Problem-Based Learning, Essay Example

Executive Summary

The nature of problem-based learning is such that there is an introduction of a poorly structured problem through which the entire learning process emanates (Pee, Woodman & Fry, 2000. This problem is one that the student is likely to face in the future as a professional (Chi et al, 2001). Through participation in a set of problem solving cases, one may develop proficiency and expertise. According to Causation (2006), it is right to say that problems act as the driving force of the company, together with the dynamics of a certain course. Such a setting allows the student to take on significant responsibility when it comes to learning and instruction (Zolin et al 2001).

This paper puts into perspective actual problem situations in an organizational setting as proposed by Lee (2001). This study presents a subject of the problems, and the efforts I institute to resolve them (Segers and Dochy 2001). Therefore, I will venture into a description of the various challenges I experienced during my internship and highlight the various lessons that I have to learn from the same within the constraint of the organizational resources.

The study identifies three problems that I encountered two of the problems are related to Link lockers, as my host company. The remaining problem is related to me as the Email Marketing Assistant at the company. The problems discussed in the paper will receive a backing from external sources, which will significantly affect the findings from each one of them. According to Jonassen (2000) in order to bring out the benefits of each of these problems, I will evaluate the findings from the sources and relate them to my learning process in the context of the problem situation (Sage, 2000). Finally, I will present the solution of the problems in line with the findings of the study and the logical reasoning involved in the process.

Problem statement

In this paper, I am going to review three problems faced at work, that is:

• Spelling mistakes on campaign email headings
• Lengthened of reporting/ Complexity of use
• Wrong brochure download link

Spelling mistakes on campaign email headings

One serious drawback of the KIT system is that its spell checker could not detect certain obvious spelling mistakes. As a result, we at Link Lockers, worked on the general assumption that the spell checker of the system was precise, and hence we did not need to proofread further what we had written in the event that the spell checker did not recognise a mistake. The consequences of this assumption emerged when some time later; we realized we had sent an email having a silly spelling mistake to over 20,000 recipients in the education sectors. Putting into consideration that the target audience for the emails comprised high-ranking people in the business and education sector, the goodwill of the company was at stake (Gameson & Chen, 2000). Worse still was the fact that the professional image of our company had been tainted. There were high chances that our mails were mistaken as spams in some instances. This is because of the close link between spam messages and spelling mistakes in the content of the messages in the perspective of stringent spam filters.

After this scenario, it came to our immediate attention that the newly installed system was not as altruistic as we thought. Therefore, we did not have to put our trust in it because this would jeopardise our business largely. We also learnt that spelling mistakes might be unintentional sometimes. However, every slight case found posed a serious risk factors to the company’s image to the recipients of the mails. I learnt at this point that maximum scrutiny has to be put into every detail of an email, or any written communication before being sent to the reader. That this dry run should always be done whether a spell checker is present or not, just in order to minimise the chances of error that may occur. In addition, I learnt other factor that may significantly undermine the integrity of the organisation is the failure to proofread the mails being sent. One such factor regards the dates, for instance, sending a regular mail with wrong dates may ignite suspicion among the recipients and in the end cause confusion, which may result in the company missing prospective revenue.

Ever since that time, we decided that we would compromise the quality of every email that comes out of our mailbox to the clients. We opted for a thorough proofing approach, whereby we make sure the mail content is ready soon enough (say one week to the day of sending). After this, we run each detail of the mail content, line by line through an independent spell checker. After this process, we send the sample emails to other people in the various departments in order to get their opinions regarding not only the spelling and grammar errors, but also the choice of words and the appropriateness of the content of the mail. After all this is done, we spend a lot of time reviewing every feedback and making changes where appropriate. We can only send the emails when we are satisfied that there is no trace of errors in them. This method has significantly improved effectiveness in our email marketing, and we have had the highest turnover ever since.

Lengthened reporting/ Complexity of use

My duty as an email-marketing assistant involves a lot of email campaign reporting which is significant in a number of ways. The reporting is usual in the sense that it enables us to know the number of recipients who click, open and unsubscribe. The reporting process is done by use of both the KIT emailing system and the ACT customer relationships management system. The new KIT system, however, presents a considerable difficulty when it comes to this, in addition, it leads to a lot of time wastage. Silvia et al 2006 suggest that at times failure to address certain problems poses many inconveniences. This is rather annoying especially when it happens with as simple tasks as importing results.

Sometimes, we need to check the ACT records on a monthly basis with the KIT system to find out if they are from our sent campaigns. This is done by use of the record cardholder’s postal code, which is compared to the KIT postal codes and the recipient’s reaction to the sent mail. Unfortunately, this process takes a considerably long time to the tune of hours. This is in contrast with the experience I had with Campaign Monitor, where such a process was just a matter of minutes and it did not involve much complexity. This time wastage is very detrimental to the company operations and causes many delays in general. If a way were found to remedy this situation, it would present us with an opportunity to put that time into much more valuable use.

Our attempts to request the system providers to solve this problem proved futile since all they could do was to promise an improvement in their future updates. One thing that stood out, however, as suggested by Greenwald (2000) was the fact that as an organisation we were out to make profit and our time resource could not wait for the updates in order to be effective. This, therefore, meant that if we were to keep in business, we needed to think fast for an immediate solution instead of waiting for the action of the system provider (Hmelo-Silver & Barrows, 2005). This is because we could not exactly determine how long KIT would take to come up with updates for its system. In addition to that, we were not sure, whether that was just but one of the issues that the company was working on. Another thing that would arise, perhaps, would be the cost implications once the company had made the requested changes (Williams, 2001; Livingstone and Lynch, 2000). Therefore, we could not just sit back and wait for the system provider to solve the problem for us. We had to find out an alternative, even if it meant saving time for just a few seconds (Hwee-Ling-Koh, 2006). This is because time is money and such a valuable resource could not be left to go to waste as the situation was.

Work had to continue and I had to figure out a solution, motivated by H.L Mencken’s quote, “For every complex problem there is a solution that is simple, neat and wrong“. According to Hwee-Ling-Koh (2006), there must always be a way out of every trouble. In the end, I came up with a solution that was not only helpful to me but to the system providers as well, since they were able to communicate it to all their clients. At first, I thought of keeping the idea to myself, but then I realised that it could still be useful for other people as well. Therefore, I felt the best way to go about it was to inform the system providers so that they could make other people as well. Sure enough, the system providers saw sense in my proposal and communicated it to all their clients. I told myself that perhaps this could make it easy for our prospective clients to find an effective way of communicating with us in business terms.

According to Macdonald and Isaacs (2001) at times, the actual solution to a problem may be because of various trials and errors. During my process of various failed attempts, I once stumbled upon the idea of coming up with a group that kept only records of profiles that showed an impression, while at the same time rejecting those contacts that had no impression within the system. This annihilated the idea of having to click on profiles without impressions. In addition, all profiles viewed in this case have impressions and hence the need of checking other mail individually is eliminated. One great lesson I got from this is that it may not be appropriate at times to disregard the input of individuals; however, less knowledgeable they may be (Joo et al, 2000). I tried to imagine a situation without the discovery I made and realised that I had helped in the operations of many organisations with this problem, despite my limited knowledge in computer systems such as these. I also learnt, as suggested by Goldsmith (2001) the importance of sharing vital information that could help other people as well and hence enhance the smooth flow of operations all over the country and beyond (Ward & Lee 2002). As opposed to keeping important information to oneself, sharing portrays the willingness of an individual to work with other people in the future. It is also a way of showing genuine interest in the wellbeing of other people, which is a significant factor when it comes to an organisational setup (Blumberg, 2000).

Wrong brochure download link

This problem occurred due to negligence on my part. In the emails that I sent, I attached a wrong brochure link, such that, when the recipients clicked on the link, they were not taken to the right brochure which was supposed to be the newly launched In-charge Lockers. Rather, the link led to Garment management Lockers. This serious problem also gave a wrong impression of the company (Hmelo and Lin, 2000). In the first place, any reader would conclude that as a company we were not serious, if we could mess with such vital issues. A lot of inconvenience resulted because, clearly, the whole objective of that particular mail was not met. This is because the recipients could not see what they were meant to see and be able to react appropriately.

In this case, I learnt a lesson of taking note of the minor details just to ensure that the reputation of the company is not put at stake (Hmelo-Silver & Barrows, 2006; Murray, & Savin-Baden, 2000). I realized that a mistake, no matter how small, might have very momentous effects to the whole process (Visser, 2002). I also realized that there is a need to be organised when it comes to doing such sensitive tasks, such that a high level of keenness and consistency is maintained throughout the processes involved (Duch, 2001).

First, we had to deal with the current situation by resending the link to the clients with a message conveying the apology for the inconvenience. The exact words we used were, “Sorry We Sent You the Wrong Download Link” and this was useful since most of them replied to appreciate. The message alone was able to give the recipients the impression that the company was concerned about their wellbeing and that in itself, added credit to our organisation (Charles et al, 2006). Hmelo-Silver We also (2000) assesses how avoiding current mistakes in the future can be a substantial learning outcome. We therefore decided to avoid future occurrences of similar errors by testing all links in the mails we send before forwarding them to the recipients. We also had to think of a way in which we would name our links such that each link relates to the name of the document or page that the link is refers. This was after the realization that giving links names that were almost similar brought in confusion when assigning those links names and hence they were the major causes of interchanging the same. With respect to this, we came up with the idea of giving links names related to the content one was to access as opposed to just giving them one name with a numbered distinguisher at the end.

Conclusion

Definitely, from the discussion, problem-based learning is one of the most effective learning methods ever (Jonassen, 2000). One of the fundamental goals of education in any given discipline is to come up with individuals who are competent in problem solving skills both in the case of organisational design as well as in change situations (Evensen et al, 2001). One thing that stands is that such individuals become self-directed learners in the whole of their professional lifetime (Cannon & Leifer, 2001; Maudsley & Strivens 2000). This is as a result of the various changes that occur as far as the respective field is concerned (Lee-Davies, 2007). There are also chances that these individuals may experience diverse challenges, most of which are usually unexpected (Copland, 2000). Hmelo and Evensen (2000) argue that putting such factors into consideration will determine the soundness of a program, which is problem-centred, self-directed and student-centred, and its ability to enhance the invention of experiences that are customised to one’s individual needs (Zorn, 2002). This is exactly what happened to me and I really appreciated the learning process I underwent (Schmidt & Moust 2000). The problems I encountered at Link Lockers presented me with an opportunity to learn things that I would not have learnt in any other way (Hmelo-Silver, 2000). I developed a strong analytical aptitude that will be useful for me not only now but even in my future career experiences in solving problems that may appear complex in nature (Barrows, 2000). This is because the valuable information I received in the process cannot be matched and cannot be easily forgotten (Dabbagh et al, 2000). I learnt so much from my placement and I would recommend that students be given more time in such settings to improve their problem solving skills and be able to develop creative minds for the betterment of the lives of individuals both now and in the future (Capon & Kuhn, 2004).

References

Barrows, H. S. (2000) Problem-based learning applied to medical education. Springfield, IL: Southern Illinois University School of Medicine.

Blumberg, B. (2000) Evaluating the Evidence That Problem-Based Learners are Self-Directed Learners: A Review of the Literature. in D. H. Evensen and C. E. Hmelo (eds.), Problem-Based Learning: A Research Perspective on Learning Interactions. Mahwah, N.J.:Erlbaum, 199–226.

Cannon, D.M. and Leifer, L.J. (2001) Product-based learning in an overseas study program: the ME 110K course. Int. J. Eng. Educ., 17(4 & 5), 405-415.

Capon, N. and Kuhn, D. (2004) What’s so good about problem-based learning? Cognition and Instruction 22, 61-79

Causation, M. N. (2006) Fitness for Purpose Evaluation in Problem Based Learning Should Consider the Requirements for Establishing Descriptive. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 11(4), 391-402

Charles E.C., Ken, D., Alan, N., Heather, R. and Lynne, L. (2006) Modeling the Problem-based Learning Preferences of McMaster University Undergraduate Medical Students Using a Discrete Choice Conjoint Experiment. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 11(3) 245-266

Chi, M. T. H., Siler, S. A., Jeong, H., Yamauchi, T., & Hausman, R. G. (2001) Learning from human tutoring. Cognitive Science, 25, 471-533.

Copland, M. A. (2000) Problem-based learning and prospective principals’ problem-framing ability. Educational Administration Quarterly, 36(4), 585-607.

Dabbagh, N., Jonassen, D., & Yueh, H. (2000) Assessing a problem-based learning approach to an introductory instructional design course: a case study. Performance Improvement Quarterly 13, 60-83

Duch, B.J., Groh, S.E. and Allen, D.E. (2001) The Power of Problem-Based Learning. Virginia: Stylus Publishing.

Evensen, D. H., Salisbury-Glennon, J. D., and Glenn, J. (2001) A Qualitative Study of SixMedical Students in a Problem-Based Curriculum: Toward a Situated Model of Self-Regulation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(4), 659–676.

Gameson, R. and Chen, S. E. (2000) Problem based learning – Experiences of delivering an undergraduate construction management degree course at the University Of Newcastle, Australia. Proceedings of the CIB W89 International Conference on Building Education and Research, May 16-18, Atlanta, Georgia, pp. 267-277

Goldsmith, B. (2001) Innovative Problem Solving. AFP Exchange, 21(4), 78–79.

Greenwald, N.L. (2000) Learning from problems. Science Teacher 67, 28-32

Hmelo, C. E., and Lin, X. (2000) Becoming self-directed learners: Strategy development in problem-based learning. in D. Evensen & C. E. Hmelo (Eds.), Problem-based learning: A research perspective on learning interactions (pp. 227-250). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Hmelo, C. E., and Evensen, D. H. (2000) Introduction to Problem-Based Learning: GainingInsights on Learning Interactions Through Multiple Methods of Inquiry. in D. H. Evensen and C. E. Hmelo (eds.), Problem-Based Learning: A Research Perspective on Learning Interactions. Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum, pp. 1–16.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E. & Barrows, H. S. (2005) Facilitating collaborative ways of knowing. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E. & Barrows, H. S. (2006) Goals and Strategies of a Problem-based Learning Facilitator. Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning (pp. 22-37)

Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2000) Knowledge recycling: Crisscrossing the landscape of educational psychology in a problem-based learning course for preservice teachers. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 11, 41-56.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2004) Problem-based learning: What and how do students learn? Educational Psychology Review, 235-266.

Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Derry, S. J., Woods, D., DelMarcelle, M., & Chernobilsky, E. (2005) From parallel play to meshed interaction: The evolution of the eSTEP system. in T. Koschmann, D. D. Suthers, & T-W. Chan (Eds.), Proceedings of CSCL 2005 (pp. 195-204). Mahwah NJ: Erlbaum.

Hwee-Ling-Koh, J. (2006) Motivating students of mixed efficacy profiles in technology skills classes: A case study. Instructional Science, 34(5), 423-449

Jonassen, D. (2000) Toward a design theory of problem solving. Educational Technology Research and Development 48, 63-85.

Joo, Y., Bong, M., & Choi, H. (2000) Self-efficacy for self-regulated learning, academic self-efficacy, and internet self-efficacy in web-based instruction. Educational Technology Research and Development (pp. 5-17)

Lee A. F. (2001) Information Systems Knowledge: Foundations, Definitions, and Applications. Information Systems Frontiers, 3(2), 249-266

Lee-Davies, L. (2007) Developing Work And Study Skills, Thomson: London.

Livingstone, D. and Lynch, K. (2000) Group project work and student-centered active learning: two different experiences. Studies in Higher Education, 25(3), 325-345.

Macdonald, D. and Isaacs, G. (2001) Developing a professional identity through problem-based learning. Teaching Education, 12(3), 315-333.

Maudsley G & Strivens J. (2000) Promoting professional knowledge, experiential learning and critical thinking for medical students. Med Educ 34, 535–544.

Murray, I. and Savin-Baden, M. (2000) Staff Development in Problem Based Learning. Teaching in Higher Education, 5(1), 107-127

Pee B, Woodman T, & Fry H. (2000) Davenport ES. Practice-based learning: views on the development of a reflective learning tool. Med Educ 34, 754–761.

Sage, S. (2000) Problem-Based Learnning in Higher Education: Untold Stories. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Schmidt, H. G., & Moust, J. H. C. (2000) Factors affecting small-group learning: A review of the research. in C. E. Hmelo (Ed.), Problem-based learning: A research perspective on learning interactions (pp. 19-52). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Segers, M. and Dochy F. (2001) New assessment forms in problem-based learning: the value-added of the student’s perspective. Studies in Higher Education, 26(3), 327-343.

Silvia, M., Henk G.S., & Geoffrey, R. N. (2006) Innovations in Problem-based Learning: What can we Learn from Recent Studies? Advances in Health Sciences Education, 11(4), 403-422

Visser, Y.L. (2002) What makes problem-based learning effective? The impact of various PBL attributes on performance, problem solving strategies, attitudes, and self-regulatory processes of high school science students. The Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April 1-5.

Ward, J.D. and Lee, C.K. (2002) A review of problem-based learning. Journal of Family and Consumer Sciences Education 20, 16-26

Williams, B. (2001) The Theoretical Links Between Problem-Based Learning and Self-Directed Learning for Continuing Professional Nursing Education. Teaching in Higher Education, 6(1), 85–98.

Zolin, R., Hinds, P., Fruchter, R. and Levitt, R. (2001) Trust in cross-functional global teams, Organization Science Special Issue `Trust in an Organizational Context’. Milan: Italy, pp. 105-152.

Zorn, T. (2002) Converging with Divergence: Overcoming the Disciplinary Fragmentation in Business Communication, Organizational Communication, and Public Relations. Business Communication Quarterly, 65(2), 44–53.