GTravels towards Problem Based Learning in Medical Education (VPBL)

This paper reports the results and insights ofan exploratory investigation of theeffectiveness of a prototypic virtualproblem-based learning (VPBL) exercisedelivered via the WWW, that uses HypermediaAssisted Instructional Technologies (HAIT). The study targeted all first year medicalstudents at a south-central University Schoolof Medicine who were enrolled in the humanphysiology course during the Spring 2000 (n =150). A quasi-experimental, post-test onlyresearch design compared the VPBL and atext-based version of the same PBL exercise onstudents' achievement, as measured by a set ofselected physiology examination items, andtheir perceptions of the learning environment,as measured by the Teaching and LearningEnvironment Questionnaire (TLEQ) (Chauvin &Bowdish, 1998). Findings suggest that the VPBLis equally as effective as the text-basedversion for enhancing students' learning andtheir learning environment in small group, PBLsessions. In this paper, we examine theevidence supporting the VPBL innovation andexplore what constitutes necessary andsufficient evidence that an educationalinnovation should be incorporated appropriatelyinto the medical educational practice of aschool. We examine instructional design issuessuch as learner control, instructional control,and teacher and learner roles as related toinstructional development for the WWW, bycomparing and contrasting our observations ofthe VPBL design experiment with theprofessional literature.