Undergraduate Science Learners Approaches to Problem-Based Learning Online Discussions

Dr. Noble was granted Research and Professional Development funds to examine online problem-based learning discussion posts in an undergraduate course by the Community of Inquiry Model.

This study used a content analysis approach based on the Community of Inquiry Model to examine critical thinking indicators in online problem-based learning discussion posts from an undergraduate ecotoxicology course. Key research questions for this portion of the work were: Do students from distance and blended courses take different approaches to an asynchronous online PBL case discussions? How is the approach decided on? Does this approach change over time? This study highlights differences in group approaches to the PBL case problem discussions, as well as differences in approach between distance and blended teams.