10. Use of a Web-based PBL Support System for an Inter-disciplinary PBL

[Introduction] In 2007, we started an inter-disciplinary PBL tutorial for first-year students in order to coordinate discipline and teach the importance of teamwork that is necessary in most medical fields. All of the students (about 600), the School of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmaceutical Science and Nursing and Rehabilitation Science, live together in dormitories on the Fujiyoshida campus. We developed a web-based PBL support system to communicate between facilitators and students at two campuses (Dentistry) in 2003. This study examines how the PBL support system was used for the inter-disciplinary PBL tutorial. [Method] All students (600) were divided into 69 groups, each consisting of 8-9 students. Twenty-nine faculty members from the four schools and the Faculty of Art and Sciences served as facilitators. Students conducted group discussions to determine learning issues for Self-directed Learning (SDL) on the first day (Steps 1-5). They were asked to submit a "written summary of what they had leant through their own SDL using Microsoft Word and A4 format on two pages" to their facilitators before Step 7. Facilitators gave feedback to the students about learning summaries using the PBL support system. Students' and facilitators' surveys were completed after a PBL tutorial about the PBL support system. [Results] All students submitted learning summaries using the PBL support system. Facilitators gave feedback to their students using the PBL support system from four campuses located 100 km from the Fujiyoshida campus. Students sent learning summaries to their facilitators an average of 1.7 times, including the initial submission (maximum six times). Most of the students (88%) felt that the PBL support system was useful. Questionnaires for facilitators showed that most of the facilitators (83%) felt that the PBL support system was useful. [Conclusion] The PBL support system is useful for communicating among students, facilitators and the coordinator, including the submission and feedback of the learning summaries in an inter-disciplinary PBL.