Combined Problem-Based Learning in Computer Fundamentals Course

The computer fundamentals course is an important course aiming at cultivating students’ computational thinking. In order to improve the course teaching effects, combined PBL, which is an effective instructional approach that can help students to acquire knowledge and to master skills, was employed from 2021’s spring semester to 2023’s spring semester. The role of the teacher has changed from indoctrinator to facilitator. The learning model has shifted from being teacher-centered to a student-centered approach. Teachers carefully prepared various problems, applied new teaching pattern throughout the whole teaching process and gathered students’ reflections. Through these reflections, this model’s teaching effectiveness was verified. On the basis of problem solving, the ability of computational thinking and collaborative learning of students was improved. Furthermore, the conclusion summarizes the main ideas, and further work perspectives.