The Design And Research Of Problem-based Learning In WeChat Environment

In March 2012, China’s Ministry of Education released the "Ten-year development plan of ICT in Education(2010-2020)".And in its second part, it clearly puts forward that in the safety, green, and civilized information environment, we should focus on promoting students’ consciousness and develop their ability of using information technology to carry out independent and cooperative learning, and enhancing their ability of raising, analyzing questions and solving problems. Problem-based learning is a kind of problem-solution learning mode, which is based on group interaction and pays much attention to developing the student’s ability of solving problems. These factors are in accordance with the "Ten-year development plan of ICT in Education(2010-2020)", and the essence is the same in all of them. With the rapid development of information technology, and a wider use of mobile communication technology in educational field, it is a very significant theoretical and practical issue to discuss the advantages and characteristics of network-based problem-based learning.This paper firstly describes the present situation of problem-based learning and the application of WeChat in the education field. And then it analyzes the theoretical foundation, features and operation process of PBL. At the same time, it also discusses the advantages of WeChat for PBL learning. Secondly, depending on the existing PBL model and some experiences of instructional design under new information environment, the researchers redesign a new PBL model which can be applied to the WeChat environment. The model discusses the new PBL model from two aspects of the implementation stage (beginning,implementing and feedback stages)and supporting environment(WeChat group, friendship, WeChat Subscription). Finally, by applying the new PBL model and taking the Modern Educational Technology Course as the basis, the paper carries out the practical PBL teaching exploration to verify feasibility and validity of this model. As the experimental results suggest, the majority of students acknowledge the importance of the new PBL model in the Modern Educational Technology Course. And also recognize the important role of model in developing students’ ability of independent innovation,and promoting content knowledge and skills.The whole text is divided into five chapters:Chapter 1 is introduction, which includes the research background, purposes and methods as well as research status home and abroad.Chapter 2 provides the theoretical basis and related research, states the relative concepts about PBL teaching strategies, analyses the features of WeChat and the advantages of WeChat for PBL learning.Chapter 3 describes the design and the development process of the new PBL model in detail. Based on the theory of information spreading, cooperative study, situated cognition, multiple intelligence,we induce the design principles and method of a new PBL model in the WeChat environment. The new PBL model is a comprehensive system which is similar to on-line interaction, evaluation interaction and real-time interaction in the WeChat environment. And it also shows the basic structure and function of the model in several ways:to design proper teaching aim and to create a beneficial situation for raising questions,cooperative learning,etc.Chapter 4 is the part about practical application. In this part, the writer clearly illustrates the application results of the new PBL strategies in the Modern Educational Technology Course and analyzes several meaningful screen captures in the WeChat group and team assignments and summarizes the practical effect from two aspects:the database of WeChat public platform and the questionnaire data.Chapter 5 summaries the PBL teaching experience under the Wechat environment and draws some conclusions and gives some insights to the development in M-learning and Problem-based learning.