Evaluation of Problem Based Learning Course at College of Medicine, Qassim University, Saudi Arabia

Background: The PBL approach to learning in medical education can be considered as the most significant educational innovation in the past four decades. PBL is by now a well established method of learning and instruction. Evaluating the success of PBL as compared to more traditional Lecture Based Learning requires more complex techniques. Objective: The objective of this study is to examine the conceptualization, design, implementation and usefulness of the PBL programme, and to determine its effectiveness. Methods: This study was conducted at a premier problem-based leaning medical school of Saudi Arabia. The Course Experience Questionnaire [CEQ], designed to measure the quality of learning experience, and the Student Course Experience Questionnaire (SCEQ) have been used in this study. The survey included the four aspects of learning environments known to relate to the quality of student learning. Results: The study reveals that the PBL system helps developing student skills particularly problem solving skills and help sharpening analytic skills However, majority of the students are not satisfied with the evaluation system in the college as they think that it is not student-centered as it does not reflect the improvement made by the student with the passage of time. Students are satisfied with many objectives of the Problem Based Learning. The majority of respondents agreed that PBL is better than the traditional system and consider it superior to the traditional Lecture- Based System in Medical Education. Conclusion: The growing popularity and increased application of PBL presents significant challenges. Results indicate that after 18 months students become bored with the repetitious routine of working through problems and the problems and the approach used in the tutorial groups cease to be challenging and motivating. The authors conclude that PBL is having an impact on the performance of students, their perspective on learning and teaching methods. Our strategy for evaluating the success of PBL is ongoing and the results represent only an initial stage in analysis as we are still in the process of standardizing the process of collecting the outcome data particularly from those who are pass outs from the college.