Integrating a Traditional Problem Based Learning Course with a Learning Management System

Background: This paper focuses on the additional time and effort associated with placing a problem based learning (PBL) case within a learning management system (LMS) and reporting on both student LMS utilization and course satisfaction data. Methods: The study involved 13 PBL students who volunteered to participate in one of two 9 week long PBL courses (6 or 7 students in each course). The LMS selected for utilization in this experiment was Moodle version #1.9.5. A questionnaire assessed the students’ attitudes about the hybrid PBL-LMS system. Time-effort data, collected prospectively, were divided into faculty tasks that: occur during a typical PBL case; involved preparing and presenting several lectures as part of an expert resource session(s); and were associated solely with the LMS creating and posting process. Results: The total time in each course was 119.5 hours and the LMS related tasks involved 25.5 hours or 21.3% of the total course time. While opinions will vary on this issue, this extra time is probably outweighed by the advantages a LMS offers. For example, by placing a PBL course inside a LMS tracking and comparing the performance of multiple simultaneous PBL groups and tutors for consistency can be readily accomplished. Conclusions: A majority of the students (72.7%) agreed that the various materials contained on the website (e.g. videos and supplemental materials) were very helpful and 54.5% agreed that all future PBL courses should have a web-based component