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The following guidelines from The Power of Problem-Based Learning (Duch et al, 2001) are written for creating PBL problems for a class centered around the method however, the general ideas can be applied in simpler uses of PBL: Some are in such form that they can be used with little editing however, others need to be rewritten to be of use.
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The problems can come from a variety of sources: newspapers, magazines, journals, books, textbooks, and television/ movies. If used for a multistage project, the initial steps of the problem should be open-ended and engaging to draw students into the problem.If used for a group project, the problem needs a level of complexity to ensure that the students must work together to solve it.The problem should incorporate the content objectives in such a way as to connect it to previous courses/knowledge.The problem should require students to make reasoned decisions and to defend them.
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