The Design and Program Evaluation of a Distributed PBL Curriculum for Training Family Doctors in Brazil
Over the past decade Problem-based Learning (PBL) and distance education have been combined as educational approaches in higher education. This combination has been called distributed PBL (dPBL). However, more research is needed to obtain more evidence and deeper insight in how to design and implement dPBL. The present study aims at describing the design and the evaluation results of a competence-based, problem-based, web-based curriculum for training family doctors in Brazil. It focuses on a post graduate course “Clinical approaches for elderly people with dementia” offered by the School of Public Health of Ceará, Brazil. The course is 120 hours long and is available through the Learning Management System Moodle. It was offered to two classes of 30 participants. A self-administered questionnaire with closed and open questions was filled in by the participants of the two classes. The questions included various aspects such as the quality of teaching materials, the adequacy of the chosen educational approach, the technologies used for information and communication technology, the performance of the tutors and the satisfaction of participants. In general, the results indicated that the competence-based approach for curriculum design was adequate for our proposal and the course was highly rated by respondents.
The European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning
