problem based learning in the digital age: a case ...

IADIS International Conference Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2004)

PROBLEM BASED LEARNING IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A CASE STUDY ON DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT Janet Aisbett The University of Newcastle University Drive, Callaghan, Australia 2308

Greg Gibbon The University of Newcastle University Drive, Callaghan, Australia 2308

ABSTRACT While the digital age is based on computing, computing disciplines remain conservative in their curricula and delivery methods. Computer science and information systems curricula throughout the world are a legacy of the scientific and business computing needs that gave rise to the respective disciplines, and arguably pay insufficient heed to skills and knowledge needed to support the digital entertainment industry. Moreover, there has been a relatively low penetration of experiential or problem based learning approaches, despite the professional practice nature of the disciplines. This paper describes the rationale, objectives, pedagogy and assessment of a novel course designed to introduce students to the technologies and culture of the digital entertainment industry. The range of existing on-line resources facilitates problem based learning and helps accommodate different learning styles. As the digital age increases the richness of resources in all disciplines, problem based learning will become an increasingly cost-effective flexible paradigm. KEYWORDS:

Experiential learning, problem based learning, computing curricula, digital entertainment

1.

INTRODUCTION

This paper describes a novel problem based learning (PBL) course designed to introduce information technology students to the technologies and culture of the digital entertainment industry. The availability of quality open-source on-line resources reduces the cost of developing materials, and allows different learning styles to be accommodated. The main computing degrees offered by Universities are currently computer science (CS) and information systems (IS). Their curricula and delivery methods are, by and large, a legacy of the history of computing which was dominated by scientific and business demands. Computer science curricula generally were developed to meet requirements for scientific computing and to build knowledge of the technologies that enabled computing. Information systems curricula sought to develop graduates who meet business computing needs. Both IS and CS have core bodies of knowledge -- the fundamental skills and knowledge which are broadly agreed to be required of every graduate in the disciplinary area -- which are consistent round the world. The extensions of these core into specialisations are also fairly standardised. Both core and specialisations are heavily influenced by curricula frameworks developed by the Joint Task Force of the Computer Society of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE-CS) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The IS curricula frameworks are also supported by the Association for Information Systems. While these is debate around specific technical content (CC 2001), the IS and CS curricula and pedagogy remain conservative. For example, between the 1993 and 2001 core bodies of knowledge developed by the

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IEEE/ACM for computer science, the most significant change concerned the emphasis on networking and to a lesser extent on multimedia and information management. Encouragingly, computer games are being introduced into computer science curricula as a way of building programming skills, and some Universities are offering games specialisations. Information systems is also being offered in conjunction with, or even under the guise of, electronic commerce, which emphasises business use of web technologies (eg. Davis, Keng Siau & Dhenuvakonda 2003). In the 2001 IEEE/ACM report pedagogy changes noted in the period since 1993 were in terms of supporting technology such as computing laboratories, and data projection. Project-based courses which provide experential learning are encouraged, but normally are offered only in the final year of study, as a “cap stone”. There has not been a wide uptake of PBL in computing curricula, despite effort such as the introductory full year computer science course offered since 1996 at the University of Sydney (eg Kay & Kummerfeld 1998). While computing curricula and delivery have remained relatively static, there have been large changes in the application of IT. The traditional drivers for information technology developments were defence, science and business. In the last decade, the entertainment and media industries have become important players, pushing the limits of storage capacity, processing and transmission speed, and high fidelity input/output devices, and changing the nature of interactive applications programs. Digital technology in these industries is at the forefront, and so graduates prepared for them are arguably prepared for the technological environment that will be adopted by most industry sectors in a few years. There are many points of difference between digital entertainment and traditional applications. These include technical issues, such as the delivering multimedia products to mobile devices with low resolution screens and limited computing capacity. They also include differences in the market, because digital entertainment products and services tend to have short life cycles and strong competitive pressures. There are usability issues brought by the fact that entertainment applications are used volountarily by individuals, whereas traditionally applications such as financial systems have been mandated for use within organizations. And there are content issues, because digital entertainment applications are dependent on externally acquired content whereas traditional applications were designed for content (typically alphanumeric data such as financial or customer records) generated by an organisation. So there is justification for building digital entertainment, including Internet-based entertainment, into University computing curricula. A problem common to all of computing, but arguably amplified here, is the range and dynamic nature of the technologies, which affects the ability of Universities to equip state-of-the-art laboratories and to train staff. Moreover, many students are more familiar than faculty with the use of digital entertainment applications. The rationale for the digital entertainment course described in this paper is therefore that it would introduce computing students to technologies that would later become mainstream in business and engineering; it leverages students’ familiarity with digital entertainment applications, and can be achieved through problem based learning. It also aims to introduce students to the culture of the media/entertainment industries, as an industrial sector neglected by current information technology programs which have tended to train graduates for large financial or government organisations. The development was helped by the wide range of on-line resources available, which assisted design of the PBL problems, and helps cater for different learning styles. Because the range of such resources in other subject areas will increase, we believe PBL will become an increasingly important paradigm in the digital age.

2. OUTLINE OF THE COURSE The one-semester course described here introduces students to a specialisation Digital Entertainment which focuses on developing techniques and technologies important in so-called new media and the leisure use of information technology. The specialisation is unique in Australia, in the view of the experts on our 2002 and 2003 development and accreditation committees1. The course was presented for the first time in 2003.

1

The closest to it is a novel Bachelor of Information Environments offered at the University of Queensland, which combines standard computer science studies with design courses, and integrates learning using projects with require interactive problem solving (Docherty et al 2001).

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The traditional introductory information systems course places computing in the context of organizations, and so spends little time on information technology infrastructure, in order to focus on system development -especially on matching designs to user needs – and data management2. In analogy to these objectives, the overall objectives of the introductory course in digital entertainment were formulated around skills and knowledge pertaining to technologies used in the production and distribution of digital entertainment products in context, in particular against the culture of the media/digital entertainment industries. In addition, the course sought to develop risk taking and entrepreneurial behavior. This was because industry had identified these behaviours as currently lacking in computing graduates as a whole (Aisbett, Fardell & Regan, 2004), and the structure and nature of the digital entertainment industry was thought to mean an awareness of such behaviours would be particularly advantageous to the graduate. The formal course objectives are to: • Describe and interpret the transformation of media (newspapers, film, television etc) enabled by Internet technologies, and critique associated risk taking and entrepreneurial behavior • Describe and apply the key technologies used in developing content for new media production, and current limitations • Describe and apply the key technologies used in distributing multimedia content, and issues and limitations The 14 week course is structured around three problems presented sequentially, with weekly worksheets that ask questions and suggest resources. Assessment is used to motivate students complete the body of work required to achieve objectives and satisfy prerequisites for future courses in the specialisation. A final examination worth 30% provides a measure of comprehension and knowledge that could be compared with that of students completing a conventionally taught course. A practice examination is provided early in the course to indicate the topics and depth of knowledge expected. Learning takes place mainly in a studio-based environment, with the lecturer as guide and motivator rather than as expert instructor. The questions and occasional exercises in the worksheets raise and explore issues around the problem currently being studied, and point to resource materials. Students are encouraged to learn from each other and to use a variety of resources, rather than one text book. They can choose not to go through the worksheets in the way suggested, although the material may be covered in the final examination. There are a few resource lectures, for which outline vugraphs are supplied. These might cover technical or contextual topics, or pertain to learning-to-learn or life skills such as identifying appropriate resources or teamwork. Instructional software is used in a standard way, to distribute weekly worksheets and occasional resource material, and to support communication between teams. As noted earlier, there is a wide range of academic and authorative professional resources on-line. These included: (i) academic journals and professional magazines through the University’s e-library; (ii) computer aided learning courses on computing and management (including team building) topics, purchased by the University; (iii) computer aided learning courses on technical subjects available through consortia of computing companies (one of the best of these being the site developed by the World Wide Web Consortia http://www.w3schools.com/ ); (iv) multimedia presentations from experts, delivered at conferences and/or on behalf of technology companies, such as http://www.empirenet.com/~joseram/index.html on multimedia topics. In addition, computer scientists led the development of on-line citation indexes of properly formatted (if not necessarily referred) on-line articles with the citeseer on-line index citeseer.org. Computing-related groups were also behind the push to publish technological standards on-line, with development groups exhaustively recording meetings and plans as well as impending standards (for example, the MPEG group on multimedia distribution and production standards). Such resources are of course becoming more prevalent in all disciplines. An additional type of resource that is readily available on-line in digital entertainment is the workplace tool. Limited versions of software that would be used in developing products or offering services can be downloaded as freeware. While such software may be the main tools the graduate will use in the workplace, learning to understand content, colleagues, clients, regulations and so on are crucial to this as in any other practice-based discipline. PBL requires situating the student in the (simulated) environment as a participant, rather than an observer. The course does this in multiple ways, for example by putting students (as individuals or as groups) into a 2 The traditional introductory course in computer science covers basic of hardware, operating systems, compilers, algorithms and programming.

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role as a member of a company which has won a brief or contract to perform some task; or as a specific role in a simulated company, where the role (CEO, technologist, marketing) is chosen on the basis of criteria such as personality type. In the first year the course was offered it was built around the construction of a web radio station for the University, with each week seeing new issues raised concerning content and audience or increasing sophistication of the streaming media technologies. There were on-site visits to radio stations and to the University’s sound laboratories. Feedback was that this content was too constrained – tying each week to the one underlying scenario was boring -- so in 2004 the course was divided into 3 segments, each covering a technology area and having an assessable component. The segments concerned problems to do with web radio; interactive television; and mobile entertainment. Simple theories of audience were presented, and the importance of content and its match with audience and technology were continuing themes. The course structure emphasises self directed learning and interaction and collaboration with other students. It tries to simulate situated learning, in the sense that knowledge is presented as if in the context in which it would be found in practice. The problem case studies anchor learning (Brandsford et al 1990), with the on-line materials enabling the learner to explore widely around the anchor. Situating the problems in radio, television and mobile telephones – all very familiar and relevant to the students -- accords with Rogers’ contention that significant learning takes place when the subject matter is close to the learner’s personal interests (Rogers and Frieberg 1994). In addition, the lack of coercion in completing the worksheets and the scope within each problem to vary the interpretation were provided in recognition of Rogers’ principle that self-initiated learning is remembered best, and is better integrated with other knowledge.

3. PBL AND LEARNING STYLES There are five general principles to PBL that the course tried to follow (Barrows & Tamblyn 1980, Barrows 1986). First is the contexualisation of learning in real world settings. Second is the multi disciplinary nature of knowledge, contrary to the traditional learning “silos”. Third is the importance of learning-to-learn, with the student responsible for their own learning outcomes. Fourth is the use of teams as problem solving units, because these are often more effective and realistic than the individual-as-problem-solver. Fifth, and least covered by our course, is an emphasis on thinking skills and cognition. Independent meta-analyses of research findings on PBL implementations in medical schools concluded that PBL did achieve higher student satisfaction, clinical performance, clinical knowledge, and improved aspects of student study behaviour such as self-directed study) (Albanese & Mitchell 1993, Vernon & Blake 1993). However, not all learners do best under PBL. In an effort to meet the range of learning styles, the problems and assessment types in the digital entertainment course were very varied. The assessment items other than the examination that were used in the course’s second presentation in 2004 are as follows: The first problem culminates in demonstration of an operational web radio station and a report to the Board of the University-operated radio station on the feasibility of operating a web radio stream that would meet the needs of a student audience. This requires configuring multiple software packages to generate a web radio station, which in turn requires conceptual understanding of the underlying technologies. The second part of this assignment requires students to come to grips with the concepts of market and content, given the University’s radio station is currently an “easy listening” community station and our student population is comparatively small. The second assignment is an essay on the probable impact of interactive television, which draws historical parallels with how media had accommodated technological innovation. This assignment encourages use of traditional academic resources including journals. It completes a segment in which students learn about the technologies involved in interactive television, based on a role-playing scenario in which their small technology company had to advise a rural television station. A visit by an external expert allows students to test and expand their understanding of the context and the technology. The third part of the course is group work, in teams of 5-7. Students play themselves a couple of years hence, when they have been asked to join a group of friends who have decided that (rather than take on a job with a large organisation on graduation) they will develop an innovative product or service for the digital entertainment market. A prototype product and business plan was presented to another external visitor, a

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local entrepreneur. In order to improve understanding of themselves and their interaction with, students take a self-paced learning package which includes on-line tests of personality type and preferred style when working in a team. The 4 steps in Kolb's Experiential Learning Theory were attempted to be covered in each segment. Students are exposed to concrete experience of the new knowledge through demonstration, for example through downloading software in the first week to set up a web radio station, and getting each other to act as audience. The worksheets asked questions which encouraged reflection about what was happening, as well as increasing knowledge about the underlying frameworks, such as the role of community radio in the organisation of national media. Finally, assessment items were used to encourage active experimentation, for example, in innovative application of mobile technologies. Table 1 shows how the 3 assessment items from the three segments map onto Kolb’s 4 styles of learner. We did not test preferred learning styles, but when a convenience sample of half the students ranked the assessment items against (i) their achievement of the objectives and (ii) their interest, each of the assignments were assigned lowest ranking by about 1/3 of the students. The first assignment took almost two thirds of the highest rankings. Table 1. Match between assessment items and preferred learning style. √ = high match, X = low, ? = intermediate

Learning preference (abstract, active) (concrete, active) (concrete, reflective) (abstract, reflective)

Web radio station set-up and report

Transformational media essay

How? What if? Why?

√ ? √

X X √

Innovative product business plan and prototype ? √ √

What?

?

√

?

4. CONCLUSION This paper described the rationale and construction of a novel course designed to introduce students taking a computing degree to the context and technologies used in digital entertainment. The technical skill set is weighted to multimedia and mobile computing, and there is an emphasis on creativity and risk taking. The course uses PBL pedagogy, and relies heavily on on-line open source resources, including software tools. An identified risk within the PBL approach is of lower levels of content knowledge and the associated cognitive framework around which students need to attach future learning. The course’s use of PBL means it may not be suited to the (abstract, reflective) type in Kolb's Learning Style Model. This style of learner prefers ordered information and a teacher who is the expert, which is the traditional pedagogical approach of computing disciplines. However, other types of learners can be catered for and the emphasis on learning-to-learn, on team work, on practical problem-solving and holistic learning address the requirements of the graduate profile targeted by most Universities. Along with pedagogical arguments and presumed student preference for structured learning, resourcing is the argument most often raised against PBL. However, we believe that PBL in resource-rich areas such as digital entertainment support cost-effective flexibility in curriculum design and presentation. This is important because the digital age is increasing the richness of online resource in all disciplines, and thus developing resource materials for PBL should become cheaper. Moreover, there may be more opportunity to tailor courses to accommodate different learning styles and the like, despite the funding cutbacks that have been the pattern in the last decade in tertiary sectors across most of the world. Therefore despite some failures in the past we believe that PBL experiments should be encouraged. This includes computing disciplines which we suggest have remained conservative.

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REFERENCES Aisbett, J. Fardell, R. and Regan, B. 2004. Preparing for the future of information technology: a degree that encourages cognitive and perceptual development, Proceedings ICEER-2004 Albanese, M. And Mitchell, S. 1993. Problem-Based Learning: A Review Of Literature On Its Outcomes And Implementation Issues, Academic Medicine, 68:52-81. Barrows, H.S. 1986. A Taxonomy Of Problem-Based Learning Methods, Medical Education, 20:481-486. Barrows, H.S. And Tamblyn, R.M., 1980. Problem-Based Learning: An Approach To Medical Education, Springer Publishing Company, New York. Bransford, J.D. et al. 1990. Anchored instruction: Why we need it and how technology can help. Cognition, education and multimedia. In D. Nix & R. Sprio (Eds) Hillsdale, NJ. Erlbaum Associates. Boud, D And Felleti, G. Eds. 1997. The Challenge Of Problem-Based Learning 2nd Ed.. Kogan Page. CC 2001. The Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula. Computing Curricula Computer Science IEEE Computer Society Association for Computing Machinery Davis, S., Keng Siau And Dhenuvakonda K. 2003. Virtual Extension: A Fit-Gap Analysis Of E-Business Curricula Vs. Industry Needs Communications Of The ACM, 46, 12 Docherty, M., Sutton, P., Brereton, M. And Kaplan, S. 2001. An Innovative Design And Studio-Based Cs Degree Proceedings Of The 32nd. Sigcse Technical Symposium On Computer Science Education Acm Press 233 - 237 Kay, J. And Kummerfeld, B. 1998. A Problem-Based Interface Design And Programming Course Proceedings Of The 29th Sigcse Technical Symposium On Computer Science Education, 30, 1 Little, S. And D. Margetson 1989. . A Project-Based Approach To Information Systems Design For Undergraduates. Australian Computer Journal 21, 130–138. Rogers, C.R. and Freiberg, H.J. 1994. Freedom to Learn (Third Ed). Macmillan Vernon, D.A. and Blake, R.L., 1993, Does Problem-Based Learning Work? A Meta-analysis of Evaluative Research, Academic Medicine, 68:550- 563.

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