Problem based learning with technological support in an AI subject: description and evaluation

Abstract

The diversity of students’ backgrounds has caused a number of problems with an introductory Artificial Intelligence subject. In this paper we describe our experiences using a problem-based learning approach to teaching this material. This involved the students forming themselves into groups in order to tackle a series of related problems, each of which dealt with a specific area of the course. An integral part of this project is the technological support, which was used not only to monitor the progress of students through the course, but also to provide the necessary contextualisation of course PermIssion to make digital/hard copy of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that apies are not made or diibuted for prom or commercial advantage, the copynght notice, the tile of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior spa&c permission and/or a fee ACSE’S7. Melbourne, Australia@ lSS7ACM &E9791-95&O/97/0007 . . ..$3.50 material. We describe our methodology, as well as the two WWW-based support tools, the CourseWeb, which functions (roughly speaking) as an automated textbook, and the ProblemWeb, which specifies the problems to be solved and keeps track of the group’s progress in solving them. We report on our experiences in teaching a summer version of this subject and on our evaluations of the process.