Problem-based Learning in an Online IT Professional Practice Course Goold, A. (2004). Problem-based learning in an online IT professional practice course. Paper presented at the meeting of World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education (ELEARN) 2004, Washington. 指導教授： Min-puu Chen 報告者： Hui-lan Juan 報告日期：

Introduction There is an expectation that students graduating from tertiary information technology (IT) programmes should have technical skill and knowledge that will be up-to- date and make them employable. There are different ways of providing experiential learning opportunities for students who have undertaken IT studies in Australia. At present, students studying information technology at Deakin University undertake a capstone project in a course that offers experiential learning (Goold 2002).

Introduction One of the courses that will be offered at the third-year level is IT Practice. This course will be studied by students prior to their enrolment in the capstone project course. IT Practice will be developed using a Problem-based Learning (PBL) pedagogy that provides students with authentic tasks allowing them to expand professional skills and practices. This paper presents the PBL approach that has been proposed for use in IT Practice and discusses some of the particular elements, processes and features that will be adopted.

Background The learning objectives of IT Practice are such that once this course has been successfully completed,students will ▫ Have knowledge of technical practices within the IT industry; ▫ have an understanding of the ethical behaviors and social responsibility required of IT professionals; ▫ have expanded on knowledge acquiredover their previous IT studies; ▫ have extended their critical thinking and communication skills. One of the aims of Our University is to ensure that all students are given the opportunity to develop skills for lifelong learning. Our School has nominated IT Practice as the course that will be delivered wholly online.

Problem-based learning It is often restricted to teaching first-year programming and information systems (Greening et al. 1997; Duke et al. 2000; University of Brighton 2003). Yet according to Kutay (1999) PBL is ideally suited to the learning of practical, skills -based courses such as engineering and computer science.

Problem-based learning There appears to be a number of different ways that PBL is practised but essentially these practices have some common characteristics: ▫ ‘Real-life’ problems are used as much as possible to engage the student in the learning process; ▫ Course material crosses traditional course material; ▫ Students collaborate in small groups; ▫ The teacher’s role is as a facilitator of learning not as an imparter of knowledge; ▫ Resources are available to assist in solving the problem but information on how to develop the solution is not provided.

Problem-based learning It seems that the computing discipline lends itself to the PBL approach and ‘matches these characteristics in the following ways: ▫ Computing is for the most part problem driven; ▫ Life -long learning is a necessity due to the rapidly and continually changing nature of the industry; ▫ Practitioners must constantly update their skills and competencies in order to keep abreast of new technology; ▫ The project group is the predominate mode of operation within the industry; ▫ Computing crosses discipline boundaries’ (Ellis et al p42).

The PBL Approach in delivering IT Practice Overview of PBL in IT Practice

The PBL Approach in delivering IT Practice United Enterprises is a fictitious organization that simulates an organization in the real world. It consists of two main parts: a series of multimedia resources that make up organizational elements, and facilitators who work for the organization. The facilitators within United Enterprises are faculty who act out prescribed roles within the organization such as legal advisor, help desk operators and business section managers. Their primary role is to provide further scaffolding for the problems or tasks students have been asked to solve.

The PBL Approach in delivering IT Practice The students undertaking IT Practice will work in groups, as consulting teams, to solve problems for United Enterprises. Essentially the student groups will be autonomous and self- directed and a significant amount of communication and collaboration will be required to solve problems and achieve tasks. All of the problems are applied to the United Enterprises context. They are scenario based to simulate real life as much as possible.

The PBL Approach in delivering IT Practice Tools available in the online environment

Some issues and challenges There are a number of issues with the implementation of IT Practice that have yet to be addressed. A primary consideration is the type of assessment that will be used. PBL encourages active and self-directed learning and there is little purpose in assessing surface knowledge (facts). ▫ Written examinations in IT Practice will assess deep learning and allow students to demonstrate their critical thinking and problem- solving skills, and prove that they have an understanding of how IT professionals work in practice. ▫ Other suitable types of assessment for use in IT Practice include presentations, peer assessment, self assessment and facilitator assessment.

Some issues and challenges One of the biggest challenges will be to provide appropriate and suitable staff to support the course and the PBL pedagogy. ▫ The organizational facilitators will need to take on the role and character of a particular person within United Enterprises and be able to act out that role online. ▫ These facilitators will need to be staff who are innovative and creative, and have a thorough understanding of organizational procedures, business processes and IT tools and techniques.

Conclusions This paper has provided a concise but by no means comprehensive overview of how PBL will be introduced into teaching an IT course online at Deakin University. The PBL pedagogy and the provision of a simulated workplace with authentic tasks and problems will give students the ability to work effectively in the capstone project course and give them the ability to assimilate more easily into professional life once they have graduated. PBL must have institutional support to provide the resources to ‘do it well’.