Friday, June 15, 2007

STLHE 2007 - Conference Day One - Lunch Roundtable - Implementing PBL In An Undergraduate Business Course

They have a really neat way of doing lunch here at STHLE 2007 - it's held in a big tent in a series of "round table" discussions on various topics. I sat in on the round table discussion "Implementing PBL In An Undergraduate Business Course". Our "host" was Denise Stockley from Queen's University. She described for us the experience they had conducting a PBL business course - and showed us the date that convinced Queen's School of Business to expand its use of PBL.

We had a great conversation about PBL, its pros and cons, about the need for good, clear, measurable outcomes and authentic assessment through the use of rubrics. We also talked a lot about problem formulation and that the key to good PBL problems was to not give too much information, at least initially (more kudos to David Gotshall).

There was also some discussion of what is being done at the University of Maastricht, which has a totally PBL based curriculum. Some of us (me :-)) had some experience with PBL (I use it extensively and have written about it for CCEDP and as part of my MEd research), while others were new to the subject, but eager to try it. One common thread that I have heard throughout the conference is a great willingness to get away from lecturing and the "sage on the stage" and to move towards teaching styles and strategies that will engage learners. It's great to hear and reassuring to know that I am already there.

A great session and a great way to eat lunch with your colleagues...

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