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SAMPLEABSTRACT1:EDUCATIONALRESEARCH

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AbstractNo.

ACase‐controlStudyEvaluatingtheEffectivenessofanExtendedInductionProgrammeina

Fully‐integratedPBLCurriculum

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BRIDGES,S.M.*,McGRATHC.,DYSON,J.E.,LEUNG,W.K.,WEBSTER,B.(TheUniversityofHong

Kong)

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OBJECTIVE: Programme‐level evaluations of student perceptions of the learning experiences in PBL curricula

have found that theearly yearsof the curriculum experience lower levels of satisfactionthan the final years.

This could be seen as a natural process of adjustment to university life in general and the demands

of PBL

curricula in particular. Additionally, generic student evaluations of university learning experiences can be

problematicforafully‐integratedPBLcurriculum.How,forexample,canstudentscommenton‘courses’when

learningis fully integrated? Clear goals and standards scalesmay also provide problematic data for beginning

students when problem scenarios

 are deliberately ‘ill‐defined’. METHODS: University‐wide data on first‐year

studentevaluationsoflearningwasusedtoinformcurriculumdesignforone fully‐integratedPBLprogramme.

In particular, first‐year student evaluation data from the 2006‐07 academic year was used to review how the

transitionintouniversity life

andaPBL programme could be enhanced for first‐yearstudents. As a result, the

established1‐weekinductionwasfurtherdevelopedandextendedacrossthefirstyear.Thesystem‐generated

student evaluation was repeated at the end of the 2007‐08 academic year and results on items related to

attainment

ofuniversitygoalsitemswerecompared.RESULTS:Comparisonofthetwogroupsfoundsignificant

improvementsinfirst‐yearstudents’perceptionsthatthePBLprogrammewashelpingthemachieveuniversity‐

level educational outcomes. The greatest improvements, measured using Cohen’s d, were seen for items

relatedto‘interculturalunderstanding’ (d=.77);‘critical

self‐reflection’(d=.60);‘globalcitizenship’(d=.52);and

‘criticalintellectualinquiry’(d=.51).Additionally,itemsrelatedto‘greaterunderstandingofothers’(d=.36),and

‘collaboration’ (d=.33) also showed improvements. CONCLUSION: An extended induction in a fully‐integrated

problem‐based learning curriculum can assist first‐year students’ transition into

a PBL curriculum thereby

improvingprogramme‐levelevaluationsofthefirst‐yearexperience.

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