PBL and Networked
Learning
Addressing central challenges and issues
in engineering education
Thomas Ryberg (ryberg@hum.aau.dk)
@tryberg (twitter)
Professor
E-Learning Lab – center for user driven innovation,
learning and design (www.ell.aau.dk)
Aalborg University
In collaboration with Aalborg Centre for PBL in
Engineering, Science and Sustainability
Further:
• Co-chair of the Networked Learning Conference
• Editor of the Journal of Problem Based Learning
in Higher Education
http://www.ucpbl.net/
A new kind of University?
Bøgelund. P. (2015). How supervisors perceive PhD supervision – And how they practice it. International
Journal of Doctoral Studies, 10, 39-55. Retrieved from http://ijds.org/Volume10/IJDSv10p039-055Bogelund0714.pdf
Mode 1
Academia and the disciplines
Kolmos, 2015
Orientation to
academia and
theory
Orientation
to
Companies
and
instrumental
practice
Mode 2
Market-driven
ICT
Explicit PBL skills
Leadership
Cultural diversity and
integration
International research
and theory
External stakeholders
Orientation to
community
Mode 3
Community driven - An
Integrative Approach
The Aalborg PBL model
• Problem Based Learning
– Based on real-life problems
• Project Organised Education
- Project work supported by lectures and courses
• Group Work
- groups of four to six students
- supervised by lecturers/professors
• Interdisciplinary Studies
- Integration of theory and practice
- Focus on Learning to Learn and methodological skills
• University Wide Model - Used in all faculties (with
variations)
Problem Based Learning – the
Process – 3-4 months
Literature
Problem
Analysis
Tutorials
Lectures
Problem
Solving
Field work
Group
Studies
Project
Report
Experiment
s
Students’ use of time - lectures,
courses and project work
50 %
50 %
Project work : a major assignment within a given subject-related
framework determined for each semester (thematic framework). (15
ECTS)
Course work – 3 x 5 ECTS modules with an exam
NETWORKED LEARNING –
FROM BROADCAST TO
COLLABORATION
Complex maasive social and
personal networks
THIS!
Changes in the educational
technological landscape
• From hierarchical structures based on courses and
topics towards more student centred networks
• From distribution to more horizontal patterns of
exchange – peer-learning
• From Learning Management Systems (LMS) 
Personal Learning Environments (PLEs)
Personal Learning Networks
(PLNs)
Ego-centric networks formed
through e.g. social network sites
(facebook, twitter, pinterest)
Traversing and harvesting the
ego-centric network for
information, ideas, and resources
(and contributing)
The individual person’s ability to
form and sustain a personal
learning network
Many strengths and potentials –
but heavily individualised notions
of learning underpinning the
ideas of PLNs
Mass collaboration
Diffuse, uncoordinated mass of
people contribute to sustained or
more ephemeral constructs
Sustained: Wikipedia, Open
Source. #nlc2016, Some
MOOCs
Ephemeral: wild-fire or flash
activites – #jegharoplevet –
eruptions and burst of hectic
activies – short-lived activation of
massive networks
Many strengths and potentials –
but what is the quality of the
contributions, how to get an
overview, diffuse and chaotic, no
joint goal – requires knowledge
and literacy to draw from and
make sense of (information
overload)
Too much online/distance learning
is:
• We have new spaces for networking and
collaboration and co-construction of knowledge –
however much online learning is:
–
–
–
–
Replicating traditional courses
Talking heads (video lectures) + quizzes
Largely teacher-centred
Disciplinary and not practice oriented e.g. active
learning and problem solving
• We need to move from pedagogies of broadcasting
to pedagogies of collaboration and production
New formats – just one idea
• How about rethinking courses - moving from online
courses to Cooperative Open Online Projects
– Solve real-world large-scale problems together
– Collaborations (e.g. 12 weeks) between researchers,
students and industry to work on particular ”grand
challenges” – access to water, climate change, waste
management
– Cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary teams from e.g. Europe,
South America, Africa
– Combinations of theory, inquiry, problem solving – theory
and methods emerge from the challenges
– Online collaborations and remote access to field site via
video, case presentations by local students