Project Based Learning (PBL)

Online classrooms have both advantages and disadvantages compared to traditional classrooms. One of the keys to effectively teaching via any medium is to teach to the strengths of that particular medium. One place where online learning holds a huge advantage over traditional classrooms is with regards to project based learning (PBL). In a traditional classroom, teachers are limited by both space and time: students are in a classroom, in a school, for a set duration each day. Project-based work usually has to be done outside of school time, as a sort of homework project.

Advantages of PBL

With online learning however, the freedom from space and time inherent in online classes works to our advantage with project-based assignments. Students are already free from the classroom and in the real world, and "class time" is usually an arbitrary concept that allows them to study when they are most able. This freedom from space and time makes project based learning a great tool in an online class.

Another advantage of PBL is that it gets at one of the concerns that teachers often have with online learning: academic integrity and honesty. With traditional online quizzes, it's often challenging to know with 100% certainty if the student did the actual assignment. With project-based learning, however, students put their own stamp of individuality on the piece of work, and that makes it much more difficult to circumvent compared to say, an online multiple-choice test.

Online PBL can also be set up to allow students great control over the choice of topic for a project. This leads to greater student interest and motivation. With this in mind, it's usually best to allows students as much control as possible over the nature of any project. Obviously, there must be parameters and guidelines, but as a teacher, push yourself to hand over as much control of the topic and nature of a project. Go beyond the traditional "paper" and PowerPoint unless you have strong reasons for requiring them. Letting students create movies, websites, and blogs works great with online assignments, and it starts to help students develop more advanced media and presentation skills.

Lastly, PBL has one other advantage in that it takes the onus of content creation off the teacher and puts it on the student. Creating an online course is extensively time-consuming, and if you can shift 20 hours or so of that content creation to valid and engaging student projects, you've made your job as a teacher easier in a legitimate and worthwhile way.

Step 1: Exploring PBL

Fortunately, there are some fantastic web-based resources for learning about and implementing PBL in an online course. One of the most comprehensive PBL sites available to teachers is Project Based Learning. This site has information, examples, and loads of documents to help manage and organize PBL for online use. Even if you have a wealth of experience with projects in your classroom, you'll likely find something of use on this site. Along these lines, to further develop ideas and skills with project based learning, please take some time to explore the Project Based Learning website. As you explore the site, challenge yourself to think about how you might implement some of your ideas in an online setting.

Step 3: Logistics