Developing a Learning Organization Model for Problem-Based Learning: The Emergent Lesson of Education from the IT Trenches

This case describes the initiative to develop a learning organization model to support the pedagogy of problem-based learning (PBL) as an approach to conduct teaching in the author’s undergraduate curriculum development. Specifically, an organizational scenario is described to support introducing the PBL method of course delivery. This is based on an action research depiction on some of the experiences and issues involved in conceiving and developing a Web-based course-support environment called REAL (Rich Environment for Active Learning). Our case then deliberates on the idea of setting up a Center for PBL Research as an important mechanism of institutional innovation. This center could be considered as an essential effort to encourage individual organizational units within the university to provide suitable electronic services toward the realization of a virtual university. The dilemma of this effort, however, remains the emergent changes of organizational behavior in education, which is essentially subjective, eclectic, individual, context-specific, and often one-off, making it traditionally the most difficult to support with technology.

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