Hybrid Learning Guide for Faculty

Identify Learning Outcomes

Which outcomes will you address through this activity?

Find a Problem

Use an available, published problem or make your own. Use these steps to develop your plan:

1. Identify the concepts, knowledge, and skills required to propose a good solution.
2. Write out your student learning outcomes for the PBL project.
3. Find a real problem that fits your learning outcomes and that your students may encounter in their careers pus one that your students may encounter in their careers or civic lives.
4. Write your problem as you would a case: in the present tense, with specific data and a practitioner role or multiple roles that students can assume. Embellish the problem with unnecessary information, dramatic detail, character development, etc.
5. Consider omitting some information that you know students can either estimate or find out during their research.
6. Consider structuring your problem as an extended rollout type, letting realism be your guide.
7. Define your deliverable—for example, a decision, a lengthy memo, a manuscript, a report a budget, a plan of action, or a persuasive presentation—and develop a rubric for assessing student products. Be sure the deliverable integrates decisions that students have to make.

Important Note 

Because problem-based learning and project-based learning shares the same acronym, some people think they are the same thing. They are not, but they do share some of the same learning strategies and develop some of the same skills. Pear Tree Education, Inc. has developed a short video describing the similarities and differences between the two which you can watch below:

Reference: Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at its best: A research-based resource for college instructors. Jossey-Bass.

Project vs. Problem-Based Learning is the third video in a 3-part series covering Problem-Based Learning. This video compares and contrasts between Project-Based Learning versus Problem-Based Learning.