專欄上一則

Abstract
　　The benefits of a problem-solving approach to teaching and learning can be significant for a number of reasons. Involving the learner in thinking things through requires more involvement and produces greater depth of understanding. This kind of 'experiential knowledge' (that is, the knowledge gained through the experience of doing something) often lasts longer and is more significant to the learner than knowledge, which is simply 'transmitted' by the teacher or the book. The students become involved in constructing their own individual systems of learning and understanding. At the society of knowledge-based economy, there exist stronger demands on development of competence, learning, responsibility, flexibility and mobility for a large category of professions. In every profession, the problem solving skills are based on the wealth of information and knowledge is one of the key competencies of an individual or organization.
This paper proposed a Scenario-Based Learning (SBL) approach which we used frequently in our consulting professional skill development learning environment. This approach leverages a large content database environment which contains data, information, knowledge to allow learner to create and construct their problem solving as part of the learning process and future work behavior. Key Words: Scenario-based Learning, SBL, problem-solving, learning

Introduction
　　A problem is a situation that has created undesirable outcomes. An opportunity is a situation that offers the potential of creating favorable outcomes. Both require people to do something different to achieve positive results. In the society of knowledge-based economy, there exist stronger demands on development of competence, learning, responsibility, flexibility and mobility for a large category of professions. In every profession, the problem solving skills are based on the wealth of information and knowledge is one of the key competencies of an individual or organization[1]. A professional must possess skills in

	Helping to identify and communicate the current situation, in order to assure that any proposed changes are the correct alternatives to bring forth the desired results.
	Facilitating teams through change, in order to attain the continuous creativity needed to prosper.
	Continuing to learn, perform the detailed tasks of our jobs, and not lose sight of our organizational goals?

　　Learning how to approach and solve problems, and accepting that there is often more than one answer to a question or more than one way of dealing with it, is a key part of both education and professional learning. Scenario-based learning provide the ability to determine the essence of a problem, and indeed to see that there is a problem, is a vital ingredient in learning. In a professional learning, therefore, many tasks require the students to think things through not only in relation to the structure of the business/engineer problem but also by drawing on their existing knowledge to help them understand new situations. Such a learning process or capability is not generally derived well from the traditional learning, due to the limitation of the traditional learning, which is more of one-way learning. Instructors disseminate selected knowledge and learners take what are given. There is no learner's involvement, e.g., some exercises in which the students are asked to establish their own rules for a new business/engineering structure require this kind of cognitive effort. Other exercises require students to think through why certain things happen, or to work out an explanation for natural phenomena.
　　Most of us are pretty good at handling problems and opportunities that are fairly easy to understand, especially if we already have most of the information we need. However, when the situation is complex and involves a large number of people it is advisable to use a scenario-based learning approach, including organizational and communication tools, to learn how to plan and implement a change from the status quo.

What is a Scenario-Based Learning?

　　It is a learning approach based on the principle of using professional problems for acquiring and integrating new knowledge, which emphasize on learning taking place in the context of a real-life problem. The problem comes at the beginning of the process and the process of learning is as important as the acquisition of facts. The content of a SBL curriculum is to base on the applications of the concept and theories to the practical and real world problems, using concepts and theories which inform the discipline and practice, and leverage the processes of the discipline and practice for the learning.

　　As Kindley [2] depicted scenario-based learning as learning that occurs in a context, situation, or social framework. It's based on the concept of situated cognition, which is the idea that knowledge can't be known and fully understood independent of its context. Learning occurs because we immerse ourselves in a situation in which we're forced to perform. We get feedback from our environment and adjust our behavior. Table 1 is the Characteristics of SBL summarized by Kindley.

Table 1. Characteristics of SBL

1. Scenario-based e-learning (SBL) is situated in a real context and is based on the idea that knowledge cannot be known and fully understood independent of its context.		6. It's essential to place boundaries around scenarios to make the transitions between scenarios and traditional e-learning as efficient as possible.
2. SBL accords with a performance improvement and behavior change philosophy of the learning function.		7. Use interactive discovery techniques with stakeholder-designers to establish the purpose and outcomes of scenarios, create the scenarios and appropriate strategies and performance behaviors, and develop learner evaluation criteria.
3. SBL is different from traditional instructional design and one must be aware of the differences to successfully employ SBL.		8. Scenarios are most effective when illustrated with advanced interactive media and when they have a game-like appearance.
4. All e-learning solutions should employ both traditional and scenario-based e-learning.		9. Learner testing in scenarios derives from an assessment-centered approach. However, panel observation isn't usually possible in e-learning. Instead, the design group must establish outcomes and performance behaviors that approach the panel criteria and can be assessed in the e-learning application.
5. Traditional e-learning elements should service the scenario-based e-learning elements.		10. Scenario-based learning occurs by following success and failure paths through a realistic situation. Typically, these paths must be limited to stress the main learning objective. Otherwise the scenario can become too complex and unwieldy.
		11. Open-ended qualitative learner feedback is key to successful scenario revision, but revisions shouldn't further complicate the scenario unless highly justified.

What are the values of Scenario-Based Learning?
The value of Scenario-Based Learning is to uses 'real-world' situations to provide the context for learning. Learning is self-directed, allows a variety of learning approaches and is integrated with conceptually based on a holistic framework. It emphasizes the production of learning rather than the provision of instruction. Hence learning is usually shared in a team environment; and communication and discussion skills are important.

DECIDE methodology
The scenario-based learning methodology is mainly based on learner's participation, the learning path will adapt dynamically around learner's scenario experience and group interactions. The instructor defines the learning objectives, and set up a scenario and iterative the learning process. The SBL provides a sistep process with tools to help guide an individual or group learning towards changes that offer the best possibilities for obtaining positive results. The methodology begins by building the foundation of facts needed to attack a problem or opportunity in the six steps (DECIDE methodology): Define, Exploit, Collect, Investigate, Develop and Expand.

Define the problem or opportunity and corresponding goals	Investigate options, decide, & plan
Exploit origins of the problem or opportunity	Develop solutions & manage project
Collect alternative solutions	Expand to additional opportunities

In order to apply scenario-based learning methodology effectively, we have capture a set of criteria for excellent learning, which include in the following table:

Four principles in Scenario-Based Learning design

There are many different ways in which we can talk about making our SBL more effective in learning, but here we plan to list just four principles that we have found helpful in our professional work as a consultant and a solution provider. It is often a very salutary experience to look back on a series of lessons or learning units and see how far each of these principles has been met.

1. Make teaching coherent
Professional skill development teaching often has a very 'bitty' feel to it. Frequently, methods and best cases are only presented together because they exemplify the same combination form. For example, students might be asked to read about partners, locations, successful corporations, leading technologies and so on because each description includes 'where, what and how to serve'. Professional skill development teachers might have no problem in seeing how these best cases belong together, but for most students, who are more interested in what a method presents rather than how it presents it, this random choice of topic actually makes it more difficult to learn the business problem solving, as there is nothing coherent to make the business solution memorable. One solution to this is ensuring that classroom tasks link together around a common topic, which lasts the whole lesson or extends over a series of lessons. In this way, the content will stay with the learner longer - and with it, the business model.

2. Content worth learning about
If we look at any task, we can usually easily identify the 'learning content' - for example, a meta model point - and the 'carrier content' - the topic that is used to present or 'carry' the meta model. A story about 'Henry Ford's day' for example might be used to introduce the automobile past evolution. Normally, we expect students to remember the learning content, but to forget the carrier content. This is an enormously wasted opportunity. If we make sure that all content is worth learning - that is, that we use topics and themes that are significant - we can enrich our teaching enormously - and make professional skill learning more effective.

3. Use the students' intelligence
The more we ask students to think, the more engaged they will be, and the deeper and long-lasting professional skill learning will be. Many Professional skill tasks actually require extremely little thought - simple repetition, matching for meaning, pattern practice, for example. There are many ways, however, in which we can engage our students' intelligence - or 'intelligences'. If we focus on a coherent, significant topic, for example, we can ask students to draw on their background knowledge to answer questions or produce their own questions, which they can investigate. We can also ask them to hypothesis and speculate ('what if X happens?' 'What would you do if you were Y?'). We can involve them in planning, reviewing and evaluating their work around the topic. We can involve them producing tasks and making tests for others. The key is to find ways that require thought in working with professional skill development.

4. Foster autonomy
The ultimate aim of professional skill teaching is to develop the students' autonomy in professional skill use - that is, that they can express or understand the professional skill that they need or want. If we think about professional skill development teaching as education, however, we can say that an additional aim is to help students manage their own learning, and indeed their own lives. This is a very broad aim in which we can only contribute in a very small way - but we can contribute. In our teaching we can look for ways in which we can involve the students in decisions about what they are doing ('Would you like to do this in pairs or alone?' 'How long shall we allow for this task?') or require them to take responsibility ('For homework, produce a plan of your revision for the test.' 'Look back on the units we have done. Make a list of the areas where you need more practice.').
The benefits of a problem-solving approach to teaching and learning can be significant for a number of reasons. Firstly, involving the learner in thinking things through requires more involvement and produces greater depth of understanding. This kind of 'experiential knowledge' (that is, the knowledge gained through the experience of doing something) often lasts longer and is more significant to the learner than knowledge, which is simply 'transmitted' by the teacher or the book. The students become involved in constructing their own individual systems of learning and understanding. Secondly, some recent research has suggested that where students are involved in using professional skill development to understand and formulate business problems, professional skill development may be acquired more naturally, in much the same way as infants learn their first language.

Example
We not only firmly believe that students will be more motivated when they have to search for knowledge themselves than when only being told. We also believe that all learning takes place in a social context and that learners are sometimes quite aware of what this context demand.
SBL is aimed to foster learners' problem-solving capability, to cultivate learners to leverage his own experience and be able to take initiative and exploit the data pool from all sources, include national digital library which is repository all kinds, forms of valuable content(knowledge) bank. An example of SBL will be described in the following paragraph.
In this article, we will depict the SBL learning for two different roles: one is as instructor and the other role is a learner. Before the learning begins, instructor needs to identify learning objective, then design the scenario and encourage learner to take parts in the learning process. Learner will need to exploit the collections in the National Digital Library, interact with the group, learn to be a decision maker, make a plan and execute.

I. Instructor:
Learning objective: essence of customer service
Scenario:
Subject: Company will provide dinner-ordering service for those who work late.
Announcement: To help those who have to work overtime to late night, the company has set up a dinner ordering service which asking for employees to make dinner box reservation by selecting at the posted sheet. The reservation have to be done at 5pm each day and will be cut off sharp. The order will take place only if the reservation is more than three.
Hint: Tell me, what's are key point in this announcement?

What do you think of this announcement?	What's the essence of service?
Why they provide such a service?	Is this the only way to serve?
What you should do?

II. Leaner:

SBL Methodology	Learning Process
1. Define the problem or opportunity and corresponding goals	· Employee needs to remember to reserve your dinner at the lounge before 5 o'clock, if you are going to work overtime. · If number of request for dinner-ordering is less than three, no dinner service. · Let employee work with vigor; don't have to work with empty stomach. · Show the consideration of the company. · Provide the service before customer requests.
2. Exploit origins of the problem or opportunity	· Is it easy to remember to fill-in dinner order sheet before five o'clock ? · Luckily, you remember to reserve your dinner, you will have to go to lounge to fill the form, will this action interrupt your work? (You will have to leave your desk and go to lounge) · Should this service only good for more than three dinner orders? · Will this constraints lead to colleagues have to find more than three people are willing to work overtime?
3. Collect alternative solutions	· Have someone to be destined to fully take responsibility of dinner-ordering issue. · Collect all the possible solutions. · Option 1:Circle around a dinner-ordering sheet every day around 5 PM.. · Option 2: Use message broadcast to ask people to send in their request at 5PM. · Option 3:Use intranet to online order dinner .
4. Investigate options, decide, & plan	· Need to consider administration department execution issue. · Evaluate each alternative from various perspectives, e.g., infrastructure, feasibility, cost, easy of use, less of trouble for employee to order the dinner, easy of execution for the administration. Department. · After evaluation, if Option 1 is chosen, and dinner ordering plan will be derived. · Find the destined worker, · Find the qualified dinner providers, and identify their dinner menu, contact person, number, price,etc.
5. Develop solutions & manage project	· Launch the plan, and ask colleague to feedback. · If colleague points out A dinner supplier's food is not fresh, person, who is in charge of dinner-ordering, evaluate the comment. If A supplier's food is really not fresh, dinner-ordering person will drop A suppliers from qualified dinner suppliers list.
6. Expand to additional opportunities	· The essence of Service is customer-centric, quality, easy of use, timely, not for the convenience of management, or convenience of job-assignee. · Service offering is provided before customer asks.· Service offering is customer wanted, needed and valued it, not provider defines. · Service has consistent quality, not today's service is rating 5, and next day's service is rating 2 · When can I apply this learning experience to other opportunity? Can I use it in after-sales service offering?

Conclusion
There are many Practical ideas of using Scenario-based learning. The followings are some of them.
1. When students ask you questions, you can, from time to time, insist that they find out for themselves by using books, asking other people or figuring it out from the content database. Give hints or clues rather than direct answers.

2. You can set a 'problem of the week' for the students. Talk to other subject teachers in your school and ask for ideas about questions you could pose. 'What if ...' questions and 'How can ...' questions are often useful in stimulating thought. For example: 'What would happen if we had only three hours of light each day?', 'What would happen if we started teaching Methodology instead of Theory in school?', 'How can we make our classroom lighter and quieter?' Even: 'How can we best learn a professional skill?' If you set such questions, you can discuss them at a specified time later.

3. You can present 'business/engineer learning' as a 'problem' to be solved. Encourage students to think of their own ways of recording and learning new approach. Let students discuss and compare in class the different methods they have tried. Encourage students to discuss subject areas, which they find difficult or easy to learn and use. Encourage the students to think about and investigate how they go about doing exercises, reading, how they revise for a test, etc.

Reference:
1. K. T. Huang, R. Wang and Y. lee, Quality information and Knowledge", Prentice Hall, 1999
2. Randall W. Kindley, "Scenario-Based E-learning: A Step Beyond Traditional E-learning", www.learningcircuits.com/2002/may2002/kindley.html

備註：本文發表於第一屆數位典藏技術研討會, 2002年07月25、26日。

專欄上一則