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1 Introduction

The key problem facing dentistry is that the community remains unaware that dental caries can be effectively controlled or is unwilling to engage in the measures for its control. The problem is essentially one of communication about oral health behaviour change, increasing frequency of dental attendance and improving diet and oral hygiene. Although communication about caries management utilises a range of media forms, most dental schools provide training only in verbal communication with patients at chairside. Little effort has been made to develop competency with other media, particularly online and print media, which are important for community health education.

The problem of how to communicate the message ‘Tooth decay can be stopped, reversed and prevented’ to various community groups was presented to first-year dentistry students as the first ‘real life’ problem in the hybrid problem-based learning (PBL) programme at the University of Sydney. Situated in this way, it provided them with an introduction to important concepts in behavioural sciences, cariology, patient management and community dentistry to be explored in depth during their progress through the course. Furthermore, PBL was used to encourage each student to grapple creatively with this problem through research, self-directed learning, group discussion and integration of ideas into a product prototype for later development and implementation.

Most approaches to PBL are sequential, not surprising since its format traditionally comprises seven steps (Albanese & Mitchell, 1993). However, linear formats can be limiting where they impose a structure that does not always fit well with the iterative and reflexive processes that facilitate deep learning. Flexible interplay between ‘step’ components better reflects the social experience of students of the net-generation (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005), especially where social networking sites are used to replace or augment the PBL tutorial group and whiteboard.

Online technologies of Web 2.0, in embracing PBL, have utilised blended learning formats, where face-to-face contact is supported by didactic or web resources such as WebCT™, Blackboard™, web-blogs or static websites. However, the effectiveness of these platforms for online learning has been limited by a typical Web 1.0 approach to teaching (Oblinger & Oblinger, 2005). The internet, when envisaged as a filing cabinet for resources or post-box for messages is too unwieldy to generate the experience of flow that motivates deep learning (Craig, Graesser, Sullins, & Holson, 2004). Further impeding the effective use of Web 2.0 technology has been the design of learning experiences by teachers from the baby-boomer or Gen-X generations, who may not think or learn in the same way as their students (McNeely, 2005). It is thus important that PBL flexibly encompasses the thinking and learning styles of both teachers and students. Existing PBL structures provide scaffolding for problem definition and access to resources and learning objective development, which are transferable to online platforms. However, for successful learning in the present online environments, teachers must now constructively address additional issues such as motivation to interact (Craig et al., 2004), processes of socialisation (Dede, 2005) and moderation of information exchange (Salmon, 2000).

A proposed nonlinear modification of Salmon’s (2000) model for moderation of e-learning has been illustrated in Fig. 8.1. In this model, the learning experience is the context surrounding the process of knowledge construction, which is a bricolage of concepts and actions spanning two broad areas of endeavour: educational and technological scaffolding and social interactivity. Access to resources and problem development inform the scaffolding while social interaction and information exchange are facilitated by the potential for interactivity of the learning tasks. All components of the process are interlinked. Since all members of the learning community (teachers, students and other relevant stakeholders) contribute to knowledge construction, they are not represented as disparate entities in this model. The traditional steps of PBL are subsumed in the educational scaffolding but are modified to suit the online technology.

Fig. 8.1
figure 8_1_210822_1_En

A social interaction model of e-learning (after Salmon’s (2000) model of moderating e-learning)

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2 Educational Methodology

Based on this model, a blended interprofessional PBL programme in oral health promotion was developed by the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Sydney and the School of Architecture, Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008–2009. The PBL design and the structure of the programme are described below.

2.1 Scaffolding: Problem Development

The aims of the interprofessional blended learning programme were to (i) foster development of consultancy and expository skills in text-based and visual media for oral health promotion, and (ii) facilitate interprofessional learning in both local and international contexts.

The prime reason for failure of a community to understand, accept or act upon health information is its low level of literacy, not just in the sense of ability to read text, but also in the more specific sense of ability to understand health concepts, which we refer to as ‘health literacy’ (Nielsen-Bohlman, Kindig, & Panzer, 2004). Similarly, the community, including its health professions, has a poor understanding of basic principles of design (poor design literacy), which impedes acceptance and pursuit of aesthetics and elegance of function in all forms of design, including sustainable architecture (Boyd, 1960; Hollier, 2008) and, furthermore, obstructs accessibility of health information in text-based media.

Dentistry students require an understanding of communication in visual media and how design alters the efficacy of message transmission (Evans, Pakdamen, Dennison, & Howe, 2008; Katz, Kripalani, & Weiss, 2006). The quality of materials produced for use in public health education clearly shows failure to grasp basic graphic design skills (Schnabel & Howe, 2009). Architecture students, who have high design literacy but receive little training in consultancy (Woo, Herrington, Agostinho, & Reeves, 2007) especially in response to lay people who may be misguided, prejudiced or uninformed (Cuff, 1991) but whose satisfaction is the key concern in design business practice (Adam, Buchanan, Cook, & Till, 2008), require genuine clients, who can consult with them, bring preconceived ideas to the table and question and challenge them as real clients do (Schnabel & Howe, 2009). To provide an exposure to an authentic client-expert relationship for each architecture student was a dilemma that was resolved by collaboration with dentistry students and, together, both groups of students learned about the challenges of persuasive communication in community engagement.

Each student of the School of Architecture at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (N = 11) was assigned as a consultant to a group of four students of the Faculty of Dentistry, the University of Sydney (N = 43). The remaining dentistry students (N = 35) worked in PBL groups without an assigned architecture consultant but were able to view the sites of all those PBL groups with consultants. The problem presented to all students was this:

The students were provided with in-class and live video-lectures as well as electronic resources before being assigned to their PBL group, each group working with a different target audience (e.g. infants, schoolchildren, teenagers, older adults, special needs, ethnic or indigenous communities). Each group was required to devise, research and answer its own questions in relation to its designated audience such as the following: What is our audience like? What specific needs do they have? How should we structure this message for them? What resources do we require? How can we develop a product prototype that meets our criteria? They reviewed literature about caries prevention, target audience characteristics and design concepts, then collaborated face-to-face and online to develop a booklet containing the evidence base for health educators working with the target group, a promotional product (poster, brochure, website, DVD, T-shirt, etc.), and an audio-visual presentation for peers. The products were assessed for research quality and quality of design communication and presented at the National Australian Oral Health Week.

The student groups presented their work with each target audience in peer-teaching seminars that were broadcast to the other university’s location via a live video-stream using the free available Skype software. Students at both faculties evaluated the programme as a learning experience and provided qualitative feedback in focus group interviews. They finally provided evaluative feedback to each other about consultancy and teamwork skills using a protocol derived from Lurie, Lambert, Nofziger, Epstein, & Grady-Weliky (2007).

2.1.1 Scaffolding: Technology and Resource Access

Online learning strategies emerging in architectural education (Kvan, 2001; Achten, 2001; Schmitt, 1997; Kurmann, 1995; Maher, Simoff, & Cicognani, 2000) developed into real immersion within a virtual environment (Schnabel, 2002) and, with the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, within a social learning environment as well (Ham & Dawson, 2004). Social networking impacts quality of engagement and learning outcomes (Schnabel & Howe, 2008) through ease of communication, leadership opportunity, teamwork and a sense of community (Owen, Grant, Sayers, & Facer, 2006). The interesting possibility that design productivity may be better supported by remote settings than co-located ones was raised by Gao and Kvan (2004) and Kvan and Gao (2006) and prompted development of an interprofessional blended learning programme at the University of Sydney (Schnabel & Howe, 2008) as an international consultancy between dentistry students at Sydney University and architecture students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Students were surveyed at the beginning of the semester on their use of social networking. Over 90% of students already used platforms such as Facebook™ or MySpace™ with over 80% reporting that social networking facilitated collaboration, communication and exchange. Concerns raised were the redundancy of joining a second network and issues of privacy. The site was made accessible only to members and was linked to the dentistry WebCT site to reduce redundancy for the dentistry students. This was not possible for the architecture students.

The free Web 2.0 interface, Ning™, was selected to serve both as an information repository for project research and a meeting place for information exchange. Students undertook research relating to their design task and target audience and posted this information as a shared resource for use and discussion by all participants. Significant opportunities were provided for student-staff interaction online, outside studio hours, and contact using other media was also possible (mobile phone, WiFi, other social networking sites etc.). Staff members were able to add comments and post additional resources in a manner that further blurred the distinction between virtual and real. In order to reduce the ‘silo’ mentality of thinking within faculty boundaries, staff entered the site and posted resources as a single persona ‘Mr KnowItAll’ (Mr KIA) who had his own strengths profile and personal page. It was envisaged that this personalisation would differentiate our site from the typical ‘filing cabinet’ Web 1.0 sites and humanise the provision of resources. All didactic and staff consultation components of the programme were accessible through Mr KIA’s page.

2.1.2 Interactivity: Motivation and Socialisation

Motivation and socialisation were facilitated through site personalisation, opportunity for development of flow and diverse learning activities. However, students may lose valuable learning time because they are slow to warm to interaction with unknown group members (Woltering, Herrier, Spitzer, & Spreckelsen, 2009). Cho, Gay, Davidson and Ingraffea (2007) argued that personality surveys may be used as a facilitative device to improve collaboration. To implement this idea, all students completed the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire (Peterson & Seligman, 2002) to identify key strengths to be featured in their online presence. This provided a structured activity to motivate early social interaction, potentially useful in team formation and subsequent role development.

Through respect of personal character in the learning experience and better alignment of skills with learning challenges, it was hoped to facilitate flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1996). Flow is an important component of creative knowledge environments and has been found to facilitate content acquisition, teamwork and positive affect towards subject mastery (Beylefeld & Struwig, 2007). This positive affective experience in turn increases team effort and spontaneous communication. Huang (2003) argued that motivation is enhanced or maintained by flow, achieved when the site is pleasurable as well as functional. The project website included music, blogging, videos, chat, photographic images and RSS feeds designed to enhance motivation because they enable hedonistic experiences.

To reduce passive reliance on the ‘expert’ teacher and ‘filed’ resources, Mr KIA, the staff persona, was an active participant, a knowledgeable, talkative and approachable group member. Semiotic messages conveyed by site images (Bayne, 2008) were chosen to avoid the ‘helicopter parent’ stereotype of the online teacher and convey the idea that resources are actually text-based discussions with approachable teachers (Levy, 1997).

2.1.3 Information Exchange

While social interaction is necessary for information exchange, it may not be sufficient; the learning activities have to be varied, challenging and meaningful. Information exchange in the programme occurred in multiple areas of interaction: with peers, resources, teachers, other stakeholders and the community for whom the promotional products were designed. Not only does blended learning involve integration of different media for information exchange, it also involves amalgamation of the contributions of all members of the learning community, a process for developing collective intelligence (Levy, 1997). Social networking provides a mechanism for presenting collective information for individual use as well as aggregating individual insights into a collective decision (Surowiecki, 2005). The PBL experience was situated within both the professional communities to which students and teachers belong and the wider communities served by these professions, thus providing a transformative environment for blended learning.

The main tool for information exchange on the site was blogging. Blogging involves communication and reflection over a sustained period of time, linking people with resources, driving reflection and generating knowledge construction (Downes, 2004). Blogging, supported on the site by chat, video, photography, message broadcast and email facilities, permitted rich information exchange with both peer and teaching members that was accessible to all.

2.1.4 Knowledge Construction

Darling-Hammond et al. (2008) found that deep learning is enhanced when students apply classroom-gathered knowledge to real-world problems, a process requiring sustained engagement and collaboration. Active learning practices have an impact on student performance greater than any other variable, including student background and prior achievement. The current PBL experience addressed three criteria for authentic learning and teaching developed by Newmann & Wehlage (1993): construction of meaning and production of knowledge, disciplined inquiry to construct meaning and production of discourse, products and performances that have value beyond school. To research the problem required higher-order thinking combining knowledge from dentistry and design to construct a message for a specific community group. Students had to research the target audience and the preventive dentistry evidence base to develop a design concept, which integrated the information. The creation of real products for use in genuine health campaigns provided students with practical skills and professional recognition as well as fostering interaction between professions and engagement with the wider community.

In construction of learning products, social interaction intensified. Because each group member was responsible for production of one item that had to be thematically linked to all the others, the students remained motivated and engaged with the PBL programme. Similar to findings of Schnabel (2002), each member of the team had authority over (but not ownership of) parts of the design or collaboration, a process analogous to a typical collaborative scenario in practice, where designers and specialists contribute to an overall scheme in sequential and parallel activities. For the dental students, the greatest need in knowledge construction was access to appropriate skill to realise the products. For the architecture students it was skill in exposition of design concepts for a dental student audience with poor design literacy. The learning discussion involved social networking utilising both human resources and design technology, a convergence of social communication and technological environments. An important benefit of this convergence for facilitators is the opportunity to learn with and from the students. Students are often ahead of teachers in mastery of technology (McNeely, 2005). The loosening of the outdated hierarchical education system, reframing teachers as facilitators of social learning, provides a great opportunity for teachers to upgrade their own skills in the process of working with their students.

3 Evaluation Methodology

The learning products generated by the PBL groups were assessed for quality of research by a senior staff member in Community Dentistry and design by a graphic designer in Dental Behavioural Sciences. All students were invited to provide anonymous feedback and participate voluntarily in focus groups. Six architecture students (54%) and 27 dentistry students (34%) provided feedback. Human ethics approval for the study was obtained from both participating universities. One-way analysis of variance was used to compare project research and design assessments of the interprofessional and local PBL student groups. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS™ quantitative analysis software (SPSS for Mac™, Version 17.0, 2008 SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Stem questions (Table 8.1) developed for the focused interviews enabled evaluation of the components of the social interaction e-learning model presented in Fig. 8.1. The transcribed scripts of the focused interviews were collated using NVivo™ qualitative software (QSR NVivo Version 8.0.335.0 SP4, QSR International Pty Ltd). Thematic analysis was conducted according to Braun and Clarke’s (2006) model, where a node coding scheme was devised and interpretative rigour maintained by two researchers applying the coding scheme to the transcripts and checking the results for inter-coder concordance. Log files on the website were reviewed to ascertain patterns of use of the online site.

Table 8.1 Stem questions for the focused interviews
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4 Results

4.1 Knowledge Construction

All student teams developed product solutions meeting the two key objectives of the programme. Student groups successfully developed 20 research-based, well-designed oral health promotion programmes of a high standard suitable for use in public campaigns as evaluated by the two teaching faculties. The PBL programme was successful in fostering development of skills in text-based and visual media for oral health promotion in dentistry students, regardless of whether they worked in dental groups or with design consultants. Students also reported that the interprofessional interaction deepened their understanding and value of each other’s professional expertise and the importance of designing messages to meet both client and community needs and characteristics.

(Dentistry students) …We can see how a product can be designed better. … it was so much better having something graphically effective. It looked more professional. That taught us to go that extra step.

… I tried to use big dental terms but discovered people didn’t understand that so I had to remove the jargon and…put it into a context people could understand.

(Architecture students) … it made me feel good because they think you are the consultant or the person who gives opinions. They ask you questions and treat you as a professional and I can use my knowledge to help these people solve their questions.

… I think that when you express an opinion you have to make yourself clear and not use terms that are too professional or architectural so they understand what you are talking about.

Comparison of design and research outcomes for the PBL groups with international design consultants and local groups comprising dentistry students only are presented in Table 8.2.

Table 8.2 Comparison of assessment results for the interprofessional and local PBL groups
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The dentistry-only groups performed at a significantly higher standard than the interprofessional groups on both research (F (1,87) = 29.02, p < 0.001) and design (F (1,87) = 8.95, p < 0.004) measures. This result does not support the findings of Gao and Kvan (2004) and Kvan and Gao (2006). Focus group feedback indicated that this unexpected finding in our student groups is likely to have occurred because of inadequacies in our PBL scaffolding for the interprofessional groups, who experienced marked communication delays and frustration. The interprofessional groups had to navigate international time zones and mutual availability within two busy professional education programmes where there were differences in daily routines (dentistry students are ‘larks’, architecture students ‘owls’) resulting in communication that was essentially asynchronous and less dynamic than that of the local groups.

(Dentistry student) … It is difficult…..so for us it might be frustrating that they’re not responding straight away but for them maybe they just generally don’t respond for a day or two. We don’t know. So there’s a lot of cultural sensitivity…

(Architecture student) … My group will sleep at 10 o’clock in their time zone so when I get back to home and have contact with them they’ve all gone to sleep. Of course you can contact with the forum and the site but instead I would rather be contacting them instantly. To me the face to face would have been better.

It is likely that communication difficulties had the effect of reducing time available for learning discussion in the interprofessional groups. Since all students had access to the whole site, the local groups made use of information communicated by the design consultants to the interprofessional groups, thus having the learning benefit without the communication problems.

(Dentistry student) … I can remember one group did a storybook and I thought the use of images was really good. It was good to see how people took the idea in different directions.

Students requested modification of the project scaffolding to allocate communication times within the course timetables in future years to avoid this problem. However, further research needs to be undertaken into processes of information acquisition in PBL conducted through open social networking sites.

4.2 Scaffolding

Because of limited flexible time in the curricula of two professional faculties, students had to develop efficient ways of communicating with each other, holding team meetings and delegating individual responsibilities. The site platform allowed students to work synchronously, asynchronously and remotely. Resources had been provided to assist understanding of meeting procedures and students documented their application of strategies for team organisation, role delegation, meeting minutes and individual research contributions. However, despite general recognition of the requirement for self-directed learning, face-to-face contact in and between classes was reported to have made meeting easier for the co-located students. Focus group discussion explored the idea of using media that permitted virtual instant voice-message and webcam-based communication including a new application (available online from Ning™ only at the end of the project) that would permit the group members to videoconference on the site during the design phase.

Analysis of the site usage files revealed several thousand online interactions. During the semester, the course website reported 3,533 visits, with up to 120 site visits per day by members, culminating in 35,154 page views in total. Unit evaluation revealed 76.6% agreement with the statement that ‘the online teaching and resources in this unit enhanced my learning experience’, a 13.2% increase upon the 2008 WebCT™ programme where social networking was not used. Agreement with the statement that ‘the technologies used to deliver the online content in this unit performed satisfactorily’ increased from 68.2% in 2008 to 76% in 2009.

Overall evaluation of the learning management system was positive. They reported that it allowed them to participate naturally and collaborate within their accustomed pace and style. Their experience with other social networking sites enabled them to use the project site easily, although the architecture students were more impressed with the utilitarian performance of the site than were the dentistry students.

(Architecture students) … the WebCT is like a one-way communication from the professor to us and then a multimedia platform online but to me the Ning site is more like interaction between the two different countries and students. It’s more instant, more like Facebook interaction with different people online.

… The Ning site is not made by the school and it’s easier to talk with the students in a casual way and explain what we are thinking about …

… And when using this site you feel that the user is the student not the teacher … so we are happy to leave the message.

It appears from these comments that the staff presence was unobtrusive when clothed in the persona of Mr KIA. The multiple channels for communication were enjoyed by most students, although a small number found them distracting from the main academic task.

(Dentistry student) … [These resources] brought the enthusiasm up and the interaction

(Architecture student) … if people want to get to know us they could add me on Facebook … maybe make it more pure for academic things…

Many students posted their musical performances, photography and travel blogs in their informal communications. They appreciated having access to all resources (teaching, reading, consultation, video and photography and social interaction) in one location. Among disappointments were that the Ning platform kept blogging but not ‘chat history’, and that the university computers did not provide webcam technology.

The issue most impacting student satisfaction was the posting of information and resources in the virtual studio format. They enjoyed the multidimensionality of the site and its scope for interaction. The students were unanimous in their appreciation of the virtually augmented seminars, where the two student cohorts were linked via video-streaming, as a rich learning experience. The comment below emphasises the need for webcam-based technology to facilitate instant virtual face-to-face communication.

(Architecture student) … The idea is exciting… .you feel very close to someone who is actually overseas…but how to make it really work maybe is to have more participation of us so we can involve more and really have more communication with them because for me the most exciting part was to see them in the camera and when we had lessons at the same time. If we had another presentation in the middle, that would be good.

The final virtual seminar was the highlight of the programme; the presentation of their creative solutions to the same problem for different target audiences was deeply engaging for both cohorts of students and for other stakeholders attending as assessors and guests.

(Dentistry student) … We learned how other groups decided to present their information to different cultures and how different groups respond to that…and different mediums we’d use as well. We learned a lot about how we’d spread the message to people with intellectual problems or people in the outback without access to proper health care.

4.3 Interactivity

The publication of personal strengths, derived from the VIA Signature Strengths Questionnaire (Peterson & Seligman, 2002) was found by some students to be useful in facilitating development of communication between the dentistry group members and their architecture consultants.

(Dentistry students) … I think I felt I knew some people from here already but I didn’t know the person from Hong Kong at all and I felt it would be good to know what they’re good at… .I’m guessing it was the same for him. He could see a bit about us as well.

…If there’s a chance to have instant communication it might be more effective

…We’ve got strengths that we’d never heard …so that was interesting to use when it came to dividing the work.

(Architecture student) … It was quite amazing when I see the result. It’s another way for me to know myself.

Both dentistry (36%) and architecture students (80%) identified curiosity as their signature strength; in the architecture group, this appeared to be a defining characteristic. The other signature strengths of architecture students were fairness and spirituality (each 50%), social intelligence, integrity and appreciation of beauty (all 40%). Somewhat in contradistinction to prevailing stereotypes but not surprising in a health profession, dentistry students cited their other strengths as loving and being loved (48%), gratitude (48%), kindness (43%) and fairness and citizenship (each 41%). Reservations about the strategy included its similarity to Facebook quizzes and the greater need for knowledge of experience rather than character. Both cohorts reported that understanding each other’s character strengths helped them to get to know each other but some students stated a preference for less ‘literal’ media. The consensus was that the strategy was most useful where PBL group members were strangers.

This led to discussion of the value of randomisation of students to PBL groups in order to improve learning experience (although the previous years had expressed a preference to work within existing friendship groups). Cho, Lee, Stefanone and Gay (2005) support randomisation as a motivational strategy because remaining in pre-existing social networks can influence learning outcomes by reducing opportunities to explore new contacts and resources.

A common difficulty in small groups is inequitable contribution of self-directed learning experience to the group, where some students coast as ‘passengers’ on the effort of other team members. All aspects of communication and social engagement of the site, with the exception of ‘instant chat’, were visible to supervisory staff, generating an incentive for every student to take part in the whole interaction process. The contribution of each team member was openly commented upon by other participants, utilising the evaluation protocol (Lurie, Lambert, Nofziger, Epstein, & Grady-Weliky, 2007). This open evaluation was rigorous, honest, diplomatic, constructive and informed, this last quality being one often not open to academic staff assessing students’ work.

(Architecture student) … When we think it’s not something that is given by the teacher and when we feel what we are working on is our stuff, we put more effort into it.

(Dentistry student) … each person in the group came up with something different and then everyone merged it

You sort of had to do your own bit and bring it all together. At the end it meant that everyone…knew what they were talking about, and when you read somebody else’s stuff that makes it a bit different.

In all but one group, where the design consultant failed to engage well with the PBL group, working relationships were found to enhance productivity and enjoyment, although some groups reported difficulty in managing the large amount of background material generated by diligent research of the topic area. They suggested that inclusion of a F2F/virtually augmented group discussion would assist them with this problem.

Although the site had provided access and training for Adobe™ programmes, the need for access to a wider range of software programmes was discussed by the students.

(Dentistry student) … Having a student with this design knowledge helped but actually constructing it, putting it together was immensely difficult because we don’t have any of these programmes…

In 2008, University of Sydney students had access to their architecture colleagues’ laboratories on the same campus. The virtual interaction with another university in 2009 did not permit this solution and thus some groups were frustrated by their inability to utilise programmes that would have enabled them to realise their ideas more effectively.

4.4 Teacher Evaluation of the Learning Experience

To collaborate in a new teaching medium requires commitment, generosity and a spirit of adventure. Collaboration and cooperation are not the same. Collaboration is much more demanding; it is a shared creative enterprise involving simultaneous understanding of three points of view in the student-teacher-colleague relationship. We drew heavily on the experience of critical friendship (Costa & Kallick, 1993; Gardiner, 1998) to mentor and critique each other’s work and to forgive and repair occasional mistakes. In such a public learning space, where all members of the learning community, teachers and students alike, are learning from each other, it is important to be flexible and human. The blended persona of Mr KIA was very helpful in this respect, as he prevented students from accessing only their ‘own’ teacher and ensured that both teachers were privy to each other’s decisions and communications. Two reflections on our learning practice informed our work in this project:

(Dentistry staff) …Working together does not mean dividing and sharing each task equally. Rather, it is the discovering of each other’s strengths and the application of these to the task in a complementary way. Your role is to do whatever the other person cannot or does not. The sharing lies in the commitment to collaborate

(Architecture staff) …Working together in its collaborative sense adds a different facet to teaching and learning. One can embrace more strongly one’s own expertise, while absorbing knowledge at the same time from others. This is similar to a theatre performance. Everybody has a different seat with a different perspective of the play. Nobody feels that their experience differs from the one of any other person in the audience. Yet only the collection of all viewers and their perspectives reflects the full experience of the performance.

The most difficult experience to counter was the students’ competitive approach to learning. They initially requested that their group sites be closed to view by other groups so that their ideas could not be hijacked and used by others, not recognising how readily apparent this would be if it happened. The concept of a collective intelligence, developed in a shared public space, was difficult for them to encompass in the academic context, despite their openness on nonacademic social networking sites. In many ways this experience reflects the challenge to universities of managing intellectual property and privacy in increasingly open global communication environments.

5 Conclusion

The interprofessional PBL programme moved both faculties from sequestered autonomy into an enriching, deep learning experience in communication, consultancy and design for both cohorts of students. It engaged both students and academic staff in learning about professionalism, communication, collaboration, consultation and community engagement.

Online social network environments offer new opportunities for creative development of PBL because disciplinary, professional, institutional and national boundaries are more easily permeated. Social multinodal networking sites, such as Ning™, YouTube™, Google Docs™, Doodle™, Wiki™, various multidimensional software platforms, real-time video streaming and image processing, as well as interactive chat environments, like Facebook™ and even Twitter™ can be meaningfully integrated in learning activities, which enable communication of learning goals, disseminate learning resources, create knowledge and original ideas, provide feedback and align with assessment of learning outcomes. Providers of integrated portals, like Google Wave™ or Microsoft’s Connected Services Framework™, are already facilitating multichannel engagement. These media-rich platforms allow us to reframe our problems and subsequently the ways in which these problems can be explored in learning activities, thus enriching our current praxis of PBL. They are effective at tapping into social capital; thus the process facilitates student self-directed learning in problem formulation and research and it becomes possible to embrace global professional and interprofessional social communities to achieve higher levels of collective intelligence. The challenge remains the same: to facilitate student learning. It is the way in which we engage each other in these activities that is evolving to match today’s communication needs.