Paper Info
Title
Problem-Based Learning for Foundation Computer Science Courses
Abstract
The foundation courses in Computer Science pose particular challenges for teacher and learner alike. This paper describes some of these challenges and how we have designed Problem-Based Learning (PBL) courses to address them. We discuss the particular problems we were keen to overcome: the pure technical focus of many courses; the problems of individual learning and the need to establish foundations in a range of the areas which are important for computer science gradu- ates. We then outline our course design, showing how we have created Problem-Based Learning courses. The paper reports our evaluations of the approach. This has two parts: assessment of a trial, with a three-year longitudinal follow up of the students; reports of student learning improvements after we had become experienced with full implementation of PBL. We conclude with a summary of our experience over three years of PBL teaching and discuss some of the pragmatic issues of introducing the radical change in teaching, maintaining staff support and continuing refinement of our PBL teaching. We also discuss some of our approaches to the commonly acknowledged challenges of PBL teaching.
Year
DOI
Venue
2000
10.1076/0899-3408(200008)10:2;1-C;FT109
Computer Science Education
Keywords
DocType
Volume
large first year classes,life-long learning,problem-based learning
Journal
10
Issue
Citations 
PageRank 
2
9
1.97
References 
Authors
6
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Mike Barg191.97
Alan David Fekete21610201.97
Tony Greening38623.42
Owen Hollands491.97
Judy Kay51937169.27
Jeffrey H. Kingston633638.79
Kathryn Crawford7287.46