Across the Atlantic by Woei Hung visiting Professor at SHE

Having been a professor teaching instructional design in the US and a researcher studying Problem-based Learning (PBL) for almost 20 years, Maastricht University is a place that I have always wanted to visit. A casual conversation at a conference last spring led me to apply to and receive the SHE Research Visits scholarship.

Now I am here learning about not only the Maastricht PBL model, the implementation experiences, the latest developments and research in PBL, but also the struggles and failures in some of the implementations, which provide even more valuable insights to learn from.

My first impression of Maastricht is that people are genuinely friendly and helpful. Within SHE, people have been very welcoming and willing to share their experience in various areas, such as tutor training, program evaluation, etc. While enjoying the hospitality of Maastricht, I have also met with several authors of chapters in the handbook of PBL that I co-edited (Moallem, M., Hung, W., & Dabbagh, N. (2019, Eds.), The Wily Handbook of problem-based learning. Boston: Wiley-Blackwell). Maastricht is full of activities that help everyone keep current (e.g., the lunch lecture about eLearning) and encourage collaboration (e.g. Special interest groups).

I am now working with Diana Dolmans and Jeroen van Merriënboer on a paper about PBL as well as brewing up ideas for future collaborations. As a PBL researcher, I feel privileged to do such a task, not from a distance, but right at the birthplace of one of the most widely used PBL models, Maastricht University. It is also my hope to bring the European PBL experience back to the states as a bridge across the Atlantic Ocean for future collaborations.

About SHE Scholarships

Woei Hung, Ph.D. 2019 recipient of the SHE Research Visit Scholarship at the Maastricht University (April 1-June 30, 2019)

• Professor and Graduate Director of Instructional Design & Technology Program, University of North Dakota, USA
• Former Chair and current Program Chair of PBE SIG at AERA
• Treasure officer and Executive board member of PANPBL Association of Problem-based Learning and Active Learning Methodologies
• Interim co-editor of Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning
• Co-editor of The Wiley Handbook of Problem-based Learning