A flexible system and data model for the representation and management of PBL scripts

Abstract

As problem-based learning (PBL) is becoming more and more popular, there is also a growing interest in developing and using technologies in the implementation of PBL. However, teachers may have difficulties to design a pedagogically high-quality and technically executable, online or blended PBL process on their own, because they lack appropriate expertise in learning theories and design methods as well as a deeper understanding of the potential affordances of technologies. From this premise, we are committed to developing and testing methods and tools to support the design and delivery of online or hybrid PBL processes with high flexibility and a low threshold of usage requirements. As a first milestone towards this goal we have developed a web-based PBL authoring tool for facilitating teachers to design, represent, understand, communicate, customize and reuse online or blended PBL processes. This paper presents a technical approach to the PBL authoring tool and focuses on supporting the representation and management of PBL scripts, computational descriptions of PBL process. In comparison with other tools and technical approaches, it is concluded that a combined use of semi-structured data management and a unified data format appears to be a promising approach to effectively and efficiently support the representation and management of PBL scripts.