PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Problem-based and project-organized learning (PBL) was originally developed to facilitate collaboration between physically present students; however, due to digitalization, collaboration, dialogues, and other PBL activities should take place online as well. With a theoretical point of departure from Dewey and a methodological point of departure from netnography, this study focused on a blended learning module at Aalborg University, where teaching is based on PBL. A primary research question was investigated: “How can IT support collaborative learning among learner communities in a PBL Master’s program at Aalborg University?” The ways teachers and groups of students could benefit from utilizing IT as a platform for learning were examined. Netnography was the chosen methodology, and the data consisted of the course materials, the reflections, and the dialogues available online. The study showed that including more students allows for more discussions and reflections than including fewer students given teachers describe the task thoroughly and support the online dialogue. In addition, online collaboration allows students to return to the dialogue and re-use it as a resource for their dissertations, teachers can benefit from the online reflections and discussions to improve the educational design of the course, and researchers can obtain rich data from online reflections and dialogues.