Are you willing to guide students to learn without giving all the answers?
Have you redesigned your syllabus to accommodate PBL?
Have you defined the course goals and student learning objectives?
Have the course goals and students learning objectives expanded to reflect the additional benefits of PBL such as communication, teamwork skills, etc.?
What's your problem?
Have you looked to the news, media, workplace, internet, etc. for “real life” problem ideas?
Will the problem facilitate learning related to the course goals and objectives?
Have you considered writing the problem from the student's perspective? What is the student's new role as a participant in solving this problem? Are they a teacher, a consultant, a physician, a professional, a supervisor, a tour guide, an employee, a librarian, a critic, or someone else?
What is the complexity of the problem? Is it a multi-step problem?
Will the problem inspire lively debate and conversation?
What background will be needed by the student to solve the problem? Will the student know where to look for the background information?
Will the problem result in a tangible product or products that can be assessed for quality?
Are the students prepared to work in groups?
How will the members of the group been determined? Assigned? Random?
Do students know how to establish group rules and group member roles?
How will the students communicate outside of class?
What power will the group have in determining individual grades?
How will you assess the group?
What formative assessments will you utilize to assess group progress?
What summative assessments of the group work will you perform?
What qualities will a high quality final product include?
How will you assess these qualities?
Will the product be shared/presented to the class?
How will you provide an objective assessment? Do you want to use a rubric?
How will you assess the individuals?
Will students provide any individual products as a result of the problem solution?
Will students conduct peer evaluations to assess social, communication, participation skills?
How will all students be held accountable for the information gained by solving the problem?
Will each student be responsible for/able to present the group's findings/product/ results?
Will role-playing help to assess individual learning?
What other types of individual assessments will you utilize to determine learning?
What formative assessments (journals, action plans, self and peer evaluations) will you utilize to determine learning?
What summative assessments (individual products, oral or written, skills assessments) will you utilize to determine learning?
