Issues and practical solutions in project group writing in the PBL education

In this paper, the problematics of the writing process in undergraduate and master’s courses in the context of a problem based learning education are analysed. In this context, writing usually occurs in students' groups. The principle is that students learn together with peers under the supervision of faculty members. In this context, the report is a “tool” which the students used to advance in their learning process and communicate with group members, supervisors and censors. Despite the main well-recognised advantages of the students’ projects in the PBL education context, some recursive pitfalls are encountered by students during the report writing process. These issues can eventually hinder learnings and/or demotivate students. In this paper, it is proposed to tackle these problems by providing students, at the beginning of the project, a clear description of the report section contents and a list of common pitfalls encountered by inexperienced students in the writing process. Additionally it is recommend to provide students with a clear indication of the report assessment criteria. In this way, students are aware of the areas to put their energies on, since the early phases of the project. To summarize, based on the experience described in this paper, it can be stated that successful learning requires that the supervisor acts both as an academic expert, which provides written and verbal guidance. While PBL education system gives more freedom of initiative to the students compared to other education systems, the student guidelines, which are recommended in this study, can be considered not so invasive and can result beneficial to the student learnings.