Facilitating Students’ Learning Through Problem-Solving in a Computer-Based Expert-Supported Learning Environment

Problem-based learning (PBL) has been widely adopted to help students to develop critical thinking, communication, and problem-solving skills as well as improve the construction of knowledge. However, empirical studies indicate that PBL students hardly develop structured knowledge and efficient reasoning strategies because they are not provided with adaptive guidance and support during problem-solving process. To deal with this challenge, a computer-based expert-supported learning environment is designed and developed to facilitate students’ learning in a problem-solving context. Experiment results reveal superior performance on problem-solving and knowledge-construction tasks in students learning under the designed environment. Findings of the study provide important implications to instructional designers and educational practitioners on how to facilitate students’ problem-solving learning through the design of a computer-based expert-supported environment.