This academic year has seen my first attempts at introducing PBL into my course. In some respects it has confirmed my fears and in others eased them. The first problem I experienced was that the module I had planned to use PBL on grew from 40 students registered to 118 over the summer vacation. This meant that instead of running the module on my own or with one other colleague I was faced with co-ordinating 4 other seminar leaders and testing PBL with a massive group of students. The module basically used the following format - a 1.5-2 hour seminar using PBL approach followed by either a lecture or visiting speaker or in one week a debate between 2 lecturers. This meant the PBL approach set up and started the learning process and the learning was confirmed in the lecture or talk afterwards when the basic theory and points which we hoped to raise were talked through. I know this is not the pure Maastricht approach but I feel this is the way forward at present - given the newness for students and seminar leaders alike.
