Using a Virtual Learning Environment for Problem Based Learning (P.B.L)

© 2019, IJCSE All Rights Reserved 769
International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering Open Access
Research Paper Vol.-7, Issue-3, March 2019 E-ISSN: 2347-2693
Using a Virtual Learning Environment for Problem Based Learning
(P.B.L)
Safad Ismail
Computer Science and Engineering, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Technology, K.T.U, Kottayam , India
DOI: https://doi.org/10.26438/ijcse/v7i3.769773 | Available online at: www.ijcseonline.org
Accepted: 25/Mar/2019, Published: 31/Mar/2019
Abstract –PBL Problem-Based Learning (PBL) may be a method during which advanced real-world issues square measure is
used as the vehicle to market student learning of ideas and principles as critical direct presentation of facts and ideas. In
addition to the course content, PBL helps to market the event of essential thinking skills, problem-solving skills, and
communication skills. It also can offer opportunities for operating in teams, finding and evaluating analysis materials, and life-
long learning. PBL is powerfully fundamented in well outlined principles. On the opposite hand, several academics and
students implement PBL, while not the mandatory theoretical and sensible base for the academic changes and acceptable
technology resource support, creating it less economical. In short: PBL is all concerning you, your tutors are very approachable
and you learn along in an exceedingly dynamic manner, serving to kind you into associate degree assertive skilled. This paper
gift concerning PBL Guide that promote technological support to associate degree array of actions into the principles and
characteristics originated from learning theories concerning PBL.
Keywords: Problem-Based Learning ; Virtual Learning Environment ; Moodle ; Ubiquitous learning Environment ;PBL Guide
; E- Learning.
I. INTRODUCTION
PBL is defined as an instructional method of teaching and
learning, which is able to develop the ability to apply diverse
knowledge to solve problems, through teamwork and
individual attitudes as self-initiative, critical vision and
reflection of the learning process, conforming its
principles.[1]. PBL teaching approach is based on the
student assuming an active role on the teaching-learning
process through observation, experimentation, comparison
and teamwork within real learning contexts and
environments.[2].
One of the main challenges found on the implementation of
the PBL approach is the difficulty on building and sharing
collective knowledge from teamwork, allowing the professor
to assist each associate individually ,continues saying it is
common knowledge that tutors face difficulties in fairly
assessing individuals within groups as some students choose
not to contribute. These disagreements may lead to
unwanted tensions within groups and may force some
students to disengage and take the free-rider route.
PBLs principal goal is to meet the students where they are
and putting them to work to solve real-world problems and
marks a significant shift from old educational models. It
provides an encouraging learning environment for teamwork
involving, tutors, professors and students, developing a great
capability for analysis and problem solving.
Organization. The rest of the paper is organized as follows:
Section 1 includes the Introduction, Section 2 provides
background information on PBL. Section 3 looks into the
objective and the problem definition of PBL. Section 4
provides a discussion of the related research works. Section
5 presents the proposed system, methodology and section 6
deals with technological resources and interfaces and
analysis of results in detail and concludes the research work
in Section 7.
II. BACKGROUND
Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is a curriculum development
and delivery system that recognizes the need to develop
problem solving skills as well as the necessity of helping
students to acquire necessary knowledge and skills. The first
application of PBL, and perhaps the most strict and pure
form of PBL, was in medical schools which rigorously test
the knowledge base of graduates. Medical professionals
need to keep up with new information in their field, and the
skill of life-long learning is particularly important for them.
Hence, PBL was thought to be well suited for this area.
Many medical and professional schools, as well as
undergraduate and graduate programs use PBL in some
form, at varying capacities internationally [3]. There are
several organizations that provide support for teachers and
students of PBL and others that research PBL and related
topics.
III. OBJECTIVE

International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering Vol.7(3), Mar 2019, E-ISSN: 2347-2693
The objectives of PBL system are;
i) Self directed learning : Through tutorial sessions the
students are taught to self-formulate their goals and
objectives of learning of particular topics and then at the
end of each session they are expected to evaluate the
extent to which their goals are realized;[4]
ii) Problem solving : This encourages students to increase
their motivation to learning, critical thinking, writing
and also to enhance communication skills. This may be
through the medium of case scenario where students
analyze the information and come to a conclusion; [4]
iii) Team work : The students are required to work together
and cooperate with each other during discussion.[4]
3.1 PROBLEM DEFINITION
The digital education initiative is alive and well and part of
the reason why there is such a demand for digital education
is the idea that traditional education has a number of
shortcomings that are making it less accessible for those that
are most in need of up skilling and educational programs
that will help them further their career.
The traditional educational system suffers from the
following drawbacks
1.Student’s become overdependant on the teacher.
2.Student’s are defiant ,rowdy or distracting, bored,
inattentive/ unmotivated of others.
3.Student ‘s are unclear what to do ,or they do the wrong
thing.
4. Problems resulting from the course book: pronunciation
and translation activities.
5. Lack of support in terms of materials and equipments :
audio-visual aids /supplementary materials.
IV. RELATED WORKS
Problem based learning: Definition and distinction.
Interdisciplinary journal of problem based learning [5].
It is an instructional learner-centered approach that
empowers the learners to conduct research, integrate theory
and practice, and apply knowledge and skills to develop a
viable solution to a defined problem. This overview presents
a brief history, followed by a discussion of the similarities
and differences between PBL and other experiential
approaches to teaching , and identifies some of the
challenges that lie ahead for PBL.
x PBL: A Methodology for managing PBL when teaching
computing[6].
This methodology consists of the elements that enable a
learning environment to be built that in its essence is
practical and contains real learning, and that ensure that this
is supported by processes that make it possible to evaluate
the effectiveness of the PBL approach from various
perspectives: namely, the student’s , the teacher’s and that of
the methodological approach itself.
Problem based learning : A strategic Learning system
Design For The Education Of Health Care Professionals in
the 21st
Century[7]
PBL is essentially a strategic learning system which
represents a major shift in the educational paradigm from the
traditional teacher-directed (teacher-centerd) instruction to
student-centerd (learner-centerd) learning, a paradigm
considered more appropriate for the educational preparation
of students in the 21stcen-tury. Implementation of PBL can
be a tremendously daunting task: not only will it require a
clear under-standing of the strengths and limitations of PBL,
but also a significant change in the mind sets of students and
teachers. Implementation of PBL is likely to cause some
difficulties, including discomfort and agitation to both
teachers and students, especially in the early phase of its
implementation, and in those institutions deeply entrenched
and entrapped in the traditional teacher-directed and highly
discipline-specific curriculum.
V: PROPOSED SYSTEM
The proposed system (See Fig 1) helps the teachers and
students in the implementation of an authentic learning
process with useful and relevant technological support. PBL
brings a collaborative and interactive learning process
between all the participants. PBL-Guide is a ” Virtual
Learning Environment (V.L.E ) to support PBL in bringing
the 3D virtual world elements to promote a rich interaction
between students and teachers.
Fig 1 : Architecture of the Proposed System

5.1 METHODOLOGY
The three learning principle consonant that are involved with the PBL approach are the following
a. Student Centered Environment : These involves the learning students and the participants who are involved in the PBL
approach who gains knowledge and share their potentials and resources with the others.
b. Problem and Resolution Environment: These provides an environment that allow the problem proposition, discussion,
understanding and development.
c. Collaborative environment : It stimulates the interaction and immersion of everyone involved on the teaching-learning
process.
5.2 PBL-Guide and PDCA Cycle
Fig 2 : Set of Activities
Before describing the main activities in the technological
resources and interfaces of the PBL-Guide , the set of
activities that are included in the management of the
teaching and learning cycle should be made clear, since they
rely on the PDCA cycle as a benchmark and there is a
relation between these activities and the PBL principles.
The explanations set out in Figure 2 are explained in the
following paragraph which displays the activities and the
ways they can be described. These activities are carried out
in the PDCA cycle to ensure that there is a standardization
of each stage, as it is started, developed and completed, for
both the teacher and the students.
The ten sets of activities of the PDCA Cycle mainly falls
under the three steps namely, the first 5 activities falls under
the Planning step, the following 3 activities falls under the
Executing step, and the remaining activities under the
Monitoring and Improving stage.
Fig 3 : Description of Activities
S.No ACTIVITY DESCRIPTION
1 Learning Situations
Teacher must contextualize the learning Situation and the students should be
enabled to interact in learning and teacher must support the student while
working in a complex situations.
2 Learning Spaces Teacher must provide a space for the students to do research and must share
technology.
3 Problem & Challenges Teacher, client &tutors should set the problems that challenge the students.
Challenging problem involve a wide range of activities and draws various
kind of information.
4 Goals & Evidence of learning Teacher should define the learning objective, It involves describing
knowledge & skills that must be demonstrated by the students (how to tackle
problems?)
5 Teaching Contents Teacher must share the text based files, Presentations (ppt’s) , spreadsheet’s
etc [8]

Fig 4 : Description of Activities
6 Teams Teacher should form heterogeneous teams (Different skills of the members
can be combined to achieve the result)
7 Challenges of problem solving Student must disclose his knowledge ,draw facts, suppositions & ideas with
respect to the problem.
8 Artefacts Student must write web-based documents, create spreadsheets, give ppt’s
among different works.
9 Problem solving (Monitoring stage) Teacher must find the difficulties of the student with problem solving activity.
She must provide feedback & check the solutions arrived by the teams.
10 Problem solving (Continuous –
Improvement stage)
Teacher must assess the lesson contents, procedures and artefacts of the
students.
VI. TECHNOLOGICAL RESOURCES AND
INTERFACES
In the following section, there will be an examination of the
technological resources and main interfaces that offer
support to a set of structured and measurable activities based
on the principles and key elements of learning theories about
PBL.
A. Teacher Module
Carry out the planning and management of the following:
Learning scenarios, problems, challenge-problems, learning
objectives, evidence of learning, teaching content, the
learning environment, teams, the monitoring of the learners
to detect if any learning difficulties are being encountered
and also determines if the educational objectives are being
achieved.
B. Student Module
Allows the student to produce a challenge-problem, suggest
a means of tackling the problem, carry out tasks and create
artifacts and works in a collaborative way.
C. Interface for the Management of Problems and
Challenges:
Stores the problems in a shared repository and carry out
searches that cover a wide range of information of interest
and visualise the problems through specific information
contained in the guidelines and to plan or choose new
problems on the basis of pre-existing problems.
D. Interface chart for the Analysis of Solutions :
It provides a framework which establishes the analytical
procedure for monitoring how students find solutions to
problems and also off ers the students a means of thinking
about a problem in depth and reaching a conclusion by
means of the following sequence of stages.
I. Ideas : possible ways of solving the problem .
II. Facts : information that has a bearing on the
problem.
III. Suppositions : raising questions about learning to
help solve the problem.
IV. Action Planning :strategies , resources, and
information, i.e whatever can assist in finding a
solution.
6.1 Analysis of Results
1.Curriculum Exploring and Team work :
The students had access to the internet, so they chose their
sources. The information exchanged was also stimulated,
when at the end of the classes the students would share with
the other groups what they had found, inspiring the other
groups in their research. This way, every group found
diff erent solutions , that were validated with the teachers
through PBL-Guide.
2 .Problem Solving and Presentations :
After creating the prototype that solves the proposed
problem, students presented their work to the other groups.
By following the other groups presentations, all students
obtained a complete learning and also got a final feedback
from the teachers by explaining their findings and answering
questions related to the study topic.
VII .CONCLUSION
PBL enables the students to consolidate their knowledge,
stimulate their creativity , critical thinking and
communication and problem solving skills. PBL system is
actually a kind of flexible teaching method and allow
students to go really depth into one of the specific topics.
PBL provide right information, It could be either from the
internet/journals. One can see the research results and can
analyze them critically and can integrate and can find the
right decision. The constructs for teaching PBL are very
different from traditional classroom or lecture teaching and
often require more preparation time and resources to support
small group learning.[9]
REFERENCES
[1] Using a Virtual Learning Environment for Problem Based
Learning Adoption: A Case Study at a High School in India
Bruno Rodrigues Bessa Simone Cristiane dos Santos Laio da
Fonseca UFPE Center of Informatics , Recife, Brazil,2017.

[2] Application of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) through PBL-
Coach virtual environment: a case study with an Indian middle
school , Melbourne 2016.
[3] Britain S & Liber O (1999) A Framework for Pedagogical
Evaluation of Virtual Learning Environments, Report to JISC
Technology Applications Programme. , pp. 386-398, 1998.
[4] Savery, J. of Problem-based Learning: Deﬁnitions and
Distinctions. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning,
v. 1: Iss. The Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning
, volume 1, no. 1 (Spring 2006)
[5] Santos S. C., Furtado F., Lins W. xPBL: a Methodology for
Managing PBL when Teaching Computing, FIE, Madrid, Spain,
vol 1,pp 89-96,2014.
[6] An adaptive learning frame work for slow learners in an e-
learning environment , ”, International Journal of Scientific
Research in Network Security and Communication, Vol.6, No.5,
pp.407-412, 2018 .
[7] Problem based learning : A strategic Learning system Design For
The Education Of Health Care Professionals in the 21st
Century,
Kaohsiung J Med Sci,,Vol 25, SciMay 2009
[8] A.Deepa E. C. Blessie,”Input Analysis for Accreditation
Prediction in Higher Education Sector by Using Gradient
Boosting Algorithm”, International Journal of Scientific Research
in Network Security and Communication, Vol.6, Issue.3, pp.23-
27, 2018.
[9] A Survey on Impact of IoT Enabled E – Learning Services,
International Journal of Scientific Research in Network Security
and Communication, Vol.6, Issue.2, pp.178-183,2018.
Authors Profile
Mr. Safad Ismail pursued Bachelor of
Technology in Computer Science and
Engineering from Cochin University of
Science and Technology in 2016 and
Currently Pursuing Master of Technology
in Computer Science and Engineering at
APJ Abdul Kalam Technological
University..He has published more than 3
research papers in reputed international journals and it’s also
available online. His main research work focuses on
Cryptography Algorithms, Network Security, Cloud Security
and Privacy, Big Data Analytics, Data Mining, IoT and
Computational Intelligence based education,Web
Development.

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