Comparative evaluation of PBL and traditional lecturebased teaching in undergraduate engineering courses : evidence from controlled learning environment

Project and problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely recognised as an active, collaborative, cumulative and integrative learning approach that engages learners, motivates team creativity and centres on practical education. On the other hand, traditional lecture-tutorial teaching is often criticised for being a passive, surface learning and exam-focused approach. In spite of these evidence-based observations and claims over the years, the traditional lecture-tutorial teaching approach still dominates as the preferred teaching approach at Australian universities. This study sets up a control environment to compare these two teaching and learning approaches by analysing data from students' actual performance, course evaluation and expectation in two large undergraduate engineering courses in 2009 and 2010. The evidence reported in this study is broadly interesting in that both courses were taught by the same teaching staff using two entirely different learning and teaching approaches to the same cohort of students in the same semester within the same degree program. The analysis shows that there are significant differences between the students' actual performance, course evaluation and their expectation. Such conflicting differences may be some of the reasons that may negatively impact teaching staff deterring them from switching to PBL from traditional lecture-tutorial teaching.

Development and delivery of the appropriate assessments items for power systems related PBL subjects

Problem Based Learning (PBL) as a teaching method has been around for many years. It is one of the most effective ways of learning and teaching. It uses real world problems as a learning method and encourages learners to learn independently while a mentoring support is provided by the academic. However, various academic institutions develop the assessments items in many ways; the implementation and delivery become a challenge in ensuring the right assessment and implementation. This paper discusses some of the practical experiences of the development and delivery of the appropriate assessment items for power systems related PBL subjects.