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0062 Demo: Support Tools
Problem Based Learning with Xerte Online Toolkits
Authors
Julian Tenney
Liz Mossop
Zoe Belshaw
Theme
Making things happen
Tags
constructivism, oer, pedagogy,
problemBasedLearning, sdl,
socialLearning, xerteOnlineToolkits
Variant forms of Problem Based Learning have been in use at the University
of Nottingham for many years, and a number of systems exist to support
the creation and delivery of problem based learning cases, particularly in
Medicine, where the approach is common. It is used much less in other
areas, but is highly relevant to teaching in a wide variety of subject areas.
Recent developments to Xerte Online Toolkits build on recent work with the
school of Veterinary Medicine and Science and the Royal Veterinary College,
and current work with the School of Pharmacy, to design and implement
support in the tools allowing teaching staff across the University to more
easily exploit this compelling and simple pedagogy.
The Xerte development team have been working to develop a generic,
flexible framework for the development of problem based learning cases,
and have drawn from a number of areas in the University to inform the
design. The team have been looking for opportunities to expand the areas
in which these approaches are practiced, and to help disseminate best
practice. Problem based learning in this context refers to a number of related
approaches where students work together in small groups.
The School of Veterinary Science and Medicine have been collaborating
with the Royal Veterinary College to create self directed learning scenarios
for group work using Xerte Online Toolkits. The software has facilitated
collaboration between the two institutions in the production of materials,
and made it easy to publish these as open materials in a ‘Virtual Veterinary
Hospital’ on WikiVet, contributing to an international community. In
teaching, student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and the
impact on student learning has been shown to be very positive.
This demonstration will provide an overview of the problem based learning
template in Xerte Online Toolkits, with specific reference to the materials
produced by the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, and discuss
the experiences from the point of view of learning technologists, teaching
practitioners and students.
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