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Creating the PBL Challenges |
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Creating the PBL Challenges
By: Judith Donnelly, PhD
For the PHOTON PBL Principal Investigator (PI) team, the process of developing multimedia industry-based Challenges has itself been an exercise in problem-based learning.
The first step was to identify potential industry and research university partners who could provide challenges that would be engaging, preferably interdisciplinary across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subject areas and involve optical principles common to a physics or technology course.
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An initial workshop with industry and university partners was held in January 2007 after the partners were identified. First, the PIs introduced PBL as an instructional method. Participants discussed problem solving in their own organizations and offered possible PBL Challenge problems typical of their own company or institution. Workshop discussions revealed that a Challenge and its solution must be clearly defined before the on-site visit to avoid confusion later during production.
So far, the PHOTON PBL team has held on-site workshops at six of the eight partner organizations, typically over a one and a half day period. On the first afternoon, the PBL team meets with the host participants to explain problem-based learning as a teaching method, as well as the process of creating a PBL Challenge. The PBL team then tours the facility, views the problem and its solution, and plans the following day's recording sessions.
The next day, events are staged for videotaping. First, the technical team recreates the introduction of the Challenge problem such as a manager speaking at a staff meeting or a customer requesting a new manufacturing process. The next step is to conduct a brainstorming discussion of possible methods to solve the problem. The final session reveals the organization's solution to the problem. The outcome of each workshop is four to six hours of video and 500 to 950 still photos.
The goal of the PHOTON PBL video production team is to create a short two or three minute long video presentation of each session. The raw video is first edited to 60-90 minutes and a written transcription is produced. Three scripts are developed using the transcription as a guide: problem statement, discussion and solution. Each final Challenge video is assembled using voice-overs and still photos with a few frames of video. Two background video segments are also produced—a general introduction to the Challenge context and an overview of the company or university.
While the videos are being developed, the PI team is also working on instructional resources to supplement the multi-media presentation, such as web links, PDF documents and short video segments on related topics. To guide students in the problem solving process, the challenges also include an innovative "white board" screen projected directly onto a classroom’s white board. This graphic allows students to organize their thoughts and plan the next stage of learning and problem analysis.
Teachers are often reluctant to use a teaching method that they do not feel comfortable with, and students with little or no problem solving experience are unlikely to succeed if thrown into an open-ended problem situation. The PHOTON PBL model is flexible enough to handle different levels of users. Teachers of beginning problem solvers can show all three video sessions—problem statement, brainstorming discussion and solution—just pausing to allow time for student discussion or teacher explanation. More experienced problem solvers may view the problem statement with a brainstorm session used as needed in order to guide students toward a solution. Expert problem solvers may simply view the problem statement and are then left to devise their own path to a solution.
In each case, after students have presented their own solution to the challenge, they are shown the organization's solution to compare and contrast with their own. The fact that the students may arrive at a different solution than the organization’s reinforces the importance of creativity and innovation and demonstrates that most problems have more than one possible solution.
The first three Challenges were completed in time for the July 2007 professional development workshop held at Roger Williams University in Bristol, RI. (Photos) These summer workshop participants have been field-testing the Challenges in their own classrooms this year.
One student commented, "The video made it more exciting because it made you feel like you were in a real world environment, with many people working on a common goal." One community college instructor remarked, "The level of enjoyment shown by the students was demonstrated by the quality of the work that they prepared for the second class session. They were all active participants in the development and presentation of their designs." Another instructor commented, "There were a lot of high fives all around when they saw that their solution was much like the company solution."
Judith Donnelly is professor of physics at Three Rivers Community College in Norwich, CT. She can be reached at jdonnelly@lasertechonline.org.
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