COMPSOFT - A platform for online problem-based learning for health care professionals

PBL has been widely adopted by medical schools for years. However, implementing PBL curricula in online environments pose specific challenges to educators. Although existing technologies can alleviate some of the challenges, none of them comprehensively address the key aspects of a PBL curriculum. COMPSOFT, a software platform, has been designed to support key aspects of online PBL. COMPSOFT consists of a number of software components. Each of them supports or enhances a specific aspect of PBL. They work cooperatively, complementing each other to provide a rather complete online PBL environment. This project details the rationale, design and implementation of such a software environment. A usability test was performed where several students worked through a medical PBL case, online, under the guidance of a facilitator using COMPSOFT. The usability test results, addressing what is working well, what is not working well, and how to improve the PBL environment, have been encouraging and the participants rated the platform positively.