Results of a PBL trial in first-year computer science

Abstract

In 1996 the Basser Department of Computer Science at the University of Sydney ran a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) trial parallel with its conventional first-year programme. This was reported “in-progress” at ACSE’96. The effect of that trial is that the department has now adopted PBL as the basis for facilitating first-year learning of computer science in 1997. Some aspects of the evaluation of the initial trial are shared in this paper, as well as some recommendations which emerged from the nial.