How does Problem-Based Case Learning transform technical education? Who's using PBCL? How does the business partnership work in PBCL classrooms? To begin answering those questions, here are introductions to four classrooms that are using a PBCL approach. Each is at a different point in the semester and illustrates different stages of the PBCL Cycle.
Select a video to watch:
Each of these classrooms is examined in more detail on the PBCL Stages in the Classroom page.
I think the real benefit of a project-based problem is that it's a connection to the real world. It's not just a series of facts that I'm memorizing, that I have to sort of toss back on a test. It's a process.
They start to believe that the information they're learning in class is important when they're applying it in a real-world situation. And they become very serious about learning the material. They actually have to figure out how to do it in a meaningful way, because it will be applied to this project.
In authentic problem-based case learning, you never quite know what's coming up next. You never know what issues the students are going to run into, or if they're going to meet the challenge. Or if they're going to meet the challenge in a way that you hadn't expected!
In the real world they're going to face people who don't do their jobs; they're going to face teams; they're going have to get up and speak in front of people; they're going to have to solve problems. The technology that I teach them today is going to be gone in two years, and so they've got to learn how to learn the new technology. And this course is about teaching them how to do that.
