Principles for digitally supported PBL
Principles for digitally supported PBL
Education and research activities at AAU have a long and strong tradition based on a number of core PBL principles.
On a daily basis, the AAU PBL model is put into practice with variation from faculty to faculty, department to department and programme to programme, as the PBL principles provide room for pedagogical and didactic experimentation and adaptation to local conditions and subject areas.
This has helped evolve PBL and the educational activities that AAU offers to students. Similarly, digital technologies have always played a more or less explicit role in the development of PBL.
The principles are intended to support and challenge the future development of PBL through a value-based approach that actively engages with the opportunities offered by digital technology.
The principles
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VARIATION
Variation as a principle challenges and extends existing PBL praxis. Variation, understood as both within and beyond the different levels of the programmes, aims to ensure that students experience a wide variation in teaching and project work throughout the programme. The principle proposes that study leaders, study boards, coordinators, lecturers and students consider variation as an essential principle in the organisation and practice of education and teaching. Students are motivated and learn in different ways, so variation can benefit all students through multiple approaches to learning, teaching and education. In this context, the digital can help widen the scope of educational opportunities and support variation as a principle at multiple levels of practice.
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COLLABORATION AND OPENNESS
Digital technologies enable new types of collaborations that go beyond the individual course or project work, and where it is easier to open up for other stakeholders, a larger number of participants, create cross-collaborations or incorporate entirely new forms of collaboration.
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CO-DETERMINATION AND EMPOWERMENT
Co-determination and empowerment are central parts of the educational model in a PBL-based educational institution, and can be understood from the student's perspective as involvement and engagement in their own educational choices and processes. In problem-oriented project work, this is realised through the fundamental principle of participatory project management. Digital technologies can support empowerment and help increase student participation beyond project work. They can enable larger and more active learning communities, involving both students and lecturers within each programme, but also across programmes.
Participation in such learning communities has the potential to provide students with what is perceived as a more engaging study environment, where shared academic interests take centre stage and where closer communication and relationships between lecturers and students can enhance student empowerment.
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INCLUSION
Inclusive study environments with an equal, appreciative and respectful culture are a high priority and play an essential role in good student life. Digital technologies can help to support inclusion efforts through a conscious focus on accessibility, diversity and flexibility. The principle aims to make learning and teaching activities accessible to all students, but also
to ensure that each student feels able to participate according to their individual abilities.A conscious focus on meeting different needs in the course teaching itself, in a semester or in the organisation of a programme can help to create better participation opportunities for students with diverse backgrounds.