows, this could also help the students to identify the direction
they need to work towards.
Linking this again to QAA level descriptors, the authors need to ensure that there is sufficient
distinction between the stages particularly as students progress from level 4 to level 5 and level 6.
Reviewing how technology can assist with this process, Savin-Badin and Wilkie (2006) explore the
concept of a fully online PBL strategy stating that it is an approach to learning that is both varied and
flexible. A fully online strategy is not the main objective here; but to find a way that technology can
support the principal strategy of EBL, their findings provide a good basis for the decisions for this
purpose.
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