Travels towards Problem Based Learning in Medical Education

This paper reports the results and insights of an exploratory investigation of the effectiveness of a prototypic virtual problem-based learning (VPBL) exercise delivered via the WWW, that uses Hypermedia Assisted Instructional Technologies (HAIT). The study targeted all first year medical students at a south-central University School of Medicine who were enrolled in the human physiology course during the Spring 2000 (n = 150). A quasiexperimental, post-test only research design compared the VPBL and a text-based version of the same PBL exercise on students’ achievement, as measured by a set of selected physiology examination items, and their perceptions of the learning environment, as measured by the Teaching and Learning Environment Questionnaire (TLEQ) (Chauvin & Bowdish, 1998). Findings suggest that the VPBL is equally as effective as the text-based version for enhancing students’ learning and their learning environment in small group, PBL sessions. In this paper, we examine the evidence supporting the VPBL innovation and explore what constitutes necessary and sufficient evidence that an educational innovation should be incorporated appropriately into the medical educational practice of a school. We examine instructional design issues such as learner control, instructional control, and teacher and learner roles as related to instructional development for the WWW, by comparing and contrasting our observations of the VPBL design experiment with the professional literature.