Editing Problem-based learning (section)

=== History of online PBL ===
The establishment and application of PBL in teaching and training started as early as in the 1960s. As instructional technology developed over time coupled with the emergence of the internet in the mid-1990s, online education became popular gaining huge attention from organizations and institutions. However, the use of PBL in complete online education does not seem as established based on the relatively scarce references available in the literature.<ref name=":1">Brodie, L. (n.d.). "Problem Based Learning In The Online Environment – Successfully Using Student Diversity and e-Education." https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/11036091.pdf. Retrieved 8 October 2017.</ref> In 2001, the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) was one of the first few faculties that utilized a learning management system (LMS) to facilitate collaboration and group problem-solving. The result showed the significant impact of online PBL on the learning outcomes of students in many aspects including enhancing their communication skills, problem-solving skills and ability to work as a team.<ref name=":1" /> The most successful feature of the LMS in terms of user rate was the discussion boards where asynchronous communications took place. Technology has advanced for another decade since then and it should help us take online PBL to a greater height as many more activities such as synchronous online meetings have been made readily available today on numerous platforms. The key focus here is to examine how technology can further facilitate the effective use of PBL online by zooming into the learner needs in each phase of PBL.